By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The Dow rallied on Thursday, led by a rise in materials and financials following better-than-expected earnings, while slowing weekly unemployment claims also lifted sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.89%, the S&P 500 added 1.15% and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.41%.
Materials were among the biggest gainers, led by a surge in Corteva (NYSE:CTVA) after the agricultural input provider's earnings topped estimates, sending its share price up 5%. The company attributed the upbeat results to warmer weather that boosted crop planting.
In financials, meanwhile, PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), up 14%, racked up strong as signs that the company is benefiting from the stay-at-home measures introduced to combat the Covid-19 pandemic offset earnings and revenue that fell short of expectations.
In April, Paypal saw a "dramatic monthly acceleration of more 90% in new account adds as online commerce benefited from global 'shelter-in-place' behavior," Oppenheimer said in a note. "Management believes the secular shift toward digital payments has accelerated a few years."
Elsewhere, Twilio (NYSE:TWLO), meanwhile, surged about 40% after reporting a profit of 6 cents a share on revenue of $364.9 million, confounding estimates for a loss of 11 cents a share on revenue of $331 million.
The company reported active customer accounts jumped 23% year on year at the end of March
FAANG names, meanwhile, also supported the gain in tech, with Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) leading the pack, up 1.4%.
T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS), meanwhile, climbed 9.5% as its first-quarter earnings of $1.10 per share topped estimates for $1.03 per share.
Energy ended higher despite losing some steam following a reversal in oil prices even as Saudi Arabia raised its oil selling price.
In economic news, the number of Americans filing for weekly unemployment continues to slow, with 3.17 million claims recorded for the week ended May 2. That was above economists' forecasts of $3 million, but down for the fifth week in a row, raising hopes the worst is over for the labor market.
The update on the labor market arrived just a day ahead of the crucial nonfarm payrolls report for April.