US and European stock markets climbed on Thursday with Wall Street indices notching fresh records as a tech-fuelled rally rolled on while President Xi Jinping welcomed his US counterpart Donald Trump in Beijing.

In the latest sign of bullishness towards artificial intelligence, Cisco Systems surged 13.4 percent after lifting its earnings report while semi-conductor start-up Cerebras piled on 68.2 percent in its debut session on the Nasdaq.

"The sentiment remains predominantly bullish," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare. "You have a market that continues to press ahead despite a lot of calls about it being over-extended on a short-term basis and due for a pull-back."

All three major US indices finished solidly higher, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ending at new all-time highs.

"Everybody's asking the same question: how much longer does this (rally) go on? There's a lot of people that are loving this rally, but they're also antsy at the same time," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut. "You have to be in it to win it, not just sitting on the sidelines watching the market go to all-time highs."

In Beijing, Xi greeted Trump with a red-carpet welcome at the opulent Great Hall of the People, with military band fanfare, a 21-gun salute and schoolchildren chanting "Welcome!"

Trump's entourage included Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Jensen Huang, chief executive of artificial-intelligence chipmaker Nvidia.

Nvidia's shares closed 4.4 percent higher after the US cleared the sales of the company's H200 chips to Chinese firms.

On the economic front, retail sales were in line with expectations, but propped up by rising gasoline prices resulting from the Iran war. Gasoline was largely responsible for the biggest jump in import prices since October 2022.

A series of inflation reports this week showed the risk of spiking energy costs metastasising to other goods and services, extinguishing hopes for near-term rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve.

European equities finished the day higher, with London advancing 0.5 percent after data showed the UK economy had a solid start to the year, though the Middle East war and political turmoil threatened to cloud the outlook.

The British pound fell against both the dollar and the euro as pressure builds on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Britain's health minister Wes Streeting resigned while Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham unveiled a bid to return to parliament, as political manoeuvring increased to oust Starmer.

Frankfurt won more than one percent and Paris gained 0.9 percent, lifted by tech stocks.

The S&P 500 rose 0.8 percent, to 7,501, the Nasdaq rose 0.9 percent, to 26,635, while the Dow rose 0.8 percent, to 50,063. (Agencies)



Edited by Cecil Wong