NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rose to records on Thursday following better-than-expected updates on the economy and a mixed set of profit reports from big U.S. companies.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.5 percent to top its all-time high set a week ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 229 points, or 0.5 percent, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.7 percent to its own record set the day before.
A strong profit report from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. helped drive tech stocks, and its net income soared nearly 61 percent in the last quarter from a year earlier. The chip maker said it’s seeing strong demand from artificial-intelligence and other customers, and TSMC’s stock that trades in the United States rose 3.4 percent.
Other stocks involved in AI also climbed, and a 1 percent gain for Nvidia was one of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500.
PepsiCo jumped 7.5 percent after delivering revenue and profit that topped Wall Street’s expectations. The drink and snack giant also stood by its financial forecasts given in April, which projected lower full-year profit than previous forecasts due to increased costs from tariffs and a pullback in consumer spending.
United Airlines flew 3.1 percent higher after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also said it’s seen an acceleration in demand from customers that began in early July, and it’s expecting less uncertainty about the economy to hurt its business in the second half of this year.