Wall Street ends higher as Fed signals dovish bias; jobs report eyed

The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way, advancing 1.5% with healthy boost from chip stocks after reported quarterly sales and profit above analysts' expectations.

Markets continued to parse Chair Jerome Powell's assurances on Wednesday that the central bank's next policy move will be to lower its key policy rate, after it left rates unchanged at the end of its monthly meeting. However, he noted that recent strong readings have suggested that first of these rate cuts could be a long time in coming.

"The takeaway from yesterday is that the Fed's bias is still a downward, hold steady or cut rates," said Paul Nolte, senior wealth advisor and market strategist at Murphy & Silvest in Elmhurst, Illinois.

"They're not willing to raise rates from here. They'll keep rates steady, and any sign of economic weakness or lower inflation, they are going to be ready to jump on it and cut."

Data released on Thursday included muted jobless claims, a drop in planned layoffs, a surge in quarterly labor costs and a sharp deceleration in productivity, all of which throws focus on Friday's closely watched April employment report.

"The Fed has been consistent in saying they're going to be data dependent," said Joseph Sroka, chief investment officer at NovaPoint in Atlanta. "We went into this year thinking there could be more cuts, earlier. "The data hasn't supported that."

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) upgraded its global growth outlook, thanks in part to the U.S. economy's resilience.

Of the 373 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings through Thursday morning, 77% have posted better-than-expected results, LSEG data showed.

After the market closed, Apple reported a smaller-than-expected decline in quarterly revenue and its initially rose.

"The common theme (this quarter) is those companies that are beating expectations aren't really being rewarded as much as they have in prior quarters," Nolte added. "And those that are missing expectations are getting shellacked."

Among individual stocks, Qualcomm advanced 9.8% following its earnings beat.