Two key indices on Wall Street closed at new records on Thursday – while also logging their best months since 2020 – on the back of optimism surrounding corporate earnings and still-resilient US economic growth.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.0 percent to 7,209, while the Nasdaq added 0.9 percent to 24,892. Both were all-time highs.

The Dow surged 1.6 percent to close at 49,652.

"A lot of that comes down to corporate profits," said Angelo Kourkafas of Edward Jones, with many companies reporting their earnings.

"We have also an economy, looking at the GDP data, that continues to defy fears of a near-term slowdown, so it is kind of that combination that is propelling stocks to all-time highs," he added.

Earlier on Thursday, the US Commerce Department estimated that the world's biggest economy grew by an annual rate of 2.0 percent in the first quarter of 2026.

A key factor was a surge in artificial intelligence investments, while consumer spending cooled.

But that did not dampen enthusiasm on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 up 10 percent for the month and the Nasdaq rising 15 percent.

The path ahead could be choppier, however, with energy prices surging on the back of war in the Middle East, warned Kourkafas.

Among individual companies, shares in Meta plunged 8.6 percent while Google-parent Alphabet added 10 percent.

The tech rivals had earlier reported quarterly earnings, with starkly different investor reactions for their costly bets on artificial intelligence. (AFP)



Edited by Robert Kemp