Here are the top stories to read ahead of Friday's trading:

The S&P 500 climbed 1.6% on Thursday. The Nasdaq gained 2.2%. The Dow rose 374 points, up 1%. IBM fell 7%, pulling the Dow down. Stocks moved because of Wall Street’s hope for global trade progress, especially between the US and China,

Online advertising giant Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) announced in Q1 CY2025, with sales up 12% year on year to $90.23 billion. Its GAAP profit of $2.81 per share was 40.1% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

(Reuters) -Google parent Alphabet unveiled a $70 billion share buyback and beat quarterly revenue estimates on Thursday, benefiting from steady growth in its digital advertising business, which helped offset muted growth at its cloud computing unit.

Google parent Alphabet Inc. reported first-quarter revenue and profit that exceeded analysts’ expectations, buoyed by continued strength in its search advertising business.