Stocks popped Thursday thanks to strong gains in megacap tech names, as investors continued to look for signs of progress on the global trade front.

The S&P 500 ended up 2.03% at 5,484.77, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 2.74% to finish at 17,166.04. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged the other two indexes, weighed down by a 6.6% drop in IBM, but still added 486.83 points, or 1.23%, at 40,093.40. This marked the blue-chip index's first close above the 40,000 threshold since April 15.

Shares of Nvidia, Meta, Amazon, Tesla and Microsoft all closed higher, propelling the major averages to their third day of gains in a row. Tech has been rocked recently as the White House's increasingly confrontational trade stance, particularly against China, dents sentiment on the sector.

China said overnight that there were no trade talks taking place with the U.S. China's Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yadong said "all sayings" regarding progress on bilateral talks should be dismissed. He also called for the cancellation of "unilateral" tariffs.

Those remarks came after President Donald Trump said he is willing to take a less confrontational approach toward trade talks with Beijing. Further, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that the U.S. has the "opportunity for a big deal" on trade. Chinese imports are subject to a U.S. tariff of 145%.

With this lack of trade negotiation progress with China in mind, Ross Mayfield, investment analyst at Baird, was cautious about Thursday's rally upward.

"I don't trust the move," he told CNBC in an interview. "China overnight was pretty explicit that there were no negotiations ongoing. Perhaps the market is still feeling some confidence that at least the administration is talking about wanting a deal, as opposed to digging in and raising tariffs to insane rates. There's potentially some leftover optimism from yesterday."

Still, investors received some good news on Thursday afternoon when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the Trump administration may reach "an agreement on understanding" on trade with South Korea "as soon as next week."

The S&P 500 has slipped 3.3% since April 2, the day Trump announced his new policy on U.S. imports. Since then, the Dow has declined 5.1%, while the Nasdaq has lost 2.5%.

The major averages are currently pacing to end the week in positive territory, which would mark the second positive week in three for all three indexes.

Stocks close higher for third day in a row

Stocks rallied on Thursday, notching their third day of gains in a row.

The S&P 500 rallied 2.03%, closing at 5,484.77. The Nasdaq Composite rose 2.74% to settle at 17,166.04. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 486.83 points, or 1.23%, finishing at 40,093.40.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Investors are optimistic that the White House could 'relent' more, Deutsche Bank says

Much of the market optimism in recent days has stemmed from investors' belief that the U.S. administration could ease more when it comes to the mounting trade war, suggests Deutsche Bank.

"We'll have to see what happens from here, but a large part of the optimism has come about because investors think the U.S. administration will relent more," wrote Jim Reid, the firm's global head of macro and thematic research.

— Lisa Kailai Han

U.S. markets are sliding toward a recessionary regime, UBS says

In a Thursday note, UBS strategist Sean Simonds wrote that the U.S. is increasingly approaching a recessionary regime.

"Markets pricing rapidly in a 'recessionary' direction," he wrote.

Simonds added that tariff-sensitive stocks are being "aggressively repriced" and are now down 20% relative to the market.

Meanwhile, consumer discretionary stocks could take an even bigger hit going forward.

"Consumer discretionary stocks are typically sensitive to growth slowdowns/recessions and have underperformed recently as the market pushes quickly in this direction. Earnings expectations have also been rapidly revised lower and hedge fund positioning has adjusted significantly," Simonds said. "Our models suggest more consumer discretionary downside momentum (eg. Kohls) and relative outperformance coming from communication services and utilities (eg. Live Nation and Ameren)."

— Lisa Kailai Han

Trade agreement with South Korea could come 'as soon as next week,' Bessent says

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday afternoon at the White House that the Trump administration may reach "an agreement on understanding" on trade with South Korea "as soon as next week."

"South Koreans came early, they came with their A-game, and we will see if they follow through on that," he added.

— Jesse Pound

Northrop Grumman pacing for worst week since February 2009

Shares of Northrop Grumman shed 1% on Thursday, bringing its total weekly losses to more than 13%.

The stock is on track for its worst week since February. Shares plunged 13% on Tuesday, marking their worst day since October 2008, after the company cut its full-year guidance and reported losses on its B-21 bomber program due to rising costs.

— Adrian van Hauwermeiren, Lisa Kailai Han

Bridgewater warns of rising recession risks

Bridgewater Associates co-chief investment officers Bob Prince, Greg Jensen and Karen Karniol-Tambour said in a newsletter Wednesday that the world is undergoing a "rapid shift to modern mercantilism" that will likely hurt financial assets and the economy.

"We expect a policy-induced slowdown, with rising probability of a recession," the CIOs wrote.

