US stocks trade mixed but Nasdaq surges ahead of fresh mega-cap tech earnings

• US stocks closed mixed Thursday. Tech stocks added to early gains.
• The Nasdaq Composite surged more than 2% as markets cheered the Fed's toned-down rate hike.

US stocks ended mixed on Thursday, as investors turned their focus to a handful of key earnings reports due from mega-cap tech firms after the closing bell.

The Nasdaq Composite added to gains earlier in the session, and ended the day higher by more than 3%. Tech stocks climbed since Wednesday when comments from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell that were heard by Wall Street as a sign that that central bank is getting ready to end its rate-hiking campaign.

Tech giants including Google-parent Alphabet, Amazon and Apple were set to report quarterly earnings after the closing bell.

But investors were hit with more data on Thursday that highlighted just how difficult the path ahead remains for the central bank. Weekly jobless claims plummeted to a nine-month low last week, and the labor market is showing frustrating signs of strength for Fed officials hoping that the last year of rate hikes would be enough to cool the economy.

Jerome Powell's Wednesday comments urged markets to reconsider hopes of declaring victory in the battle against inflation, and labeled any such notion as "premature." Elsewhere, the European Central Bank raised benchmark rates by 50-basis points, while the Bank of England followed suit with an additional 50 points.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:30 p.m. closing bell on Thursday:

• S&P 500: 4,179.73, up 1.47%

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 34,053.74, down 0.12% (39.22 points)

• Nasdaq Composite: 12,200.82, up 3,25%

Here's what else is going on:

• Ark's Cathie Wood said she would be willing to hold Tesla stock for ten years.
• Bridgewater's Ray Dalio cautioned investors that "money as we know it is in jeopardy", while slamming bitcoin.
• Crypto hackers looted a record $3.8 billion worth of digital assets in 2022, according to a report from Chainanalysis.
• It's risk-on for beaten down stocks like Carvana and Bed Bath & Beyond as the Fed's softer tone on Wednesday drives a resurgence of speculative bets.

In commodities, bonds, and crypto:

• Oil prices were lower, with West Texas Intermediate down 0.9% to $75.74 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell about 1% to $81.98 a barrel.
• Gold declined 0.8% to $1,926.80 per ounce.
• The 10-year Treasury yield edged slightly higher to 3.404%
• Bitcoin slipped 0.03% to $23,817.24.