U.S. equities finished Thursday's session with gains.

The S&P 500 rose 0.26% to end the day at 7,041.28, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.36% to reach 24,102.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 115 points, or 0.24%, to 48,578.72.

— Sean Conlon

Investor Stephanie Link named three companies to own in the software sector, a group where investors have to be cautious, she said.

In an appearance on CNBC's "Closing Bell," the chief investment strategist at Hightower Advisors named Synopsys, ServiceNow and Palo Alto Networks as three names to own in the group. Software stocks have been hit in 2026 over fears artificial intelligence will disrupt their business models.

Link said Synopsys helps hyperscalers become more scalable, and that as they look toward more complex chips the company's importance will only grow. She also pointed out that ServiceNow and Palto Alto's CEO's recently purchasing more of their respective companies' stocks as a bullish sign for those names.

All three are "mission critical" companies, Link said, where "valuations have come down in my mind to more reasonable for the growth that you're getting," she added.

— Davis Giangiulio

Myseum shares more than doubled on Thursday after the social media platform provider became the latest company to unexpectedly refocus efforts on artificial intelligence.

The penny stock surged more than 138% in afternoon trading to above $3 a share. Myseum — which surpassed the $5 mark at one point in the trading day — climbed to its highest levels in more than a year and is on track for its best day since early 2025.

Read more here.

— Alex Harring

Former Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said Thursday the Fed was right to "wait and see" what will happen with inflation, given the uncertainty around any lingering effects of the oil shock.

"It all really depends on what's going to happen in the Middle East," Mester told CNBC at the Semafor World Economy conference in Washington, DC. "I think the Fed is wise to be on hold now and to wait until we get more information on how things play out."

Mester added there's a possibility that inflation continues to move up as a result of the U.S.-Iran war, making it difficult for the Fed to contemplate a downward move in the overnight lending rate.

"There's a scenario where inflation continues to move up," Mester said. "They have to be prepared for entertaining that as another scenario."

Investors were hopeful coming into the year that the Fed will cut interest rates two quarter percentage points coming into 2026, but those expectations have since pared back after the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz revived fears of elevated inflation.

Fed funds futures pricing last showed the overnight lending rate ending the year in the 3.50% to 3.75% range, where it's been since December, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

— Sarah Min

Madison Air Solutions, an indoor air ventilation and filtration system supplier, soared nearly 19% to an intraday high of $32.02 on the first day of trading after its initial public offering priced at $27 late Wednesday.

Chicago-based Madison Air raised $2.23 billion in the IPO managed by Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Jefferies and Wells Fargo, and will raise a total of $2.63 billion assuming the customary 15% overallotment option is fully subscribed.

The IPO priced at the top end of an originally expected range of $25 to $27. Madison expects its founder Larry Geis to control approximately 95% of the voting stock in the company following the IPO through his ownership of Class B common stock with supervoting rights.

— Scott Schnipper

Here are the stocks making headlines in midday trading:

• Advanced Micro Devices – The chip company surged more than 7% after Bernstein lifted its price target to $265 per share from $235. "We are warming to AMD as well as they benefit from server CPU strength," wrote analyst Stacy Rasgon in a Thursday report. The stock is on pace for a 12th straight winning session. Rasgon's team also raised their price target on Intel to $60 per share from $36 in the same report. Shares advanced nearly 5%.
• Abbott Laboratories – Shares tumbled nearly 7% as the company reported weak guidance for the second quarter. Abbott sees adjusted earnings for the current quarter ranging from $1.25 to $1.31 per share, compared with the FactSet consensus of $1.36 per share. The company also dialed back its full-year adjusted earnings guidance to reflect its acquisition of Exact Sciences, forecasting $5.38 to $5.58 per share and missing analysts' estimate of $5.60 per share.
• Aehr Test Systems – Shares of the test solutions provider for semiconductor devices surged 11%. Aehr announced it received a $41 million production order from one of its lead hyperscale artificial intelligence customers. Several AI-related optical stocks also rose in sympathy, including Lumentum, up almost 6%, and Coherent, up 3%.

Read here for the full list.

— Michelle Fox and Darla Mercado

On Thursday, 11 stocks in the S&P 500 traded at new all-time highs.

These are the tickers that hit this milestone:

• Garmin trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in December 2000
• Bank of NY Mellon trading at all-time highs back to the merger between BNY (the first company listed on the NYSE) and Mellon Financial in 2007
• CBOE Holdings trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in June 2010‎
• Interactive Brokers Group trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in May 2007
• State Street trading at all-time high levels back through our history to 1972
• JB Hunt Transport trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in 1983
• Advanced Micro Devices trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in September 1972
• Coherent trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in March 1990
• Monolithic Power Systems trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in November 2004
• Western Digital trading at all-time highs back to its listing on the NASDAQ in June 2012
• Iron Mountain trading at all-time highs levels back to its IPO in July 1997

Just one stock in the index traded at new 52-week lows: Abbott Labs.

