US stocks closed higher on Friday as the S&P 500 and Dow Jones hit their highest closing levels since the Christmas holiday in Washington.
The Dow Jones rose 0.60% to 28,875 points, the S&P 500 rose 0.32% to 3,822 points. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.22% to 11,546 points.
The gains were supported by a recovery in artificial intelligence (AI) stocks after suffering a massive sell-off last week on concerns about overvalued valuations, as well as capital spending that was feared to be hurting profits.
Meanwhile, Nike shares jumped 4.6% after Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is also Nike's lead independent director, reportedly bought about $3 million worth of shares in the sportswear company.
In contrast, Intel shares fell 0.5% on reports that Nvidia had halted testing of chips using Intel's 18A process technology.
Meanwhile, preliminary jobless claims data fell, raising hopes that the Federal Reserve (Fed) may consider an adjustment in its interest rate decision.
Investors are now focusing on the latest economic data to assess the outlook for next year's earnings after Gross Domestic Product (GDP) recorded its highest growth in two years and beat market expectations.
