US stocks climb as investors take in strong 4th-quarter GDP report

• Major US stock indexes traded higher on Thursday.
• Investors digested the latest GDP figures, which showed the economy grew 3.3% in the fourth quarter.

US stocks rose Thursday, with investors taking in fresh data that showed the US economy still growing at a strong pace.

The US economy grew at 3.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023, beating estimates of 2%.

"We view this as bullish for both the economy and the stock markets," said Larry Tentarelli, chief technical strategist at Blue Chip Daily Trend Report. "We do expect that the Fed's next interest rate move will be a rate cut, but our expectations for the first cut are the May-June 2024 window."

Weekly jobless claims, meanwhile, touched 214,000, above the consensus estimate for 200,000.

While the GDP reading may push out forecasts for rate cuts to the middle of 2024 or later, it's also a strong sign that the US economy is still on solid footing, and it flies in the face of forecasts calling for an imminent recession.

"Whichever way you slice it, this report caps a year of stellar economic growth performance, particularly with the backdrop of the Fed's aggressive monetary policy tightening cycle," Olu Sonala, Fitch's head of US regional economics said. "The momentum of economic growth going into 2024 is looking very good and presents an upside risk to growth going forward, despite widespread expectation of a slowdown in 2024. The Fed will likely not be in a hurry to cut rates, if the data continues to come in this hot."

The S&P 500 closed at another record high in Wednesday's session. Strong corporate earnings have so far provided a boon for share prices. Of the 16% of companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, about 70% have beat expectations, per FactSet.

Tesla, however, dashed investors' hopes for a strong start to earnings for the Magnificent Seven stocks, with shares down more than 8.6% Thursday following its disappointing fourth-quarter earnings report.

Here's where US indexes stood as the market opened at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday:

• S&P 500: 4,888.94, up 0.42%

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 37,920.03, up 0.29% (+109.08 points)

• Nasdaq Composite: 15,555.82, up 0.48%

Here's what else is going on:

• Tesla is on pace to shed $50 billion in market cap following its latest earnings report.
• Elon Musk said he wants more power over Tesla, but not so much that he can't be fired if he goes "bonkers."
• Nvidia's market value tops $1.5 trillion for the first time ever on its latest rally.

In commodities, bonds, and crypto:

• Oil prices climbed, with West Texas Intermediate up 1.8% to $76.47 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, moved higher 1.5% to $81.32 a barrel.
• Gold edged higher 0.3% to $2,022.90 per ounce.
• The 10-year yield moved lower three basis points to hover at 4.141%.
• Bitcoin climbed 0.59% to $39,923.