Dow rises for a fifth straight day, S&P 500 and Nasdaq on pace to snap 7-week losing streaks; European stocks close higher as UK unveils fiscal stimulus package 
Stocks rose Thursday, putting Wall Street on track to break a long string of weekly declines. 
The Dow rose for the fifth trading day in a row, adding 516.91 points, or 1.6%, to close at 32,637.19. The S&P 500 climbed about 2% to 4,057.84. The Nasdaq Composite advanced nearly 2.7% to 11,740.65, helped by a surge in Dollar Tree shares. The tech-focused index was the outperformer, after trailing the other averages earlier in the day. 
Stocks pushed higher after strong earnings from the retail sector gave a boost to investor sentiment. Macy’s shares surged 19.3% after the company raised its 2022 profit outlook, and Williams-Sonoma rose 13% after beating estimates on the top and bottom lines. 
Discount retailer Dollar Tree jumped about 21.9% after posting an earnings beat, which helped push the Nasdaq higher. Dollar General also reported strong earnings, adding 13.7% to its shares. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF gained more than 4%. Investors are looking forward to Costco’s quarterly results, which it will report after the bell. 
Shares of chipmaker Nvidia bounced after falling on weaker-than-expected guidance for the second quarter and a warning of a slowdown in hiring. Shares reversed and climbed 5.1% after a slew of analysts reiterated their buy ratings on the shares and highlighted momentum in the company’s data center business. 
A “glimmer of the return of deals” also helped lift investor sentiment, Krosby said. Specifically, chipmaker Broadcom announced plans to buy cloud company VMware in a $61 billion deal, which would be one of the biggest tech acquisitions of all time. Broadcom shares added about 3.6%, and VMWare rose nearly 3.2%. 
Elsewhere, Twitter shares jumped 6.3% after Elon Musk increased his commitment in his takeover bid to $33.5 billion, which analysts have said indicates a new seriousness and increased probability that he’ll complete the deal. 
On the flipside, software stock Snowflake pared steeper losses but was down 4.5% after the company’s guidance for operating margin came in narrower than expected. 
First-quarter gross domestic product declined at a 1.5% annual pace, worse than the 1.3% Dow Jones estimate and a writedown from the initially reported 1.4%, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. 

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.9% higher provisionally, with retail shares surging 4.8% to lead the gains. The sector got a boost from news of U.K. plans to boost economic activity. 
Source: CNBC, Investing.com