The three major averages finished Thursday's session in positive territory.

The S&P 500 rose 1.02% to end at 7,209.01, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.89% to 24,892.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 790.33 points, or 1.62%, to 49,652.14.

— Sean Conlon

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are on pace to wrap up their best months in more than half of a decade.

The broad S&P 500 has climbed more than 10% in April, which would mark its largest one-month gain since November 2020. The technology-heavy Nasdaq rallied more than 15%, on track for its biggest monthly increase since April 2020.

— Alex Harring

President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post that after the visit of the King and Queen of the United Kingdom to the White House he will lift tariffs on Scottish whiskey.

Shares of British spirits company Diageo hit session highs after the post, now up almost 4% on the day.

"I will be removing the Tariffs and Restrictions on Whiskey having to do with Scotland's ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon, two very important Industries within Scotland and Kentucky," Trump wrote in his social media post. "People have wanted to do this for a long time, in that there had been great Inter-Country Trade, especially having to do with the Wooden Barrels used."

Diageo's stock has precipitously declined for more than four years as the company has confronted headwinds of fewer people drinking weakening demand for its products.

— Davis Giangiulio

In a Wednesday note to clients, Morgan Stanley reiterated its overweight rating on specialty food distributor The Chef's Warehouse.

Analyst Brian Harbour lifted his price target for the stock to $83 from $76, implying an upside of 10% from where shares closed on Wednesday. The company reported a first-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue beat on Wednesday morning.

"Concerns over the Middle East warranted, but perhaps excessive," Harbour wrote. "Against concerns about the Middle East business, which seems better than feared, CHEF ran well ahead in 1Q, beating across the board while also noting momentum continuing QTD. Prior guidance remains in place, though we flow the beat through here."

He added: "Concerns regarding the Iran conflict have been an overhang lately — so far, for the <10% of the business the Middle East represents, volumes are down about 25% y/y, mostly related to tourism, which we think is better than feared and somewhat offset by U.S. results, hence the positive share price response today to all time highs, in our view."

Shares of The Chef's Warehouse surged 18% on Wednesday.

— Lisa Kailai Han

The S&P 500 scored a new all-time intraday high on Thursday, rising 0.6% to 7,179.41. If the index closes above 7,173.91, it will also mark a fresh record close.

The move adds to the index's gains this year. In the period, it has risen nearly 5%.

— Sean Conlon and Christopher Hayes

California gasoline prices hit $6 per gallon on Thursday, a 30% increase since the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran in late February.

Drivers in California are paying the most in the nation at $6.01 per gallon on average, according to data from AAA. Prices in the Golden State are at the highest level since October 2023, the data shows. Read more.

— Spencer Kimball

Shares of chipmaker Qualcomm were up 16% on Thursday after the company reported a beat in its second quarter earnings report. However, analysts on Wall Street were divided about what to make of the financial results. 

Deutsche Bank noted the longer-term outlook from the company was constructive, and thinks it's nearing the bottom in the memory-related headwind from the China smartphone market. The bank, though, reiterated its hold rating on the stock. 

UBS hiked its price target but maintained its neutral rating on Qualcomm. Analyst Timothy Arcuri was worried that the stock turned from red to green after earnings once investors learned of a new custom silicon program to a major hyperscaler. He said that was despite investors knowing few details about that deal.

Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon is concerned that Qualcomm trying to play up its role in data centers with the backdrop of headwinds from its smartphone market is leading investors to think too positively on the stock. "We get the desire to play the datacenter story here but there may be better ways to do it, frankly one could also buy NVDA or AVGO," Nvidia or Broadcom, "(actual datacenter stories) at likely cheaper real valuations, with numbers going up instead of down," he wrote in a note.

— Davis Giangiulio

The yen rose as much as 3% on Thursday after the Nikkei, citing a government official, reported that the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan had launched foreign exchange intervention by buying yen and selling dollars.

The move comes after the currency earlier this year had dropped to its weakest levels since 2024.

— Sean Conlon

The three major averages rose on Thursday morning.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 250 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 traded up 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.6%.

— Sean Conlon

Gemini Space Station has won approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to operate its own regulated derivatives clearinghouse, allowing the Winklevoss brothers' crypto exchange to clear and settle trades in-house rather than relying on outside infrastructure and giving it greater control over how its prediction market products function and scale.

The news pushed shares up 2.5% in premarket trading.

"Given the opportunity size with prediction markets as well as future crypto derivatives, owning and operating the marketplace end-to-end is powerful," Cameron Winklevoss, cofounder and president of Gemini, told CNBC in an exclusive interview.

For more, read the full story here.

— Tanaya Macheel

Consumers faced escalating prices in March as the Iran war sent oil soaring and created a new level of challenges for the Federal Reserve.

The core personal consumption expenditures price index, which excludes food and energy, accelerated a seasonally adjusted 0.3% for the month, pushing the 12-month inflation rate to 3.2%, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. The readings matched the Dow Jones consensus estimates.

