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 (NASDAQ: META) boosted tech names and the broader market higher on Thursday. The Dow rallied over 500 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq added 2% and 2.4%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): 1.96% or +79.36 points to 4,135.35
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +1.57% or +524.29 points to 33,826.16
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +2.43% or +287.89 points to 12,1242.24
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 (NYSE: FRC) shares began to stabilize on Thursday after multiple days of heavy selling after the lender said it is pursuing "strategic options" on Monday following the loss of more than $100 billion in deposits during March's banking crisis. The stock rose about 9% on Thursday, but still remains down nearly 95% year-to-date.
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 (NYSE: CAT) reported strong sales and earnings in the first quarter, with revenues rising 17% year-over-year. Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) reported a $159 million loss in the first quarter due to the impacts of its December 2022 meltdown during the period.
Looking ahead, traders will reacted to earnings reports from Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), with the companies set to report after closing bell on Thursday.