Investing.com -- U.S. stocks rose broadly in Friday's session extending considerable gains from the previous trading day, as a surprising interest rate cut in China augmented a rally in technology stocks following strong quarterly reports from a trio of prominent companies.
The People's Bank of China slashed its one-year lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point and removed a ceiling banks were forced to pay depositors on Friday, in its latest attempt to bolster its flagging economy. Microsoft Corporation (O:MSFT) also provided a boost to all three major indices, rising to its highest level in 15 years, after beating analysts' earnings forecasts for the ninth straight quarter on Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Composite index surged to fresh two-month highs, while the NASDAQ Composite index enjoyed one of its strongest one-day moves of the year on a bullish day for the U.S. equities markets. The Dow added 159.01 or 0.91% to 17,648.17, while the S&P 500 gained 22.67 or 1.10% to 2,075.18, as seven of 10 sectors closed in the green. Stocks in the Technology and Health Care sectors led, each gaining more than 2% on the session.
The NASDAQ soared 111.81 or 2.27% to close at 5,031.86, as strong performances from Microsoft, Alphabet Inc (O:GOOGL) and Amazon.com Inc (O:AMZN) pushed the index above the symbolic 5,000 level.
Microsoft closed as the top performer of the Dow after jumping 5.46 or 11.37% to 53.49. On Thursday after the close of trading, Microsoft posted revenues of $21.7 billion and earnings per share of 0.67 for its first quarter of fiscal year 2016. The income and revenue beat came amid strong sales with Windows 10 operating system and among its Cloud computing devices. The worst performer was Nike Inc (N:NKE), which fell 1.89 or 1.42% to 130.53. Shares in Nike are still up by more than 45% on the year.
Microsoft was also the biggest gainer on the NASDAQ, just ahead of Alphabet the new holding company of Google. At one point, Alphabet shares soared to a record-high after its revenues surged 13% on the quarter to $18.7 billion. The worst performer was Stericycle (O:SRCL), which plummeted 29.22 or 19.61% to 119.82 after the medical waste disposal company posted weak revenue and earnings growth over its third quarter.
The top performer on the S&P 500 was Mallinckrodt (N:MNK), which soared 7.78 or 13.27% to 66.39, amid a slight rally in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (N:VRX) shares. Earlier this week, Valeant dragged down pharmaceutical stocks after falling nearly 20% on Wednesday when a report surfaced that the $60 billion company may have deceived auditors by falsifying its records.
Stericycle also finished as the worst performer on the S&P 500, just below VF Corporation (N:VFC) which slumped to a 52-week low after cutting its revenue outlook on Friday. Shares in the footwear company lost 9.73 or 13.29% to 63.48.
On the New York Stock Exchange, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by a 1,815 to 1,290 margin.