Dow soars 516 points and Nasdaq climbs over 2% as strong earnings drive relief rally

1:59 PM
New York stock exchange trader
Investors have become more cautious about US stocks in recent weeks.

Johannes Eisele/Getty Images

  • US stocks soared on Thursday after a string of better-than-expected earnings results from retailers.
  • Thursday's strong rally sets the S&P 500 up to end its seven-week losing streak, and the Dow Jones eight-week losing streak.
  • Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Macy's soared more than 10% after reporting better-than-expected results.

US stocks soared higher on Thursday, extending gains from Wednesday's relief rally as investors seek to end a seven-week losing streak in the S&P 500 and an eight-week losing streak in the Dow Jones.

The move higher on Thursday came as investors continue to weigh the possibility of an economic recession against strong earnings results from retail companies like Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and Macy's which all soared more than 10% in Thursday trades after beating analyst estimates. The strong results relieved some fears investors had lingering from last week's earnings-related decline in Walmart and Target.

First-quarter GDP was revised slightly lower on Thursday, to a contraction of 1.5% from its initial reading of a 1.4% decline, but retail consumption data was revised higher, signaling that consumers did not slow their spending in the first quarter despite rising inflation and higher interest rates.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Thursday:

Recession worries have yet to show up in weekly jobless claims, which fell 8,000 in the week ending May 21 to 210,000. That's about the same level weekly jobless claims were at prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Most economic recessions usually occur after a spike in weekly jobless claims.

Tech stocks continue to experience heightened volatility, on full display today after Nvidia released its first-quarter earnings results. The company beat expectations but gave lower second-quarter guidance due to the Russia-Ukraine war and disruptions amid China's COVID-19 lockdown. Nvidia fell by about 5% in early Thursday trades before it erased those losses and moved up 5%. 

Twitter stock rose more than 5% on Thursday after Elon Musk fronted more of his own wealth to fund his $44 billion buyout offer. Musk will put up another $6.25 billion of equity for the deal, lifting the total to $33.5 billion from an initial $27.25 billion, according to an SEC 13D filing on Wednesday.

Meme-stocks saw renewed interest from investors on Thursday, with GameStop extending its two-day rally to as much as 67%. The surge came just a couple days after the video game retailer launched a crypto and NFT wallet.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose as much as much as 3.38% to $114.06 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, rose as much as 2.96% to $117.41.

Bitcoin fell as much as 5.28% to $28,230. Ether prices fell as much as 9.31% to $1,765.

Gold rose as much as 0.23% to $1,850.60 per ounce. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was flat at 2.75%.

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