US Stocks Rally for Best Month Since 2004/30 15:26

   The U.S stock market motored to more records Thursday as profits keep piling 
up for Alphabet, Caterpillar and other big businesses. 

   NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S stock market motored to more records Thursday as 
profits keep piling up for Alphabet, Caterpillar and other big businesses. The 
gains came after the latest whipsaw moves for oil prices, which surged toward 
their highest levels since the war with Iran began only to quickly regress.

   The S&P 500 rallied 1% and topped its prior all-time high to close out its 
best month in more than five years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 790 
points, or 1.6%, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.9% to its own record.

   Alphabet led the way and rallied 10% after the owner of Google and YouTube 
reported profit for the latest quarter that almost doubled analysts' 
expectations. Investments in artificial intelligence "are lighting up every 
part of the business," CEO Sundar Pichai said.

   It's the latest company to deliver fatter profits for the start of 2026 than 
analysts expected, even with very high oil prices and uncertainty about the 
economy.

   Wall Street's strength followed manic swings in the oil market, where prices 
surged overnight on worries that the Iran war will affect the flow of crude for 
a long time. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, keeping them 
pent up in the Persian Gulf and away from customers worldwide, while a U.S. 
Navy blockade is preventing Iran from selling its own oil.

   Traders are buying and selling contracts for different kinds of oil, going 
out for many months. In the most actively traded part of the market for Brent 
crude, for delivery in July, the price got as high as $114.70 per barrel 
overnight. It then fell back toward $107 before settling at $110.40, nearly 
unchanged from the day before.

   So far during the war, the peak price for the most actively traded Brent 
contract is $119.50, which was set last month.

   In a less actively traded corner of the Brent market, the price for a barrel 
to be delivered in June briefly went above $126 overnight before pulling back 
toward $114.

   Brent's price is still much more expensive than its roughly $70 level from 
before the war. But the morning's easing in prices and the continuing flood of 
better-than-expected profit reports from U.S. companies helped keep Wall Street 
at its records.

   Caterpillar soared 9.9%, Eli Lilly jumped 9.8% and O'Reilly Automotive 
leaped 8.4% after all delivered profits for the latest quarter that topped 
analysts' expectations. That's big because stock prices tend to follow the 
track of corporate profits over the long term.

   Still, a better-than-expected result isn't always enough to boost a stock's 
price if it's already shot much higher.

   Meta Platforms tumbled 8.7% even though the company behind Facebook and 
Instagram made more profit last quarter than expected. Investors focused more 
on its increased forecast for how much it will spend on data centers and other 
investments as it builds out its AI capabilities.

   Doubts are still high among some investors about whether all the AI spending 
by Meta and other companies will produce enough profit and productivity to make 
it worth it.

   Microsoft fell 3.9% after likewise raising its forecast for investments and 
other capital spending. But analysts also said accelerating trends at its Azure 
business were encouraging.

   Amazon rose 0.8% after swinging between gains and losses through the day. It 
blew past analysts' expectations for earnings in the latest quarter.

   All told, the S&P 500 rose 73.06 points to 7,209.01. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average jumped 790.33 to 49,652.14, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 
219.07 to 24,892.31.

   In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after oil prices gave up their big 
overnight gains. Reports also suggested the U.S. economy's growth accelerated 
by less in the first three months of the year than economists expected, while a 
measure of inflation worsened in March by about as much as expected.

   A separate report said that fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment 
benefits last week in an indication of fewer layoffs even though companies are 
announcing large cuts to workforces.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.38% from 4.42% late Wednesday.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a weaker finish in 
Asia.

   London's FTSE 100 jumped 1.6% after the Bank of England kept its main 
interest rate on hold. That followed similar decisions by the U.S. Federal 
Reserve on Wednesday and the Bank of Japan on Tuesday to keep their rates 
unchanged.

   Germany's DAX returned 1.4%, and France's CAC 40 rose 0.5% after the 
European Central Bank also held its own interest rates steady.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.3%, while stocks added 0.1% in Shanghai after a 
report said China's factory activity slowed slightly in April but remained in 
expansion territory for the second month.