Wall Street rises to pull S&P 500 back within 1% of its record

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks rose Thursday to pull the S&P 500 back within 1 percent of its record following a rough April.

The S&P 500 rose 26.41 points, or 0.5 percent, to 5,214.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 331.37, or 0.8 percent, to 39,387.76, and the Nasdaq composite added 43.51, or 0.3 percent, to 16,346.26.

A report showing a pickup in layoffs helped to support the market. The number of workers applying for unemployment benefits rose by more last week than economists expected, though it remains relatively low compared with history.

That could be a sign the economy can pull off a hoped-for balancing act of staying solid enough to avoid a bad recession, but not so strong that it puts upward pressure on inflation.

READ: US weekly jobless claims hit highest level since August 2023

Treasury yields erased earlier gains immediately after the report’s release, an indication of expectations for the Federal Reserve to deliver long-sought cuts to interest rates later this year.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, some stocks swung sharply following their latest earnings reports.

Equinix jumped 11.5 percent after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company, which runs data centers around the world, also said an independent investigation led by its board found no accounting inconsistencies or errors that would require financial restatements. Earlier, an investment firm had accused it of “major accounting manipulation.”

Corporate earnings

Yeti Holdings rose 12.8 percent after reporting better profit for the latest quarter than expected thanks to stronger sales for its drinkware and coolers and equipment. It also raised its forecast for full-year earnings per share. Like other companies, it’s plowing cash into buying back its own stock, which boosts per-share profit for existing investors.

Cheesecake Factory gained 6.2 percent after topping expectations for profit. The results were encouraging following some recent warnings by big food and drink companies about how much pressure their customers, particularly lower-income ones, are feeling.

Airbnb sank 6.9 percent despite topping expectations for profit and revenue. It gave a forecasted range for revenue in the current quarter whose midpoint fell short of what analysts expected. It said an earlier Easter pulled more of its business this year into the first quarter from the second quarter.

Beyond Meat, the maker of plant-based meat substitutes, fell 14.4 percent after it posted a much worse loss than analysts expected as demand continued to crater.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.45 percent from 4.50 percent late Wednesday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, slipped to 4.81 percent from 4.84 percent late Wednesday.

A smooth auction of 30-year Treasury bonds helped to keep yields stable.

Jobs report

Treasury yields have largely been easing since Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last week that the central bank remains closer to cutting its main interest rate than hiking it, despite a string of stubbornly high readings on inflation this year.

READ: US employers scaled back hiring in April

A cooler-than-expected jobs report on Friday, meanwhile, suggested the U.S. economy could manage to avoid being either too hot or too cold.

It could take a while for inflation in the United States to cool all the way back to the Federal Reserve’s target, even with the Fed’s main interest rate at its highest level in more than two decades.

Economists at S&P Global Market Intelligence slightly downgraded their forecasts for U.S. economic growth in 2025 and 2026, which they said could allow inflation to settle at the Fed’s target on a sustained basis by 2027.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in London and other markets in Europe after the Bank of England hinted it may soon cut its key interest rate from a 16-year high.

In Asia, indexes were mixed. They climbed 1.2 percent in Hong Kong and 0.8 percent in Shanghai after China reported its exports rose 1.5 percent in April from a year earlier, while imports jumped 8.4 percent. The renewed growth suggests a stronger recovery in demand than earlier data had suggested.