
Stocks close sharply higher, lifted by Microsoft, Meta earnings
By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday, with the Dow and S&P 500 posting their eighth straight session of gains after strong results from megacaps Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Meta eased concerns about artificial intelligence spending. Microsoft surged and hit its highest level since late January, driven by an upbeat quarterly growth forecast for its cloud-comp ...