Stocks climb as investors eye corporate earnings

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York City. (Reuters)

Stocks are higher on Thursday after strong AI-driven results from Microsoft and Meta reassured investors and helped boost Wall Street's main indexes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed more than 200 points, or 0.6%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were up 1.2% and 2.1%, respectively.

Microsoft forecast stronger-than-expected quarterly growth for its cloud-computing business Azure. Meta Platforms posted higher-than-expected revenue on the back of a strong advertising performance.

Stocks closed mixed on Wednesday after new data showed the economy contracted for the first time since in three years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 141.74 points, or 0.35%, while the S&P 500 climbed 0.15%. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.09%.

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its advance estimate for first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) on Wednesday morning, which found the U.S. economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.3% in the first quarter, which runs from January through March.

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Mortgage rates fell for the second week in a row, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday.

Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 6.76% from last week's reading of 6.81%.

The average rate on a 30-year loan was 7.22% a year ago.

"In recent weeks, rates for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage have fallen even lower than the first-quarter average of 6.83%," said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac's chief economist.

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned in a new letter to the Trump administration that small businesses need automatic exclusions from tariffs that could undermine their ability to survive.

The Chamber wrote Thursday to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to convey their concerns about small businesses' ability to handle the financial hit of tariffs and call for small businesses to be excluded from the tariffs, as well as other tariff relief measures.

The letter said the Chamber and its members "appreciate your efforts to negotiate bilateral agreements with other nations to achieve zero-for-zero reciprocity on tariffs and reduce non-tariff barriers to trade," saying such deals would boost U.S. exports, support more jobs and higher wages.

"While we are hopeful these agreements can be reached quickly, we are deeply concerned that even if it only takes weeks or months to reach agreements, many small businesses will suffer irreparable harm. The Chamber is hearing from small business owners every day who are seeing their ability to survive endangered by the recent increase in tariff rates," it wrote in explaining the need for tariff relief.

This is an excerpt of an article by FOX Business' Eric Revell

From left: Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Sen. Joni Ernst and Rep. Roger Williams

FIRST ON FOX: A cooperative framework between the Trump administration, the Senate DOGE Caucus chairwoman and the House’s top small-business lawmaker seeks to boost domestic manufacturing by doubling the capital small businesses can access.

Manufacturing loans have increased by 74% during President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, sponsors of the Made In America Manufacturing Finance Act told Fox News Digital.

Proponents of the measure say that by doubling the limit from $5 million to $10 million for 7(a) and 504 loans geared toward small-manufacturing outfits that may not be able to borrow from traditional banks, those small businesses will be able to invest more in their workforce and their products alike.

House Small Business Committee chairman Roger Williams, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that he, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler are proud to collaborate on the legislation.

"The Made in America Manufacturing Finance Act provides small business owners the capital they need to expand, modernize and compete," Williams said. "We must continue to support and empower the job creators who keep our communities thriving."

This is an excerpt of an article by FOX Business' Charles Creitz

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. (Getty Images)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday offered a timeline update for potential tariff negotiations with China on Thursday, while reminding the American adversary of its "devastating" economic outlook.

"We saw some very poor [gross domestic product] numbers out of China yesterday. We're now seeing very large estimates of job growth loss from 5 to 10 million jobs. So the Chinese economy is slowing down substantially here. So, what we will first want to see is a de-escalation," Bessent told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on "Mornings with Maria."

China’s 125% tariff on U.S. imports and America’s 145% tariff on Chinese imports "are not sustainable on the Chinese side," according to Bessent, who has largely backed President Donald Trump’s April 2 executive order which placed reciprocal tariffs on a host of various countries, accusing them of unfair trade practices against the U.S.

This is an excerpt from a story by FOX Business' Kristen Altus

The outside of a Kohl's store. (iStock)

Kohl's announced on Thursday that it fired CEO Ashley Buchanan after an investigation found he violated company policies.

The retailer said its board terminated Buchanan after the investigation "determined Mr. Buchanan violated company policies by directing the Company to engage in vendor transactions that involved undisclosed conflicts of interest." 

His termination did not have anything to do with the company's "performance, financial reporting, results of operations," nor did it involve any other employees, Kohl's said.