US equity markets advanced broadly on Thursday, May 14, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average reclaiming the psychologically significant 50,000 level as strong Cisco Systems earnings and optimism from the ongoing Trump-Xi summit in Beijing combined to propel stocks higher after a mixed Wednesday session.
The Dow rose 337 points, or 0.7%, while the S&P 500 climbed 0.7% to approximately 7,470 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8%, building on the record closes set by both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq just the previous session, when the two indices posted new all-time highs even as a hotter-than-expected PPI reading pushed Treasury yields to their highest levels of 2026.
Cisco Systems [NASDAQ: CSCO] was the session’s standout performer, surging 14% after reporting third-quarter results and full-year guidance that materially beat Wall Street expectations, while also announcing an AI-focused restructuring plan that will eliminate approximately 4,000 jobs and direct investment toward artificial intelligence networking infrastructure.
Cisco’s gain delivered a meaningful direct contribution to the Dow’s point score, with the stock’s two-month gain of 48% before Thursday’s session establishing it as one of the primary drivers of the index’s recovery from its April lows alongside Nvidia [NASDAQ: NVDA] and Amazon [NASDAQ: AMZN].
Nvidia rose more than 4% after Reuters reported that the US government had cleared approximately 10 Chinese companies to purchase Nvidia’s H200 chips, though no deliveries have yet been made due to pushback from Beijing-side corporate customers, with CEO Jensen Huang joining the presidential delegation in Beijing as a visible signal of diplomatic goodwill around the chip export question.
The Trump-Xi summit generated broadly positive market sentiment throughout the session, with Chinese President Xi Jinping telling the assembled US business executives including Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Jensen Huang, and Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg that their companies could be “deeply involved in China’s reform and opening up” and that “China’s door will only open wider.”
On the Iranian conflict, a White House official confirmed that both Trump and Xi agreed during the summit that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open, a statement that provided short-term relief to commodity markets, with Brent crude edging lower from its recent highs above $106 per barrel even as the broader ceasefire situation remained unresolved.
Boeing [NYSE: BA] shares rose modestly following positive commentary from Ortberg on the sidelines of the Beijing summit, with the CEO’s presence adding to the diplomatic theatre around US commercial aviation’s continued relationship with Chinese carriers at a moment when Boeing’s order book recovery remains closely tracked by investors.
Klarna [NASDAQ: KLAR], the Swedish buy-now-pay-later company, also popped on Thursday after reporting that it swung to a $1 million profit in the first quarter of 2026, from a $99 million net loss in the same period a year earlier, adding to the session’s positive tone around earnings momentum in the broader tech and fintech ecosystem.
