Wall Street surged to new records on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closing at all-time highs while capping their best monthly performances since 2020.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 1.0 percent to 7,209.01. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9 percent to 24,892.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.6 percent to 49,652.14.
"A lot of that comes down to corporate profits," said Angelo Kourkafas of Edward Jones, noting many companies are reporting strong earnings. He added that GDP data shows the US economy continues to defy fears of a near-term slowdown, combining to propel stocks to all-time highs.
Earlier Thursday, the Commerce Department reported the US economy grew at an annual rate of 2.0 percent in the first quarter of 2026, driven by a surge in AI investments, even as consumer spending cooled.
The S&P 500 was up 10 percent for the month, the Nasdaq up 15 percent.
Kourkafas warned the path ahead could be choppier due to surging energy prices linked to the Middle East conflict.
Among individual stocks, Meta Platforms plunged 8.6 percent while Alphabet soared 10 percent after the tech rivals reported quarterly earnings with starkly different investor reactions to their AI investments.