Nasdaq Snapped a 6-Day Losing Streak. Microsoft Did the Heavy Lift.
Thursday did not drift higher. It snapped.
The Nasdaq Composite jumped about 2.8% to finish near 25,122, ending a six-day losing streak. The S&P 500 climbed roughly 1.7%. The Dow added more than 600 points, about 1.2%. After the Fed held rates on Wednesday and growth names ate a rough session, the market needed a reason to stop selling duration. Big Tech earnings supplied it.
Microsoft Put a Floor Under the Tape
Microsoft shares ripped on the order of 15%, one of the stock's biggest single-day percentage gains in years, after Azure strength and cloud commentary reset the AI spend argument for a day. One session added hundreds of billions in market value. Semiconductors followed. The index math is blunt. When the largest weights bounce hard, breadth debates wait until Friday.
Amazon's after-hours surge into Thursday's close and the broader chip rebound finished the job. This was not a quiet rotation into defensives. It was a high-beta reclaim after a week that had treated AI capex like a character flaw.
What Actually Changed
Not the Fed path overnight. Not June inflation history. The market's willingness to pay for cloud growth that still prints in the mid-30s while capex stays elevated. Wednesday's hold left hawks with ammunition. Thursday's tape said investors will still bid the names that show AI turning into revenue, not just slides.
You do not have to call a new bull leg from one session. You do have to mark the tell. Six down days on the Nasdaq broke when the hyperscalers stopped apologizing and started showing run-rate.
Friday's Open Loop
Can the bounce hold without another megacap miracle print? Do yields ease enough that duration stays bid? And does the equal-weight S&P participate, or is this still a handful of stocks doing index cosplay?
What to watch: first-hour leadership Friday. If semis and software keep the baton, Thursday was a regime ping. If only two tickers hold the green, it was a relief spike.
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