U.S. stocks finished sharply higher Thursday with the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq Composite scoring their highest closes in 14 months as investors digested a raft of U.S. economic data while shrugging off a hawkish Federal Reserve and another interest-rate hike from the European Central Bank.
How the market performed
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 233 points, or 0.68%, to 33,979, the S&P 500 increased 4 points, or 0.08%, to 4,373, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 53 points, or 0.39%, to 13,626 after…