Including the volatile gas and groceries components saw higher readings, with the monthly gain at 0.7% and the annual rate hitting 3.5%, also in line with forecasts.

In other economic news Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product grew at a 2% seasonally adjusted annualized pace in the first quarter, up from 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025 but lower than the 2.2% estimate. Read more.

— Jeff Cox

Shares of Caterpillar were up nearly 6% in premarket trading after it reported first quarter earnings before the bell on Thursday. 

The construction equipment manufacturer reported adjusted earnings of $5.54 per share and $17.42 billion in revenue compared to the consensus estimate of $4.65 per share and $16.53 billion in revenue, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Caterpillar also said it expects higher sales and revenue for the current quarter year-over-year.

"Our team delivered a strong start to the year, driven by resilient end markets and disciplined execution in a dynamic operating environment," said chair and CEO Joe Creed in a press release. "A record backlog provides a strong foundation for continued positive momentum."

Caterpillar is up more than 160% in the last year and 41% in 2026 as construction demand has risen amid the artificial intelligence buildout. 

— Davis Giangiulio

Here are some of the companies making headlines before the opening bell:

• Meta Platforms — The Facebook parent tumbled 9% after hiking its full-year capital expenditures guidance to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion, raising concern over its AI spending. That forecast overshadowed a better-than-expected Q1 report.
• Eli Lilly — The pharma giant's first-quarter earnings and revenue blew past analyst expectations, sending the stock 7% higher. Eli Lilly also raised its full-year sales outlook to between $82 billion and $85 billion, up from a previous guidance of $80 billion to $83 billion.
• Royal Caribbean — The cruise operator popped 6% following its latest financial results. Royal Caribbean's adjusted earnings for the first quarter came in at $3.60 per share, topping the $3.20 expected from analysts polled by FactSet. Revenue was $4.45 billion, slightly below the $4.46 consensus estimate. The company also lowered the top range of its full-year EPS guidance.

To see the full list of premarket movers, click here.

— Michelle Fox

South Korea's benchmark Kospi index logged its strongest monthly gain, up nearly 31%, since January 1998, powered by a surge in tech stocks that has helped the market shrug off geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

The index's outsized gains have been driven largely by optimism around the artificial intelligence boom, with semiconductor giants and heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics leading the charge, up 60% and 35%, respectively on month.

The milestone rally comes as the broader Asia-Pacific markets, including the Kospi, declined Thursday, pressured by a spike in oil prices that hit 4-year highs, before paring gains, on fears of potential U.S. military action against Iran and lingering uncertainty after the Federal Reserve held rates steady.

The Kospi fell 1.38% to 6,598.8, while the small-cap Kosdaq lost 2.29% to 1,192.35. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.24% to end the trading day at 8,665.8.

Japanese markets declined as trading resumed after a holiday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 1.06% to close at 59,284.92 while the Topix fell 1.19% to 3,727.21. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.27% as of its last hour of trade, while mainland China's CSI 300 closed flat at 4,807.30

— Ying Shan Lee

Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell Thursday, tracking overnight losses in key Wall Street benchmarks as oil prices extended gains amid a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, while the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady.

Oil climbed after The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. officials, reported that President Donald Trump had told aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran. Prices extended gains after Axios reported that Trump rejected Iran's proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, signaling the U.S. naval blockade will remain until a deal addressing Tehran's nuclear program is reached.

Brent crude rose about 1.96% to around $120 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate added 0.2% to $107.09.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.43%.

Japanese markets declined as trading resumed after a holiday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.91%, while the Topix fell 1.48%. South Korea's Kospi was 0.36% higher while the small-cap Kosdaq was down 0.25%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 0.36%, while the CSI 300 added 0.21%.

— Lee Ying Shan

Meta Platforms shares tumbled more than 6% in extended trading after the company raised its capital expenditure plans to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion, up from a prior estimate of $115 billion to $135 billion.

The revised forecast came as the Facebook parent reported first-quarter earnings that were marred by a drop in user growth from the fourth quarter. Meta blamed the war in Iran and restriction on WhatsApp in Russia for the decline.

Meta shares have underperformed the market year to date, logging a gain of just 1%. Over the past year, the stock is up nearly 21%.

— Christina Cheddar Berk

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

• Alphabet — Shares added almost 7% after the tech titan posted first-quarter revenue of $109.9 billion, beating the $107.2 billion analysts polled by LSEG had expected.
• Microsoft — The "Magnificent Seven" inched higher. icrosoft reported an earnings and revenue beat in its fiscal third quarter. Revenue from Azure and other cloud services rose 40%.
• Amazon — Shares rose 4% after the company reported first-quarter results that were above estimates.
• Meta Platforms — The Facebook parent dropped 6% after the company's capital expenditures for the first quarter came in at $19.84 billion.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Stock futures were little changed on Wednesday night.

S&P 500 futures added 0.2%, as did Nasdaq 100 futures. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 84 points, or 0.2%.

— Lisa Kailai Han