US stocks end sharply higher ahead of key jobs report
Wall Street ended sharply higher on Thursday, led by Tesla, Nvidia and other megacap growth stocks in a choppy session ahead of a key jobs report due on Friday. Tesla, Nvidia and Meta Platforms each rose more than 4 percent, fueling gains in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. Amazon rallied 3.1 percent and Apple added percent. Stocks recovered from a drop earlier in the day after Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard said she backs at least a couple more half percentage point interest rate hikes, and sees little case for pausing rate hikes in September if price pressures fail to cool. All eyes are now on the government's nonfarm payrolls data on Friday, with investors looking for fresh signs of the US economy's health and how aggressively the Fed may continue to raise interest rates. Analysts are expecting the economy to have added 325,000 jobs last month. The S&P 500 climbed 1.84 percent to end at 4,177 points. The Nasdaq gained 2.69 percent to 12,317, and the Dow Jones rose 1.33 percent to 33,248. (Reuters)