US stocks close higher, lifted by Microsoft, Meta earnings

U.S. stocks advanced on Thursday, with the Dow and S&P 500 posting their eighth straight session of gains after strong results from megacaps Microsoft and Meta eased concerns about artificial intelligence spending.

Microsoft surged 7.6% and closed at its highest level since late January, driven by an upbeat quarterly growth forecast for its cloud-computing business Azure. The gains briefly pushed Microsoft above Apple to become the world's most valuable company.

Meta Platforms gained 4.2% and closed at its highest since April 9 after posting higher-than-expected revenue on the back of a strong advertising performance.

The results helped allay fears the massive spending on AI in recent years would not be rewarded, and eased concerns that President Donald Trump's tariffs could dent economic growth.

"It's nice that the day is being carried by earnings rather than just talking about tariffs for a second, so it's a little refreshing in that regard that we're talking about economic data and earnings," said Lamar Villere, Portfolio Manager with Villere & Co in New Orleans.

"Certainly when you see a company of Microsoft's size, Meta's size, putting up great earnings, you would believe that their run is not over."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 83.60 points, or 0.21%, to 40,752.96, the S&P 500 gained 35.08 points, or 0.63%, to 5,604.14 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 264.40 points, or 1.52%, to 17,710.74.