U.S. equities climbed on Thursday as upbeat earnings from two major tech firms calmed investor concerns over slowing artificial intelligence momentum amid economic headwinds.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%, or 210 points. The S&P 500 gained nearly 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced almost 2%, supported by strong results from Meta (NASDAQ:META) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).
META reported stronger-than-expected Q1 revenue and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company remains well positioned despite macroeconomic volatility. MSFT beat expectations on both earnings and revenue in its fiscal third quarter, driven by its Azure cloud segment. Executives flagged higher capital spending ahead to support expanding data center infrastructure, noting that cloud and AI are the essential inputs for modern business growth.
Shares of MSFT jumped 8%, while META gained around 4%. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) also rose 4%, with information technology leading S&P sectors higher with a 3% gain.
A rise in weekly jobless claims to 241,000 slightly dampened sentiment, topping estimates of 225,000. The miss follows a weak GDP report earlier in the week showing a 0.3% annualized decline, the first negative print since early 2022.
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