Investing.com -- Bolstered by substantial gains among tech stocks on Thursday, U.S. equities markets moved broadly higher reversing losses from Wednesday after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen sounded alarm bells on the potential dangers from high stock valuations.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the NASDAQ Composite index and S&P Composite all gained more than 0.35% to pare losses from the previous two sessions. The Dow gained 82.08 or 0.46% to 17,924.06, moving back into positive territory for the year. Powered by a surge in semiconductor stocks, the NASDAQ rose 25.91 or 0.53% to 4,945.55, while the S&P 500 gained 7.85 or 0.38% to 2,088.00.
Stocks in the Financials, Technology and Consumer Services sectors led on the S&P 500, as nine of 10 industries moved higher for the session. Stocks in the Energy sector lagged, closing down by 1.16% amid a sharp decline in crude futures.
Investors also await a critical U.S. jobs report on Friday, where analysts expect an uptick of 224,000 in nonfarm payroll jobs for the month of April. On Thursday, initial jobless claims rose modestly last week by 3,000 to 265,000.
Shares in Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO) skyrocketed on Thursday after Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd (NYSE:BABA) posted stronger than expected earnings for the first quarter. In overnight trading, Alibaba shares surged more than $8 or 10% to reach its highest-level since going public in the fall. The move resulted in roughly a $3.1 windfall for Yahoo, which owns a 15.4% stake in the company. Yahoo, which finished the session as the top performer on the NASDAQ and the S&P 500, gained 2.21 or 5.30% to 43.87.
Yahoo was also rumored on Thursday to become a potential buyer of Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP), after reports surfaced from Dow Jones that the San Francisco-based online business review company could be up for sale. Shares in Yelp soared nearly 25% upon the news, gaining 8.79 points to 47.01. Previously, Yelp shares had plunged more than 20% on the year amid worse than expected quarterly earnings.
The top performer on the Dow was Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which gained 1.73 or 1.60% to 110.04. The worst performer on the Dow was Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), which fell 0.59 or 0.67% to close at 87.60. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) also dropped 0.56 or 0.64% to 86.43. On Wednesday, a longtime family dealership in Saskatchewan announced plans to sell its Caterpillar franchise for $230 million.
On the NASDAQ, Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ:ATVI) gained 1.21 or 5.22% to 24.41, finishing just behind Yahoo as the session's top performer. Whole Foods Market Inc (NASDAQ:WFM) and Keurig Green Mountain Inc (NASDAQ:GMCR), finished as the session's worst performers after posting weaker than expected earnings a day earlier. Keurig, a Vermont-based coffee company, reported profits of $155.5 million or 97 cents for the quarter that ended on March 28, versus profits of $162.1 million or 1.03 per share for the same period in 2014. Shares in both companies fell by more than 9% on Thursday.
On the S&P 500, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN) rose 7.95 or 5.13% to 162.96, finishing just behind Yahoo as the session's biggest gainer. It came one day after Alexion agreed to acquire Synageva BioPharma Corp (NASDAQ:GEVA) for $8.4 billion or $230 a share. Whole Foods and Keurig were also the worst performers on the S&P 500.