US stocks rallied on Thursday, with Big Tech leading the way as investors digested the latest signals from President Trump and his top advisers on tariffs.

Market Snapshot

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 486.83 points, or 1.23%, to 40,093.40, the S&P 500 gained 108.91 points, or 2.03%, to 5,484.77 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 457.99 points, or 2.74%, to 17,166.04.

Market Movers

Alphabet announced its fiscal first quarter earnings on Thursday, beating on the top and bottom lines. The company also said it is boosting its dividend by 5% and authorized another $70 billion in stock buybacks. Google's stock price jumped 5% on the news after gaining 2% on Thursday.

Intel reported its first quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday beating estimates on the top and bottom lines, but a disappointing outlook sent shares plummeting 5% in afterhours trading.

Tesla Motors finished up 3.5%, building on a gain of 5.4% on Wednesday that followed news CEO Elon Musk will spend less time working on cost-cutting efforts in Washington, D.C., starting in May. The electric-vehicle maker reported first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, with sales, operating income, and profit margin all falling from the previous year. Management said on a call to discuss the results that the company still planned to release new models in 2025, but was working through "last-minute issues." Investors had been hoping a lower-priced model will arrive in the first half of the year. Other Mega growth stocks also shined. Netflix up 4%; Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon up 3%; Meta up 2%; Apple up 1.8%.

Gilead Sciences – The biopharmaceutical stock dropped more than 3% on the heels of the company’s weaker-than-expected first-quarter revenue. The company rang up $6.67 billion in sales versus the $6.81 billion that analysts had penciled in, according to LSEG. Earnings for the quarter came in better than expected, however.

T-Mobile US – Shares of the wireless communications services provider pulled back more than 5% despite its earnings and revenue for the first quarter topping analyst estimates. However, the company reported fewer wireless phone subscribers than the Street anticipated for the period, seeing 495,000 postpaid phone additions compared to the StreetAccount estimate of 504,000.

Skechers USA – The footwear stock declined about 6% after the company posted weak first-quarter revenue and withdrew its 2025 guidance, citing “macroeconomic uncertainty stemming from global trade policies.” Skechers’ earnings, meanwhile, beat analyst estimates.

VeriSign – The Internet domain registration company’s stock slipped nearly 2% after it reported earnings and announced its first cash dividend since 2011. VeriSign said it earned $2.10 a share on sales of $402 million in the first quarter. Analysts expected the company to earn $2.11 per share on revenue of $401.9 million, per FactSet.

Boyd Gaming – Shares of the gaming company advanced about 3% following strong earnings and revenue for the first quarter. Boyd posted adjusted earnings of $1.62 per share, above the $1.51 per share that analysts polled by FactSet were expecting. The company’s revenue of $991.6 million also beat the consensus estimate of $972.6 million.

Boston Beer – Shares of the Sam Adams brewer rose 2% after it solidly outpaced first-quarter estimates. Boston Beer earned $2.16 per share on revenue of $454 million in the latest period. Analysts surveyed by LSEG anticipated a profit of 62 cents per share on $434 million in revenue. Tariffs could boost costs by $20 million or $30 million in fiscal 2025, it said.

Eastman Chemical – Shares of the specialty chemical company sunk 3% in extended trading after posting mixed first-quarter results. Eastman earned $1.91 per share, excluding items, on revenue of $2.29 billion. According to FactSet, analysts expected the company to earn $1.89 per share and post $2.33 billion in sales.

IBM tumbled 6.6%. The company posted better-than-expected earnings and revenue in the first quarter late Wednesday, but other parts of the report underwhelmed investors. $IBM(IBM)$ noted that its legacy mainframe computer business continued to decline. Its forecast of revenue for the second quarter was higher than expected, but marked a 3% decline from the prior year.

ServiceNow soared 16%. The enterprise-software company reported better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday and told investors to expect higher second-quarter subscription revenue than Wall Street had anticipated. For the year, subscription revenue is expected to range from $12.6 billion to $12.7 billion, compared with Wall Street estimates for $12.6 billion.

Texas Instruments was up 6.6% in response to better earnings than expected. The company forecast revenue for the current quarter of $4.17 billion to $4.53 billion, while analysts had expected $4.1 billion. The stock pared some gains after management cited "high uncertainty" in the economic environment due to tariffs and geopolitics.

Hasbro surged 15%. The toy maker posted better-than-expected earnings and left its full-year financial guidance unchanged despite uncertainty about tariffs. Hasbro said it still anticipates net revenue will increase slightly from the prior year, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization ranging from $1.1 billion to $1.15 billion.

Lam Research rose 6.3% after reporting earnings and revenue that beat analysts' expectations. The company, which counts Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing among its largest customers, said the strong performance was driven by demand for advanced chips used to power artificial intelligence. "Our outlook remains strong even as we address near-term tariff-related uncertainty, and we are highly confident in our ability to outperform semiconductor industry growth in the years to come," CEO Tim Archer said.

Chipotle Mexican Grill gained 1.6%. The fast-casual restaurant chain saw slower revenue and earnings growth in the first quarter of 2025 compared with the previous quarter, as inflation and recession fears weighed on consumers. CEO Scott Boatwright said the latest results reflected challenges including weather and a slowdown in consumer spending.

Newmont Mining gained 4.8%. The gold miner posted first-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.25 a share, while the consensus call among analysts tracked by FactSet was for 92 cents. Revenue rose to $5.01 billion from $4.02 billion a year earlier, also beating the $4.7 billion Wall Street had anticipated. The stock has gained nearly 43% this year, rising along with the price of gold, which has repeatedly notched record highs.

Southwest Airlines rose 3.7% after declining earlier in the session. The airline reported a first-quarter net loss of $149 million. On an adjusted basis, its loss of 13 cents a share was narrower than the loss of 18 cents analysts had expected. Demand weakened throughout the quarter, with domestic leisure travel taking a hit, the airline said. The company withdrew its forecasts for 2025 and 2026 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, but management said initiatives to improve the company's financial performance remained on track.

Market News

Germany's Merck says in late-stage discussions to buy SpringWorks for $3.5 billion

Germany's Merck KGaA said on Thursday it is in late-stage talks to acquire U.S.-based SpringWorks Therapeutics for about $3.5 billion, a deal that could give it access to a recently approved rare disease drug and expand its portfolio of experimental cancer treatments.

Merck said that the companies are in discussions on the basis of a price of around $47 per share, which gives a valuation of roughly $3.5 billion, according to Reuters calculations.

Meta lays off employees working on virtual reality in Reality Labs division

Meta has laid off employees in its Reality Labs division that is tasked with developing virtual reality, augmented reality and related wearable devices.

The cuts affected an unspecified number of employees working in the division’s Oculus Studios unit, which develops VR and AR games and content for Meta’s Quest VR headsets, a company spokesperson told CNBC.