Dow, S&P 500 Extend Win Streaks to 8

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The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average added another win to their respective piles Thursday. Tech stocks rallied the most thanks to a round of well-received earnings, which helped the Nasdaq Composite outperform.

At the close, the S&P 500 was up 0.6% at 5,604 and the Dow was 0.2% higher at 40,752 – their eighth straight day of gains.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq, meanwhile, rose 1.5% to 17,710 thanks to impressive post-earnings pops for mega cap stocks Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META).

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MSFT surged 7.6% – easily making it the best Dow Jones stock today – after the software giant reported higher-than-expected earnings and revenue for its fiscal third quarter.

The company's Intelligent Cloud unit saw the largest growth, with revenue up 21% year over year, thanks to a 33% jump in Azure and other cloud services sales.

"The big surprise was in Azure, an unexpected reversal after three straight disappointing quarters," says UBS Global Research analyst Karl Keirstead (Buy). "While the AI lift to Azure was strong, Microsoft pinned the upside on the core or non-AI performance," which grew despite macro headwinds.

The company also issued strong fiscal Q4 guidance – a rarity these days – saying in its earnings call that "demand signals across our commercial businesses as well as in LinkedIn, Gaming, and Search have remained consistent."

Meta jumps on Q1 beat

Meta stock, meanwhile, rose 4.2% after the Facebook parent's first-quarter beat. The company forecast second-quarter revenue of $42.5 billion to $45.5 billion, in line with what analysts expect.

The social media firm also raised its full-year capital expenditures outlook to a range of $64 billion to $72 billion, citing "additional data center investments to support our artificial intelligence efforts."

It also noted increasing costs of infrastructure hardware, which Chief Financial Officer Susan Li said is due to "suppliers who source from countries around the world."

Li added that there's "a lot of uncertainty around this, given the ongoing trade discussions," but Meta is working "on our end on mitigations by optimizing our supply chain."

CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino (Buy) says that even with these plans for higher spending, Meta "is telling a great growth story tied to AI."

Zino adds that the company has highlighted several ways to monetize AI, including improved advertising and the creation of engaging experiences, and he applauds "execution on margins."

Kohl's booms after its CEO is ousted

In non-earnings news, Kohl's (KSS) added 7.8% after the department store chain said its CEO was fired for cause.

An investigation into Ashley Buchanan, who held the role for just over three months, found that he "violated company policies by directing the company to engage in vendor transactions that involved undisclosed conflicts of interest," Kohl's said in a press release.

A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed the vendor was someone "with whom Mr. Buchanan has a personal relationship ... and that he also caused the company to enter into a multi-million dollar consulting agreement wherein the same individual was a part of the consulting team."

Kohl's has tapped its board chair, Michael Bender, to serve as interim CEO until a permanent replacement is found.

It's been tough sledding for the retail stock, with shares down more than 50% for the year to date heading into Thursday's session. And Wall Street isn't expecting a quick turnaround.

Of the 16 analysts covering KSS stock who are tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence, one says it's a Strong Buy, seven have it at Hold and eight believe it's a Sell or Strong Sell.

This works out to a consensus Hold recommendation.

Initial claims up ahead of April jobs report

Over on the economic calendar, the Labor Department said that initial jobless claims rose by 241,000 in the week ending April 26, more than economists expected.

Today marked the third straight day of softer-than-anticipated labor market data, says José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers. And this has many wondering if tomorrow's April jobs report will also come up short.

Regardless, Torres notes that recent weakness is "likely a result of the elevated uncertainty from the Trump presidency's first 100 days and can reverse strongly against the backdrop of policy achievements from the Oval Office coinciding with a looser Federal Reserve."

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With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is the senior investing editor at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at a local investment research firm. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis.