04:49 PM EDT, 07/30/2026 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with index/price moves, macroeconomic data, and company/geopolitical news from the first paragraph.)

US equity indexes soared Thursday as semiconductors rebounded after Microsoft's ( MSFT ) quarterly results revealed evidence of AI monetization and a closely watched inflation gauge showed a decline for June.

The Nasdaq Composite catapulted 2.8% to 25,122.18, the S&P 500 jumped 1.7% to 7,437.63, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.2% to 52,208.06.

Technology was the standout gainer, up 5.2%, followed by consumer discretionary. Communication services, consumer staples, and health care led the decliners.

Microsoft's ( MSFT ) intelligent cloud segment revenue surged 32% to $39.31 billion, buoyed by an astounding 43% growth in Azure and other cloud services. Analysts expected a 40% year-over-year advance in Azure sales. Shares of Microsoft ( MSFT ) shot up 16%, one of the top gainers in the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and the Dow.

"This was another standout quarter by Nadella & Co. with triple-digit AI [annual recurring revenue] growth and accelerating Azure trajectory into the end of FY26, reinforcing that any knee-jerk reactions to the elevated capex framework represent strong buying opportunities as Redmond's structural AI moat only widens from here," Dan Ives, global head of technology at Wedbush Securities, said in a note.

Arm (ARM) shares rose 6.2% after the semiconductor group reported a fiscal Q1 beat for adjusted earnings and revenue.

A consortium of banks led by Morgan Stanley ( MS ) is in talks to lend $15 billion to a data-center developer to build a campus and power plant for Anthropic in Texas, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google ( GOOG ) would provide financial guarantees and chips for the project. The deal could be announced as soon as today, the report said.

VanEck Semiconductor ETF ( SMH ) , with net assets of $77.2 billion, advanced 6.9%, as chipmakers are major beneficiaries of AI-related spending. Among companies with a market capitalization of more than $200 billion, six of the top 10 gainers on Thursday were from the semiconductors and semiconductor equipment and materials industries, according to data compiled by Finviz.

In economic news, the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index fell 0.1% in June, as expected, cutting the year-over-year rate to 3.7% from 4.1%. The price index rose by 0.5% in May. The core PCE price index climbed 0.1% in June, below the 0.2% gain expected and following a 0.3% growth in May. The year-over-year rate dropped to 3.3% from 3.4%, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

An advance BEA reading of gross domestic product showed 1.5% growth in Q2, after a 2.1% increase in Q1 and missing the 2.0% gain forecast in a Bloomberg-compiled survey.

US Treasury yields traded mixed, with the 10-year up 5.3 basis points to 4.68%.

In precious metals markets, gold futures jumped 1.9% to $4,173.5, and silver futures advanced 2.5% to $59.53.

The front-month US West Texas Intermediate was down 0.9% at $83.70 a barrel, while global benchmark North Sea Brent declined 1.8% to $89.15 a barrel.

Late Wednesday, US forces completed a "heavy wave" of strikes against Iran in response to Tuesday's attempted missile attacks on US forces, according to CENTCOM. Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted US bases in Kuwait and Jordan following Washington's strikes on Iran, Al Jazeera, a Middle East broadcaster, reported, citing the IRGC.