Wall Street’s main indexes finished higher on Thursday, the second straight day of gains, as investors bought shares after the U.S. President rescinded tariff threats on European allies while data highlighted American economic resilience. The advance came the day after the S&P 500’s .SPX biggest daily percentage gain in two months, when the President stepped back from imposing tariffs as leverage to seize Greenland and said the framework of a deal to end a dispute over the Danish territory was in sight.
Investors have quickly returned to stock markets after the White House Wednesday U-turn. Still, two days of gains have yet to fully erase losses the three U.S. benchmarks took on Tuesday, when the President’s tariff threats sent shivers through global markets. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are down 0.4% for the week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average essentially flat.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 306.78 points, or 0.63%, to 49,384.01, and the S&P 500 .SPX advanced 37.73 points, or 0.55%, to 6,913.35. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 211.20 points, or 0.91%, to 23,436.02. The earnings season is picking up pace, and could test market sentiment as companies detail how consumer demand, cost pressures and a bumpy macro backdrop shaped their year-end performance. Many of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks are set to report earnings next week. Given their weighting on indexes, their performances have outsized influence on overall market direction. Their outlooks will be closely watched to see how much juice remains in the growth stories which so far have justified their sky-high valuations. All seven were gainers on Thursday, led by Meta META.O which shot up 5.7% and Tesla TSLA.O , which climbed 4.2%.
Banking stocks have generally performed well in response to earnings, although Huntington Bancshares HBAN.O fell 6% on Thursday after posting fourth-quarter numbers weighed by costs related to recent acquisitions. Some larger regionals which had risen in recent days also saw pullback on Thursday, with Fifth Third Bancorp FITB.O down 3.7% and Regions Financial RF.N 1.3% lower.
Procter & Gamble PG.N gained 2.6% following quarterly results, and Intel INTC.O – which reported numbers after the bell – edged up 0.1% to take its 2026 gains to 47.2%. Abbott ABT.N slid 10%, its largest one-day percentage drop since 2002, after the medical device maker forecast current-quarter profit below Wall Street expectations. GE Aerospace GE.N slipped 7.4% despite forecasting its annual profit above estimates. Cholula hot-sauce maker McCormick MKC.N dropped 8.1% after forecasting weak annual profit in 2026 on higher costs related to tariffs and other inputs.
The latest economic data releases were also supportive of positive momentum. U.S. consumer spending increased solidly in November and October, likely keeping the economy on track for a third straight quarter of strong growth, the personal consumption expenditures index showed. Separate data showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased less than expected last week, while the U.S. economy grew by a slightly more-than-expected 4.4% in the third quarter of 2025. The number of shares changing hands on U.S. exchanges was 18.30 billion, compared with 16.91 billion average over the last 20 trading days.
Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru and David French in New York; Editing by Maju Samuel and David Gregorio.
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