The newsletter also said the policy changes, including Trump's trade efforts, create "exceptional risks to US assets, which are dependent on foreign inflows."

— Jesse Pound

Hasbro heads for best day since 2020 on earnings beat

Hasbro shares tracked for their best day in more than half a decade on Thursday as investors cheered the toymaker's strong earnings report.

Shares surged around 15% in afternoon trading. If that holds through session close, it would mark Hasbro's best session since March 2020, when the stock soared more than 21%.

Thursday's rally comes after Hasbro earned $1.04 per share, excluding items, on $887.1 million in revenue. Analysts polled by FactSet forecast 67 cents in earnings per share and revenue of $771.1 million.

Hasbro said it is not changing its full-year guidance "given the uncertainty of the current tariff environment."

— Alex Harring

Tractor Supply shares fall after earnings miss and guidance cut, cites 'notable increase in uncertainty' around tariffs

Shares of Tractor Supply fell more than 4% on Thursday after the rural lifestyle retailer posted weaker-than-expected earnings and revenue for the first quarter and slashed its full-year guidance.

Tractor Supply posted first-quarter earnings of 34 cents per share on revenue of $3.47 billion, below the 37 cents per share and $3.53 billion in revenue that analysts surveyed by LSEG were expecting.

Looking ahead, the company now expects to earn between $2.00 and $2.18 per share in 2025, down from its prior guidance of $2.10 to $2.22. It also now anticipates revenue growth for the full year to come in between 4% and 8% year over year compared to its prior guidance of between 5% and 7% growth.

"Since issuing our initial 2025 outlook, there has been a notable increase in uncertainty, in particular the introduction of new tariffs," President and CEO Hal Lawton said in a statement. However, Lawton noted on an earnings call Thursday that tariffs are "not an existential crisis" for the company and said that it is "not taking price increases at this time."

The day's move lower comes as the stock has been lagging the broader market in recent months. Shares have slid more than 16% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has shed more than 9% during that period. Over the past month, the stock has moved more than 10% lower versus the S&P 500's one-month fall of more than 5%.

— Sean Conlon

Stocks making the biggest moves midday include Hasbro, Fiserv

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading:

• Hasbro — The toymaker soared 16.3% after the company's first-quarter report beat expectations. Hasbro earned $1.04 per share, excluding items, on $887.1 million in revenue. Analysts polled by FactSet forecast 67 cents per share and $771.1 million in revenue. Hasbro added it is not changing its full-year guidance "given the uncertainty of the current tariff environment."
• Fiserv — Shares of the software provider plunged 17% after Fiserv's adjusted revenue missed expectations. Fiserv reported adjusted first-quarter revenue of $4.79 billion, while analysts polled by FactSet expected $4.84 billion.
• Freeport-McMoRan — Shares of the mining company increased 6.6% after Freeport posted a profit for the first quarter, slightly topping Wall Street's expectations. 

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

Amazon, Nvidia executives say AI data center demand is not slowing

Executives from Amazon and Nvidia said on Thursday that the construction of artificial intelligence data centers is not slowing down.

"There's been really no significant change," Kevin Miller, Amazon's vice president of global data centers, said at a conference organized by the Hamm Institute for American Energy. "We continue to see very strong demand, and we're looking both in the next couple years as well as long term and seeing the numbers only going up."

Fears of an incoming recession have had investors questioning whether tech companies would pull back. Miller's comments may help assuage some of the worries building up on Wall Street.

Shares of Nvidia and Amazon were trading around 3% higher Thursday afternoon.

— Spencer Kimball, Lisa Kailai Han

Almost 55% of retail investors have grown more bearish since the start of the year, AAII survey says

In a mirror of the gloom on Wall Street, 54.6% of respondents to the latest weekly survey from the American Association of Individual Investors say they have grown more bearish toward stocks since the year began. More than a quarter, or 26.7%, said they are more cautious toward stocks but not bearish, while only 8.6% said they have become more bullish since the turn of the year.

Slightly more than 10% said they felt the same toward stocks as they did on New Year's, or were not sure.

Only 21.9% of AAII members said they were bullish on the six-month outlook for stocks, the fewest since earlier this month, while 55.6% described themselves as bearish, down from a 16-year high of 61.9% in early April. Bearishness earlier in April reached the highest since March 2009 during the global financial crisis, and was the third-highest reading ever in the history of the survey, which dates from the 1980s.

Investors who are neutral over the short-term outlook remained elevated at 22.5%, up from 12.5% two weeks ago, which was the lowest neutral reading since the aftermath of the financial crisis in May 2009.

— Scott Schnipper

Fed's Waller says tariff impact likely to remain unclear

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said Thursday that policymakers may not have enough information about the effect of tariffs to begin lowering rates in June, as the market expects.

