Wall Street’s main indexes advanced on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way. Strong quarterly results from Microsoft and Meta Platforms boosted investor confidence in the technology sector. Microsoft surged 8.8% after forecasting robust growth for its cloud-computing business Azure, becoming the world’s most valuable company surpassing Apple. Meta gained 4.7% following higher-than-expected revenue driven by strong advertising performance. Other tech giants also rose, with Nvidia increasing by 3.8%. The information technology and communication services sectors rose by 2.6% and 1.2%, respectively. At midday, the Dow Jones was up 0.47%, the S&P 500 gained 0.82%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.51%. Weekly jobless claims were higher than expected, hinting at a potential increase in job cuts due to tariffs. Amazon and Apple are set to release their earnings after markets close.
— new from Reuters
