Wall Street rallied to its best day since January after Meta Platforms on Thursday became the latest Big Tech company to blow past profit expectations and reports painted a mixed picture of the U.S. economy.
The S&P 500 jumped 2% to erase all its losses from what had been a tough week so far. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 524 points, or 1.6%, while the Nasdaq composite led the market with a 2.4% gain.
Facebook’s parent company did some of the heaviest lifting, and it jumped 13.9%. Not only did Meta beat analysts’ estimates for profit during the first three months of the year, it also gave a forecast for revenue that topped expectations.
It joined Microsoft and Alphabet, which reported better-than-expected results earlier in the week, and Amazon followed suit after trading closed for the day. They’re among the most influential stocks on Wall Street indexes because they’re some of the biggest.
Treasury yields jumped immediately after the release of the economic reports as traders upped their forecasts for the Fed and rates.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.52% from 3.45% late Wednesday. It helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans.
The two-year yield, which moves more on expectations for the Fed, rose more aggressively. It climbed to 4.08% from 3.95%.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 79.36 points to 4,135.35. The Dow gained 524.29 to 33,826.16, and the Nasdaq climbed 287.89 to 12,142.24.
In markets overseas, stock indexes were mixed in Europe and modestly higher across much of Asia.
— Associated Press