Stocks rose higher on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average notching its seventh straight session of gains, as new labor market data helped boost market optimism surrounding Federal Reserve rate cuts later this year. The 30-stock average climbed more than 300 points higher, with the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite advanced about 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively.

Here's how the market settled on Thursday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): +0.51% or +26.41 points to 5,214.08

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): +0.85% or +331.37 points to 39,387.76

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): +0.27% or +43.51 points to 16,346.26

In Economic News:

Initial unemployment filings rose to their highest level since August 2023, signaling some labor market weakness in response to a higher interest rate environment.

Weekly jobless claims increased to a seasonally adjusted total of 231,000 for the week ended May 4, the Labor Department reports Thursday, rising by 22,000 from the previous period. Meanwhile, continuing jobless claims, which are tracked a week behind, increased by 17,000 to 1.78 million.

In the News:

Disney (DIS  ) and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD  ) announced late Wednesday a new streaming bundle of Disney+, Hulu and Max coming to the United States this summer, offered in both ad-supported and ad-free subscription tiers.

"As you know, I've been a big proponent of bundling," CEO David Zaslav said during Thursday's earnings call, noting that subscribers will be more likely to take advantage of a cheaper pricing offering to reduce churn, or consumers dropping their subscription. "The churn is the killer in this business and we've been hyper focused on it."

On the Earnings Front:

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD  ) reported first-quarter results on Thursday, missing both top and bottom line expectations. There were some bright spots in its results, however, with the entertainment giant adding 2 million direct-to-consumer streaming subscribers, bringing its total to 99.6 million.

Airbnb (ABNB  ) reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings late Wednesday, but those results were overshadowed by its weak forward guidance. The short-term rental bookings platform expects second-quarter revenue to come between $2.68 billion and $2.74 billion.

Arm Holdings (ARM  ) shares were under pressure Thursday as the chip designer's positive fiscal fourth-quarter sales results were impacted by disappointing revenue guidance. For fiscal 2025, Arm expects revenues between $3.8 billion and $4.1 billion. For its current fiscal first-quarter, the company expects sales of $875 million to $925 million.

Roblox (RBLX  ) shares dropped lower on Thursday after the video game developer cut its full year guidance following its disappointing first-quarter bookings revenue results. The company now expects full-year bookings revenue between $4 billion and $4.10 billion, below its previous outlook of $4.14 billion to $4.28 billion.

For Friday:

Market participants will react to more Fedspeak as well as May's preliminary consumer sentiment reading. Unity Software (U  ) is also set to deliver quarterly results after the bell.