"I don't think you're going to see enough happen in real data in the next couple of months, until you get past July," the central bank official said in a Bloomberg News interview. "When you get to the second half of the year, I think we'll start having better ideas [about] what's going to happen with the tariff world that the administration is considering."

Waller did say he would be at the ready to start lowering rates as soon as the jobs picture starts to weaken.

"I would expect more rate cuts and sooner once I started seeing some serious deterioration in the labor market," he said.

Traders largely expect the Fed to start cutting again in June, though the market-implied probability has been edging lower in recent days, according to the CME Group's FedWatch gauge of futures pricing.

— Jeff Cox

IMF cuts Asia growth forecast

The International Monetary Fund lowered its Asia economic growth forecast to 3.9% in 2025 from a 4.6% forecast made last year.

Uncertainty surrounding trade policy is a major headwind for the region, Krishna Srinivasan, the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department director, told reporters Thursday.

However, Srinivasan noted the central banks in the region have some scope to ease monetary policy that can help protect against some of the damage from trade policy.

— Hakyung Kim

Existing home sales post worst March since 2009

The pace of existing home sales tumbled in March to its lowest level for the month since the financial crisis was ending in 2009, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.

Sales slid 5.9% for the month to a seasonally adjusted annualized 4.02 million, representing a 2.4% decline from a year ago. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a decrease of 3.1%.

Home prices, though, continued to escalate, with the median price at $403,700, a fresh record and up 2.7% from a year ago, though the rate of increase has been slowing.

— Jeff Cox

2 stocks in the S&P 500 trade at new 52-week lows

Two stocks in the S&P 500 traded at new 52-week lows on Thursday.

These names included Comcast and Tractor Supply, trading at their lowest levels since November 2022 and February 2024, respectively.

On the other hand, Netflix was trading at its all-time high levels back to its initial public offering in May 2022.

— Lisa Kailai Han

IMF chief says there's 'a bit of confusion' on the fund's role, responding to Bessent

In response to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's comments accusing the International Monetary Fund of "mission creep," IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva noted "there is a bit of confusion" on the fund's role and measures.

During the sidelines of the IMF's and the World Bank's annual spring meetings, Bessent accused the two multinational funds of devoting "disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender, and social issues. … These issues are not the IMF's mission."

During a press conference on Thursday, Georgieva said, "People think that we have climate experts. We don't. That's not our job."

Giving the example of island nation Barbados, Georgieva said, "For countries that are highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, [we] have policy advice strictly on the macro side."

— Hakyung Kim

S&P 500 opens unchanged on Thursday

The S&P 500 opened marginally higher on Thursday. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.3%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged behind with a 0.4% slide.

— Lisa Kailai Han

D.A. Davidson downgrades Mondelez International on valuation concerns

Mondelez International's valuation has D.A. Davidson moving to the sidelines.

The firm downgraded the snack stock to neutral from buy on Thursday, albeit with a higher $68 per share price target. Davidson's forecast implies roughly 1% upside from Wednesday's $67.38 close.

"[N]ear term results could underwhelm amidst soft snacking demand in the U.S. as well as a mixed outlook at best across emerging markets, and mindful the stock is already pricing in some recovery in cocoa," analyst Brian Holland said. Shares have added more than 12% in 2025.

"Given snacking weakness, macro uncertainty, and cocoa volatility, we see risk-reward as balanced following the stock's nearly 20% move off early February lows," he added.

— Brian Evans

See the stocks moving before the bell

These are some of the stocks posting notable moves in Thursday's premarket:

• Chipotle — Shares fell 3.5% after the Mexican restaurant chain posted weak revenue for the first quarter and disclosed its first same-store sales drop since 2020.
• Texas Instruments — The semiconductor manufacturer surged 8.5% after delivering a better-than-expected earnings report for the first quarter and upbeat guidance for the current quarter.
• ServiceNow — The enterprise technology stock climbed 7.9% following a stronger-than-anticipated earnings report for the first quarter.

Click here for the full list.

— Alex Harring

Southwest Airlines pulls guidance, says it will cut flights this year

Southwest Airlines shares dropped more than 3% after the company said it will cut flights in 2025. The airline also pulled its 2025 and 2026 EBIT guidance.

— Fred Imbert

American Airlines pulls its 2025 financial guidance

Shares of American Airlines were trading marginally higher on Thursday after the company withdrew its 2025 financial guidance.

American Airlines cited economic uncertainty as a reason for the decision. It joins fellow airlines Delta and Southwest, which have both also recently pulled their guidance.

