Stocks in New York surged on Thursday on strong Big Tech earnings, as traders shrugged off data showing US gross domestic product figures rose much less than expected in the first quarter.

The benchmark S&P 500 gained 1.3 per cent, its biggest rise in two weeks, with Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet contributing the largest gains.

Meta was the best performer, however, rising 15 per cent after posting stronger than expected first-quarter results and touting its investments in artificial intelligence. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.9 per cent.

US government bonds came under pressure after news that US GDP rose at an annual rate of 1.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year, down from a 2.6 per cent increase in the final three months of 2022. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a rise of about 2 per cent. The labour marker remained resilient, however, with new applicants for unemployment aid in the US meanwhile falling in the week to April 22.

“There is something to grab on to for both the bulls and the bears in today’s data release,” said Alexandra Wilson-Elizondo, portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

The policy-sensitive two-year yield extended an earlier move to trade up 0.14 percentage points at 4.06 per cent. The 10-year yield, seen as a proxy for global borrowing costs, rose 0.08 percentage points to 3.5 per cent. Bond yields rise as their prices fall. A measure of the dollar against six other currencies added 0.1 per cent.

Economic growth is slowing but “isn’t yet collapsing”, said Andrew Hunter, deputy chief US economist at Capital Economics, who expects the drag from higher interest rates and tighter credit conditions caused by March’s banking panic to eventually push the US into a “mild” recession.

The S&P 500 is down 0.1 per cent over the past month, having rallied in March even as three midsized banks failed. “I think we’re looking at downside for a while,” said Mike Zigmont, head of trading at Harvest Volatility Management.

“It’s not necessarily because the market is bad or the world is bad etc, it’s simply because the optimism from mid-March came out of nowhere and wasn’t vindicated by news or events. It was a speculative rally where the speculation was off,” he added.

European stocks inched higher as investors waded through a host of first-quarter corporate earnings. The region-wide Stoxx 600 added 0.2 per cent, the FTSE 100 was down 0.3 per cent and France’s Cac 40 index rose 0.2 per cent.

Shares of consumer goods giant Unilever rose 1.3 per cent after it reported record first-quarter revenue of €14.8bn, while shares in Deutsche Bank jumped 2.8 per cent after the German lender said profit hit its highest level in a decade in the first quarter.

Asian stocks rose, with China’s CSI 300 index up 0.7 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gaining 0.4 per cent.

Additional reporting by Harriet Clarfelt in New York