Wall Street ends higher as Middle East peace talks lift sentiment

STORY: U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday, with the Dow and S&P 500 each adding roughly six-tenths of a percent, and the Nasdaq climbing more than eight-tenths of a percent.All three stock indexes rebounded from an earlier dip as Israel sought talks with Lebanon, explains Eric Diton, president and managing director of The Wealth Alliance.“So the markets initially were down in the morning. Concerns about the Strait of Hormuz being closed. Concerns about Israel and Hezbollah and continuing battles over there. But I think we got some positive news in that Israel announced that it wants to have immediate talks with Lebanon. I don't know how those will end up going, but that was positive. And there's just a lot of talk amongst UAE, the U.S., other allies, that, 'Hey, we've got to get the Strait of Hormuz open.' Let's be clear, it's not open right now. Despite the ceasefire, there's virtually no flow of oil going through the Strait. That's going to have to change. Wall Street is betting that it will. I make that same bet.”Oil prices rose but stayed below $100 a barrel. Stocks on the move Thursday included Amazon, which rose 5.5% after CEO Andy Jassy said AI services at its cloud-computing unit are generating annualized revenue of more than $15 billion.Shares of Constellation Brands jumped 8.5% after the company posted a smaller-than-expected drop in fourth-quarter sales.::FileOn the downside, shares of Applied Digital dropped 8% after the data center operator's third-quarter net loss widened from a year earlier.Meanwhile, data from the Commerce Department showed the economy grew at a slower-than-expected pace in the fourth quarter, while the personal expenditures price index showed inflation remains elevated.A separate inflation reading from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is due on Friday.