The aircraft carrier earned an adjusted 59 cents per share on revenue of $12.55 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG expected a loss of 65 cents per share on revenue of $12.6 billion.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Texas Instruments shares rally on earnings beat

Shares of Texas Instruments popped 8% in the premarket after the semiconductor company posted first-quarter earnings and revenue that exceeded analysts' expectations.

The company earned $1.28 per share on revenue of $4.07 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG expected a profit of $1.07 per share on revenue of $3.91 billion. Second-quarter guidance was also above estimates.

— Fred Imbert

ServiceNow shares rally on big earnings beat

Shares of ServiceNow popped more than 8% in the premarket after the software company reported quarterly figures that beat analysts' expectations. The company earned $4.04 per share, excluding certain items, on revenue of $3.09 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a profit of $3.83 per share on revenue of $3.08 billion.

— Fred Imbert

Procter & Gamble sheds 2% after reporting fiscal third-quarter loss

Shares of Procter & Gamble, the parent company behind Tide and Charmin, slipped nearly 2% Thursday morning after the company posted fiscal third-quarter revenue of $19.78 billion. This was lower than the $20.11 billion analysts polled by LSEG had expected.

On the other hand, the company posted a slight earnings beat. Procter & Gamble accompanied the results by also slashing its full-year core earnings per share and revenue forecast.

— Lisa Kailai Han

IBM falls despite earnings beat

IBM shares were down more than 6% after a warning from the legacy tech company overshadowed a stronger-than-expected first-quarter report. CEO Arvind Krishna said that, "in the near term, uncertainty may cause clients to pause and take a wait-and-see approach."

— Fred Imbert

China says it has no trade talks with U.S., suggests canceling 'unilateral' tariffs

On Thursday, China said there were no ongoing talks with the U.S. on tariffs.

"At present there are absolutely no negotiations on the economy and trade between China and the U.S.," Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yadong told reporters in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. He added that "all sayings" regarding progress on bilateral talks should be dismissed.

"If the U.S. really wants to resolve the problem … it should cancel all the unilateral measures on China," the spokesperson said.

Hope of easing tensions between the two nations sent stocks higher on Wednesday.

— Evelyn Cheng, Lisa Kailai Han

'Bear market rallies are the most violent,' Wolfe Research strategists say

"Bear market rallies are the most violent," according to Wolfe Research's Rob Ginsberg and Read Harvey in a note published late Tuesday after day 1 of the latest market comeback.

Tuesday's 2.5% gain in the S&P 500 showed internal markers such as breadth and volume that "were extremely strong, but that's the point of the bear market rally, they make you a believer," the pair wrote.

Since their analysis of longer-term weekly and monthly trends "continues to suggest that we are in a bear market," Ginsberg and Harvey are looking for "a cluster" of signals to shift direction before declaring the bear dead. Those include a turn in the three-month rate of change and for the S&P 500 to climb above short-term resistance levels between 5,500 and 5,700.

The S&P 500 closed Wednesday at 5,375.86.

— Scott Schnipper

Market hasn't fully priced in a recession yet, Deutsche Bank says

While uncertainty stemming from President Donald Trump's new tariffs have certainly fanned recessionary fears in recent weeks, the market hasn't fully bought into the idea, according to Deutsche Bank.

"It's clear that investors aren't fully pricing a recession in just yet," wrote strategist Henry Allen. "After all, the equity declines have been shallower than recent recessions, as have the widening in credit spreads and the declines in oil prices. So markets clearly don't see a recession as inevitable, particularly if the tariffs don't come into force after the latest 90-day extension."

On the flip side, investors not fully pricing in a recession means stocks could see "significant downside risks" if an economic downturn does indeed materialize.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Stocks moving after market close include Chipotle, Southwest Airlines

Check out the companies making headlines in after-hours trading:

• Chipotle Mexican Grill — Chipotle missed first-quarter revenue estimates and said same-store sales declined for the first time since 2020, leading the stock to drop 2.1%. Chipotle also lowered the top end of its outlook for full-year same-store sales growth.
• Texas Instruments — Shares of the semiconductor manufacturer popped about 4.2% after market close. Texas Instruments reported first-quarter earnings of $1.28 per share on revenue of $4.07 billion, handily beating analysts' expectations for earnings of $1.07 per share on revenue of $3.91 billion.
• Southwest Airlines — Southwest Airlines shares dipped 3.1% after the airline on Wednesday said it will reduce its capacity in the second half of 2025, given further signs of weaker domestic bookings this year.

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

Stock futures open lower Wednesday night

Stock futures were in the red after major indexes posted back-to-back gains.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 lost 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures shed nearly 0.2% shortly after 6 p.m. ET. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 102 points, or almost 0.3%.

— Pia Singh