— Christopher Hayes and Lisa Kailai Han

In a Truth Social post, Trump said the two countries "have agreed that in order to achieve PEACE between their Countries, they will formally begin a 10 Day CEASEFIRE at 5 P.M. EST."

Read more here.

— Fred Imbert

Retail traders who had largely sat out the latest equity rally are beginning to chase the upside, according to data from JPMorgan.

The bank's latest client flow data show retail buying activity rebounding sharply, with overall participation rising to the 55th percentile from roughly the 10th percentile just days earlier. The pickup suggests individual investors are starting to play catch-up as major equity benchmarks hover near record highs.

The rebound has been driven primarily by a surge in single-stock purchases, which climbed to the 71st percentile relative to the past year. In contrast, demand for exchange-traded funds weakened, with ETF inflows slipping to the 33rd percentile from 53rd percentile the prior week.

— Yun Li

U.S.-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor shed 2.4%, despite reporting a record first-quarter profit, which increased by 58%, and beating analyst estimates. Revenue came in at 1.134 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($35 billion), compared to the NT$1.127 trillion expected, per LSEG.

Its net income of NT$572.48 billion also topped the NT$543.32 billion consensus estimate.

However, Taiwan Semiconductor also said its capital spending this year will come in at the high end of its earlier guidance of $52 billion and $56 billion. That is as much as a 37% increase from last year.

Bank of America was among those bullish on the results. Analyst Haas Liu reiterated his buy rating Thursday.

"Its current valuation is undemanding at 15x '27 P/E (vs. its long term 11-21x) backed by its positive tone on sales and capex supplemented by strong position in leading edge technologies," he wrote in a note to clients.

The U.S.-listed stock is up more than 23% year to date.

— Michelle Fox and Dylan Butts

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite reached fresh all-time intraday highs on Thursday morning.

The broad market index rose 0.2%, along with the Nasdaq. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 134 points, or 0.3%.

— Sean Conlon

Charles Schwab fell more than 2% in premarket trading despite posting record quarterly profit.

The brokerage and financial services firm's first-quarter revenue of $6.48 billion fell short of the LSEG estimate of $6.5 billion, weighing on shares early Thursday.

Earnings per share of $1.43 for the quarter beat LSEG estimates by 3 cents.

— Tanaya Macheel

Separate Federal Reserve district reports Thursday indicated rising business activity but also substantially higher prices.

The Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing index and the New York Fed's services gauge both posted strong readings for April, though with some caveats.

In the Philadelphia region, the monthly reading popped to 26.7, up 8.6 points from March and better than the Dow Jones consensus for 12. New orders and shipments both saw gains. However, the prices paid index surged nearly 15 points to 59.3 while the hiring gauge slipped to -5.1 from 0.8.

At the same time, the New York Fed's services index rose 9 points, though it was still negative at -14. Also, the business climate index fell 3 points to -49.3, indicating conditions "remained much worse than normal," the report said. Moreover, the employment index was at -2.4 and the prices paid index jumped 11 points to 73.8, "signaling a sharp acceleration in input price increases."

The diffusion indexes measure the share of companies reporting growth against those seeing contraction.

— Jeff Cox

Initial unemployment insurance filings fell more than expected last week, keeping the labor market in a low-layoff environment.

Jobless claims totaled a seasonally adjusted 207,000 for the week ended April 11, down 11,000 from the prior period and below the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 215,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Continuing claims, which run a week behind, rose by 31,000 to 1.82 million. However, the four-week moving average fell by 8,250 to its lowest level since June 1, 2024.

— Jeff Cox

As equity futures point to a positive open for the regular session on Thursday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are coming off some notable milestones scored in the prior trading day.

The S&P 500 recorded its first close above 7,000, finishing the session at 7,022.95, while the Nasdaq posted its first close above 24,000. The tech-heavy index closed at 24,016.02 on Wednesday.

Both indexes are higher on the year, with the S&P 500 up more than 2% and the Nasdaq higher by more than 3%.

— Sean Conlon

Check out the companies making the biggest moves in premarket trading:

• PepsiCo — The snack and beverage giant posted first-quarter results that beat analyst expectations, sending the stock 1% higher. PepsiCo earned an adjusted $1.61 per share on revenue of $19.44 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG expected a profit of $1.55 per share on revenue of $18.94 billion.
• PPG Industries — The paint and coating manufacturing company advanced 6% after announcing a global price increase of up to 20% across its portfolio. The company said that the price hike was already in progress. PPG cited volatility in the petrochemical, energy and transportation markets driving up costs in raw materials and packaging across its value chain as a catalyst for these price increases.
• Voyager Technologies — The space tech firm jumped 7% after NASA selected it for its seventh private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. The mission is expected to launch no earlier than 2028.

