Wall Street ends sharply higher, lifted by soaring Microsoft

STORY: U.S. stocks ended sharply higher on Thursday, with the Dow gaining more than one percent, the S&P 500 climbing one-and-two-thirds percent and the Nasdaq rallying more than two-and-three-quarters percent.:: MicrosoftShares of Microsoft soared more than 15% to log their biggest daily percentage gain in 18 years, after the tech giant gave a stellar forecast that eased fears about massive spending on AI infrastructure.That boosted overall market sentiment, says Mary Ann Bartels, chief investment strategist at Sanctuary Wealth.“I think the real focus is on Microsoft and their earnings report. There's been a lot of concern about the hyperscalers, the money that they're spending and whether or not they're going to get a return on their capital. And Microsoft eased their concerns. Their spend on their cloud they didn't raise, and their return on their cloud was positive. So the market's really hyper focused, I think, that things aren't that bad.”:: AmazonAfter the close, Amazon gave investors more reason to cheer when it topped market expectations for quarterly cloud revenue growth on the back of surging enterprise AI spending, signaling the company's hefty investments were bearing fruit. Its shares, up nearly 4% at the close, surged more than 8% in extended trading.Also after the bell, Apple reported sales and profits that beat Wall Street expectations, fueled by its customers snapping up iPhones and MacBooks amid price increases across the consumer electronics sector. Its shares, however, dipped more than 2% in extended trading.:: Meta PlatformsAnd shares Meta tumbled 8% after the social media heavyweight reported a 91% drop in second-quarter free cash flow, a sign that its costly AI buildout was causing a financial strain.