Live Markets-Upbeat Microsoft report lifts US indexes

Tech leads S&P 500 sector gainers; communication services is the weakest group.

Euro STOXX 600 index is up about 0.8%.

The dollar slides; U.S. crude slips; gold gains; bitcoin is up about 2%.

U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rises to about 4.66%.

Oil prices have gone up sharply since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. A drone strike on gas vessels in Egypt's Mediterranean port of Damietta signaled a potential new front in the conflict.

Here is the early snapshot.

Major U.S. stock indexes are rallying on Thursday morning after selling off in the previous session, with shares of Microsoft advancing following its upbeat results and forecast.

Microsoft shares are surging about 15%, giving indexes their biggest boost, after it said it expects to keep generating cash through its just-started fiscal 2027 and gave a capital expenditure forecast below Wall Street estimates after an accounting change for data center leases.

Investors have been worried about the payoff of massive spending on AI by technology companies.

Shares of semiconductor companies, which have benefited from the AI spending, are also higher. An index of semiconductors is up more than 7% in early trading.

The Nasdaq is more than 2% higher and leading gains among the major indexes.

Stocks sold off late on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged while worries about inflation remained high.