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Lilly tumbles after CVS drops Zepbound

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McDonald's slips after surprise drop in Q1 sales

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Weekly jobless claims higher than forecast

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Indexes up: Dow 0.53%, S&P 500 1.07%, Nasdaq 2.03%

(Updates to afternoon US trading)

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) -

U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday, with the Dow and S&P 500

poised for their eighth straight session of gains, after strong

results from megacaps Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Meta eased concerns about

artificial intelligence spending.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) surged nearly 9% and hit its highest

level since late January, driven by an upbeat quarterly growth

forecast for its cloud-computing business Azure. Microsoft ( MSFT )

briefly surpassed Apple ( AAPL ) to become the world's most

valuable company.

Meta Platforms ( META ) climbed more than 4% and reached a

five-week high after posting higher-than-expected revenue on the

back of a strong advertising performance.

The results helped allay fears the massive spending on

AI in recent years would not be rewarded, and eased concerns

about the Trump administration's tariffs could have on economic

growth.

"It's nice that the day is being carried by earnings

rather than just talking about tariffs for a second, so it's a

little refreshing in that regard that we're talking about

economic data and earnings," said Lamar Villere, Portfolio

Manager with Villere & Co in New Orleans.

"Certainly when you see a company of Microsoft's ( MSFT ) size,

Meta's size, putting up great earnings, you would believe that

their run is not over."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 213.67

points, or 0.53%, to 40,883.03, the S&P 500 gained 59.28

points, or 1.07%, to 5,628.34 and the Nasdaq Composite

gained 354.05 points, or 2.03%, to 17,800.09.

Repercussions from frequent shifts in U.S. trade policy

have been overshadowed a solid earnings season so far, with many

companies slashing or withdrawing their profit outlooks. Despite

the uncertain outlook, S&P 500 first-quarter earnings are seen

growing 12.9% on an annual basis, per LSEG data, up from the 8%

growth rate seen on April 1.

Results from fellow heavyweights and "Magnificent Seven"

companies Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and Apple ( AAPL ) are due after

the closing bell. Amazon ( AMZN ) shares were up 3.1%.

Apple ( AAPL ) shares alternated between modest gains and losses

after a federal judge ruled the iPhone maker had violated a U.S.

court order to reform its App Store.

The S&P 500 and Dow were both on track for their eighth

straight session of gains, the longest run for the Dow in a year

and for the S&P since August.

With the gains in Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Meta, tech