The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 posted their best day since January, while the Nasdaq Composite had its best day since March as strong results from Meta Platforms
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
In the spotlight, Meta shares climbed nearly 14% after the tech company reported an unexpected increase in sales for the first quarter alongside better-than-expected earnings. The company's Q1 sales rose 3% from $27.91 billion a year earlier, snapping three straight periods of revenue declines.
"We had a good quarter and our community continues to grow," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement, adding that the company is "becoming more efficient so we can build better products faster and put ourselves in a stronger positions to deliver our long term vision."
For the second quarter, Meta expects strong revenues between $29.5 billion and $32 billion.
Meanwhile, First Republic Bank
In economic news, the U.S. economy expanded by a slower-than-expected 1.1% in the first quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis' advance estimate on U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). The report also showed stronger inflation with prices rising at a faster-than-expected 4%.
The weaker-than-expected GDP data is another sign that the Federal Reserve could soon end its tightening campaign, with policymakers set to announce a new policy decision next week.
Pending U.S. home sales fell 5.2% in March, according to the National Association of Realtors report on Thursday, marking the first decline since November 2022. "The lack of housing inventory is a major constraint to rising sales," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR, in a statement. "Limited housing supply is simply not meeting demand nationally."
In other earnings news, Caterpillar
Looking ahead, traders will reacted to earnings reports from Amazon