US stocks rose Thursday, bouncing after the recent Federal Reserve-inspired weakness, with investors digesting quarterly results as well as the latest economic growth data.

At 09:50 ET (14:50 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 120 points, or 0.3%, the S&P 500 index rose 39 points, or 0.7%, and the NASDAQ Composite climbed 145 points, or 0.7%. 

GDP growth eases in Q4

The US economy grew by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, easing at an annualized rate from a pace of 3.1% in the July-September quarter, according to advance data from the Commerce Department on Thursday.

Economists had expected the reading to decelerate to 2.7%.

The figure comes hours after the Federal Reserve chose to leave interest rates unchanged at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, citing in part solid economic indicators.

Policymakers emphasized their commitment to maintaining restrictive monetary policy until they gain more confidence that inflation is sustainably moving toward the Fed’s 2% target.

They also said it was still early to gauge President Trump’s policies and their impact on the central bank, reflecting uncertainties surrounding Trump's proposed tariffs and fiscal measures  

Markets assess ‘Magnificent Seven’ earnings

On the corporate front, investors assessed a raft of earnings from mega-cap tech companies, including Microsoft and Meta Platforms, in the wake of the emergence of a cut-price Chinese AI model earlier this week.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares fell 5% despite reporting quarterly results that beat estimates, as its cloud revenue and AI spending disappointed.

Meta (NASDAQ:META) gained 5% on better-than-estimated fourth-quarter revenue, although it flagged that current-quarter sales may not meet expectations.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares rose 2.4% after the electric vehicle giant noted that it was driving to slash costs and roll out a cheaper EV model.

The focus will now be on Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) first-quarter earnings report, scheduled for release late Thursday.