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U.S. stocks are climbing toward their best day since February on Thursday after a\u00a0better-than-expected report<\/a>\u00a0on unemployment eased worries about the\u00a0slowing economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n The S&P 500 was rallying by 1.8% in afternoon trading, a day after a big early gain\u00a0evaporated and flipped<\/a>\u00a0into a loss. The Dow<\/a> Jones Industrial Average was up 518 points, or 1.3%, as of 12:50 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq<\/a> composite was 2.3% higher as Nvidia<\/a> and other Big Tech stocks helped lead the way.<\/p>\n Treasury yields also climbed in the bond market, a signal investors are feeling less\u00a0worried about the economy<\/a>, after a report showed fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. The number was better than economists expected.<\/p>\n It was exactly a week ago that\u00a0worse-than-expected data<\/a>\u00a0on unemployment claims helped enflame worries that the\u00a0Federal Reserve<\/a>\u00a0has kept\u00a0interest rates<\/a>\u00a0at too high of an economy-slowing level for too long in order to\u00a0beat inflation<\/a>. That helped send markets\u00a0reeling<\/a>, along with a rate hike by the\u00a0Bank of Japan<\/a>\u00a0that sent shockwaves worldwide by scrambling\u00a0a favorite trade<\/a>\u00a0among some hedge funds.<\/p>\n At the worst of it, at least so far, the S&P 500 was down roughly 9% from its record set last month. Such drops are regular occurrences on Wall Street, and \u201ccorrections\u201d of 10% happen roughly every year or two.<\/p>\n What made this drop particularly scary was how quickly it happened. A measure of how much investors are paying to protect themselves from future drops for the S&P 500 briefly surged toward its highest level since the COVID crash of 2020.<\/p>\n Still, the market\u2019s swings look more like a \u201cpositioning-driven crash\u201d driven by too many investors piling into similar trades and then exiting them together, rather than the start of a long-term downward market caused by a recession, according to strategists at BNP Paribas<\/a>.<\/p>\n They say it looks more similar to the\u00a0\u201cflash crash\u201d of 2010<\/a>\u00a0than the 2008 global financial crisis or the 2020 recession caused by the pandemic.<\/p>\n Of course, markets have been quick to turn over the past week regardless of any long-term predictions.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s jobless claims data may ease some of the concerns raised by last week\u2019s soft jobs report,\u201d said Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley<\/a>. \u201cBut with inflation data due out next week and the stock market still working through its biggest pullback of the year, it\u2019s unclear how much this will move the sentiment needle.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, big U.S. companies continue to turn in profit reports for the spring that are mostly better than analysts expected.<\/p>\n Eli Lilly<\/a> jumped 8.2% to help lead the market after it delivered\u00a0stronger profit and revenue<\/a>\u00a0than Wall Street had forecast. Sales of its Mounjaro diabetes treatment and its Zepbound weight-loss counterpart are booming, and the company raised its financial forecast for the year.<\/p>\n Big Tech stocks also rose to claw back some of their sharp losses from the last month. After a handful of them almost singlehandedly drove the S&P 500 to dozens of all-time highs this year, the group known as the\u00a0\u201cMagnificent Seven\u201d<\/a>\u00a0lost momentum last month amid criticism their prices went too high in investors\u2019\u00a0frenzy around artificial-intelligence<\/a>\u00a0technology.<\/p>\n How this handful of stocks performs carries extra impact on the S&P 500 and other indexes because they\u2019re by far the market\u2019s most valuable companies.\u00a0Nvidia<\/a>, which has become the poster child for the AI trade, rose 4.5% to trim its loss for the week so far to 4% and it was the day\u2019s strongest single force pushing upward on the S&P 500.<\/p>\n Gains of 1% for Microsoft<\/a> and 1.6% for Apple<\/a> were also big propellants, along with Eli Lilly.<\/p>\n They helped offset a drop of 12.1% for McKesson<\/a>, which topped analysts\u2019 expectations for profit in the latest quarter but fell short on revenue. It said growth slowed in its medical-surgical business.<\/p>\n Bumble, the Texas-based dating app, lost nearly a third of its value, 31.8%, after its forecast for revenue in the third quarter came in well below Wall Street\u2019s.<\/p>\n In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.00% from 3.95% late Wednesday.<\/p>\n In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Asia and Europe. In Japan, which has been home to some of the market\u2019s wildest moves, the Nikkei 225 ticked down by 0.7%. That looked like a ripple following its tidal swings of\u00a0down 12.4%<\/a>\u00a0and up 10.2% to start the week. ___<\/p>\n AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nRecommended Newsletter: <\/strong>CEO Daily provides key context for the news leaders need to know from across the world of business. Every weekday morning, more than 125,000 readers trust CEO Daily for insights about\u2013and from inside\u2013the C-suite. 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