- The Nasdaq gained 0.4% to close at 13,633 on Thursday.
- IBM surged 2.2% on creation of the world's first 2nm chip.
- Moderna reported first ever quarterly profit in Q1 earnings report.
The US markets closed higher on Thursday following strong earnings reports across multiple sectors and upbeat labour market news signalling economic recovery.
A big catalyst for US market gains was German Chancellor Angela Merkel opposing President Biden?s call to waive IP rights for coronavirus vaccines for the likes of Moderna and Pfizer.
The Dow Jones rose 0.9% to finish the trading day up 318 points to close at a fresh record high 34,549 points.
The tech heavy NASDAQ rose 0.4% to finish the trading day up 50 points to close at 13,633 points with Facebook and Amazon gaining 1.59% and 1.1% respectively.
One bitcoin is worth US$56,650 going into the Asian trading day.
The Australian dollar is firm against the major currencies and is buying 77.87 US cents.
Tech giant IBM has reportedly created the world?s first 2 nanometre chip by squeezing 50 billion transistors into a chip the size of a human fingernail. The architecture helps a processor deliver a 45% boost with the same power as current 7nm-based chips.
US biotech company Moderna reported its first ever profit in quarterly results released on Thursday but revenues came in at US$1.9bn, just missing the US$2bn expectations. Stocks in the biotech company plunged on Thursday following President Biden?s support of removing patents from COVID-19 vaccines.
And Twitter is testing a new Tip jar feature allowing users to send money to their favourite accounts.