Stocks rose to fresh closing highs on Thursday as market participants were encouraged by the Federal Reserve's soft landing narrative, propelling growth stocks higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped nearly 270 points, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.

Here's how the market settled on Thursday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): +0.32% or +16.91 points to 5,241.53

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): +0.68% or +269.24 points to 39,781.37

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): +0.20% or +32.43 points to 16,401.84

In the News: Reddit (RDDT  ) shares jumped 48% in their first trading day on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, marking the first initial public offering for a major social media company since Pinterest's (PINS  ) listing back in 2019. The online forum platform priced its IPO at the high end of its target range at $34 a share on Wednesday, and the stock opened at $47 and reached a high of $57.80 on the day.

Reddit shares settled at $50.44 at market close, bringing the company's market capitalization to about $9.5 billion.

On the Earnings Front: Micron Technology (MU  ) shares popped on Thursday after the data storage and memory hardware giant posted strong fiscal second-quarter earnings late Wednesday, driven by the emerging artificial intelligence market. Looking ahead, Micron expects revenue of $6.6 billion for its fiscal third quarter, which also tops analyst expectations.

"We believe Micron is one of the biggest beneficiaries in the semiconductor industry of the multi-year opportunity enables by AI," CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in a statement.

In Economic News: Sales of existing U.S. homes unexpectedly rise in February, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday, popping 9.5% from January for the largest monthly increase since February 2023.

"Additional housing supply is helping to satisfy market demand," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR, in a statement. "Housing demand has been on a steady rise due to population and job growth, though the actual timing of purchases will be determined by prevailing mortgage rates and wider inventory choices."

Manufacturing activity in the United States rose to a 22-month high in March, the S&P Global Flash U.S. Compositie reading showed on Thursday, ticking a 0.3 point from February to 52.4 for the month -- above economists expectations. For services, March's flash PMI declined by a 0.6 point to 51.7, coming in just below estimates.

Separately, initial unemployment claims totaled 210,000 for the week ended March 16, the Labor Department reported Thursday, decreasing by 2,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised print and coming in slightly below expectations as employers continue to retain workers. Continuing jobless claims, which are tracked a week behind, rose by 4,000 to 1.807 million -- slightly above estimates.

For Friday: Investors will react to earnings reports from companies including Nike (NKE  ) and FedEx (FDX  ) as well as more Fedspeak.