Read the full list here.

— Michelle Fox

Travelers Companies delivered an earnings and revenue beat in its first quarter report, but it wasn't enough to support the stock.

The insurance company reported earnings of $7.71 per share and $11.92 billion in revenue. That was better than the consensus estimates of $7.07 in earnings per share and revenue of $10.72 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Travelers also announced that it was increasing its quarterly dividend to $1.25 from $1.10. 

Despite the beat, shares fell by 1.5% after the report.

— Davis Giangiulio

PepsiCo posted first-quarter results that beat analyst expectations, though the stock teetered around the flatline. The snack and beverage giant earned an adjusted $1.61 per share on revenue of $19.44 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG expected a profit of $1.55 per share on revenue of $18.94 billion.

— Fred Imbert

Japan's Nikkei 225 hit an all-time high Thursday amid a broader rally in Asia markets, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street, on rising hopes for a U.S.-Iran deal.

Japan's Nikkei 225 ended the session 2.38% higher at 59,518.34, boosted by technology and consumer cyclical stocks.

South Korea's Kospi advanced 2.21% to 6,226.05, while the small-cap Kosdaq was 0.91% higher at 1,162.97 at the end of Thursday's trading session. India's Nifty 50 erased early gains and was 0.37% lower as of 3:45 a.m. ET.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.26% to 8,955. Labor data released Thursday showed that Australian employment rose 1.4% in March from a year ago, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%.

Mainland China's CSI 300 index rose 1.10% to 4,736.61 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was 1.71% higher as of its last hour of trading.

Oil prices were higher on Thursday. The West Texas Intermediate gained 0.87% at $92.07 per barrel as of 3:45 a.m. ET. International benchmark Brent crude rose 0.95% to $95.81 per barrel.

— Justina Lee

Japan's Nikkei 225 hit a record Thursday amid a broader rally in Asia markets, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street as hopes of a U.S.-Iran deal grew.

Japan's Nikkei 225 extended early gains, rising 2.43%, led by technology and consumer cyclical stocks. Other sectoral gainers include basic materials, industrials and financials, which rose 1.72%, 1.34% and 1.06%, respectively.

Daikin Industries was the top performer on the Nikkei 225, after activist investor Elliott Investment Management pushed the company to improve performance and narrow its valuation gap with peers. The Topix gained 1.33%.

South Korea's Kospi advanced 2.12% while the small-cap Kosdaq was 1.10% higher.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was 0.25% lower, following the release of labor data on Thursday.

Mainland China's CSI 300 index rose 0.56%, after data showed the country's economy accelerated in the first quarter. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.89%.

Oil prices were volatile in Thursday trade. The West Texas Intermediate gained 0.26% at $91.53 per barrel as of 10:06 p.m. ET. International benchmark Brent crude rose 0.23% at $95.15 per barrel.

— Justina Lee

These are the stocks moving the most in extended hours trading:

• PPG Industries — The paint and coating manufacturing company advanced 6% after announcing a global price increase of up to 20% across its portfolio. The company said that the price hike was already in progress. PPG cited volatility in the petrochemical, energy and transportation markets driving up costs in raw materials and packaging across its value chain as a catalyst for these price increases.
• J.B. Hunt Transport Services — The transportation stock added 1% after posting first-quarter earnings of $1.49 per share, beating the $1.44 per share FactSet consensus estimate. J.B. Hunt's operating revenue of $3.06 billion also exceeded the expected $2.96 billion.
• SL Green Realty — Shares fell about 2% after the real estate investment trust reported first-quarter funds from operations of 84 cents per share, compared to $1.40 per share this time last year. Its net rental revenue of roughly $166 million exceeded the $144.5 million the firm reported in the first quarter of 2025, however.
• Ford Motor — The automaker were little changed after announcing that Doug Field, its head of electric vehicles and software, will be leaving the company amid efforts to restructure Ford's executives and operations.

— Lisa Kailai Han

On Wednesday, Ford Motor announced that Doug Field, its head of electric vehicles and software, will be leaving the automaker following efforts to restructure its executives and operations.

Specifically, the company said that Field "elected to leave the company after a transition over the next month." While a release announcing the move mentioned a "next chapter" for the executive, Field declined to disclose specific next plans on a Wednesday media call.

While announcing Field's departure, Ford also unveiled a new executive structure that includes the establishment of a "Product Creation and Industrialization" organization, to be led by current Ford Chief Operating Officer Kumar Galhotra.

Read the full story from CNBC's Michael Wayland here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Stock futures opened little changed on Wednesday night.

Shortly after 6 p.m. ET, futures tied to all three major indexes traded around the flatline.

— Lisa Kailai Han