Tech Titans Propel U.S. Stocks Skyward Amidst Trade Tangle

Listen up, folks! U.S. stocks rocketed to the moon on Thursday, and guess who's leading the charge? The megacap tech behemoths! Investors are riding a rollercoaster, trying to make sense of the cryptic signals bouncing between Washington and Beijing on global trade.

The Nasdaq Composite blasted off by a whopping 2.74%, while the S&P 500 didn't lag far behind, soaring 2.03%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average? It took off too, but at a more modest 1.23%, dragged down by a brutal 6% nosedive in IBM shares. Why? Blame it on those lost government contracts due to budget slashes!

Get this: Nvidia, Meta, Amazon, Tesla, and Microsoft—these giants didn't just climb; they scaled new peaks, hoisting the entire market and catapulting the tech sector into its third straight day of glory.

China Talks: More Smoke Than Fire?

Hold on, though—despite the market's euphoria, China's commerce ministry threw cold water on the party, flat-out denying any ongoing trade talks with the U.S. and demanding those pesky tariffs get the boot.

On the flip side, President Trump's tune seemed to mellow, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dropped a tantalizing hint about a possible deal with South Korea next week. Intrigue, anyone?

Baird analyst Ross Mayfield isn't buying the hype. "China was pretty explicit—there are no negotiations happening," he told CNBC. "But the market? It's still chasing those whispers that the administration's hungry for a deal."

Sure, there's optimism in the air, but don't pop the champagne yet. The S&P 500's still down 3.5% since Trump's April 2 tariff bombshell, while the Dow's sunk 5.3% and the Nasdaq's off by 2.8% over the same stretch.

What's next? Brace yourselves for earnings from Alphabet, Google, and Intel. Alphabet might dodge the immediate trade war bullets, but eagle-eyed analysts will be hunting for any signs of future tariff trouble. And Intel? It's the first report card under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan's watch.

Oh, and in the wild world of crypto, Bitcoin (BTC) kept it cool, hanging out in the mid-$93,000 range all day.