Trading was volatile with alternating minus and plus figures. But at the close, the Dow Jones industrial index had risen 0.3 percent, while the broad S&P 500 and Nasdaq's technology-heavy composite index had risen 0.4 percent.
Index-heavy Nvidia, the world's second-highest valued listed company, was at times up nearly 6 percent, lost momentum and closed at a plus of 3.2 percent. The company released yet another strong quarterly report on Wednesday evening Swedish time.
A few hours later, the news came that a federal court was stopping a wide range of President Donald Trump's extensive import tariffs against a number of trading partners, including the EU.
Broad Technical Rally
The Trump administration appealed the decision, and on Thursday evening Swedish time, the higher court announced that the stop would be temporarily put on hold while the appeal is being handled. This means that the tariffs will apply again until further notice.
Nvidia pulled along four of the six other major technology companies, collectively known as "The Magnificent Seven" - "the magnificent seven" - upwards. This meant that e-commerce giant Amazon, Meta (Facebook), software giant Microsoft, and electric car manufacturer Tesla all ended on a plus.
On the other hand, Google owner Alphabet and iPhone manufacturer Apple fell back.
Falling GDP
Asian stock markets rose after the news. The major European stock markets in Frankfurt, Paris, and London closed on a minus.
The Stockholm stock exchange was closed on Thursday.
During the day, figures were also released showing that the US GDP fell 0.2 percent in annual terms during the first quarter. This was still a smaller decline than the expected 0.2 percent.
Consumption rose 1.2 percent, significantly lower than the expected 1.8 percent.
This was the first time since 2022 that the American economy decreased from one quarter to the next.
