shares of banks industrials and other companies sensitive to economic conditions propelled major stock indexes higher after fresh data indicated us growth remains resilient the biggest lenders led the charge on thursday after passing the federal reserve’s annual stress tests goldman sachs group jpmorgan chase and bank of america all rose more than 2 and the financials sector was the sp 500’s biggest gainer with a 17 rise cyclical stocks which tend to boom and bust in tandem with the economy shined shares of materials and industrials companies notched the secondbest and thirdbest performances of the day respectively the sp 500 rose 04 while the dow jones industrial average added 08 or 270 points the nasdaq finished nearly unchanged still on course to set its best first half of a year on record a stretch of strong economic data that is tamping down recession fears extended thursday an updated estimate for firstquarter us economic growth came in at 2 stronger than previously reported weekly jobless claims fell to a multiweek low wall street continues to debate whether the federal reserve can navigate a soft landing—whereby inflation falls to more normal levels but higher rates don’t push the economy into a deep recession “our base case is that the federal reserve is able to engineer a soft landing” said carol schleif chief investment officer of bmo family office at a meeting this week with other centralbank chiefs fed chair jerome powell said that inflation remains too high and that further interestrate increases are likely traders expect another quarterpoint hike at the fed’s july meeting with chances of another later in the year even another halfpoint of rate increases shouldn’t derail stocks’ rally through the first half of the year according to schleif company earnings results for the second quarter—due in the coming weeks—will offer insight into how management teams navigated the march regional banking panic and how they have adjusted their outlooks she said treasury yields jumped as prices plunged the yield on the benchmark 10year treasury climbed to 3853 from 3711 on wednesday reversing course after the previous day’s drop the 2year yield rose to 4876 from 4720 reflecting increased odds of two fed rate hikes later this year the 2year yield has nearly returned to its prebankingcrisis levels a potential sign of further trouble ahead according to some analysts the rebound for cyclical stocks signals that wall street is warming to the idea that the economy can skirt a recession—or at least that one isn’t on the horizon us recession expectations have been pushed back to later in 2024 if not 2025 according to a deutsche bank survey after tech stocks led most of this year’s rally a majority of sp 500 companies are now higher for the year that could fuel an extended bull run for the market but some see the expanded breadth as a sign that market sentiment is peaking a contrarian indicator that can flash just before stocks reverse course “i think that people are underestimating powell’s commitment to knocking inflation” said phil pecsok chief investment officer of anacapa advisors the rampant pessimism at the end of last year appears to be flipping toward widespread bullishness according to pecsok he’s seeing exuberance in the options market where retail traders are scooping up contracts that would profit from a continued rally “i’m going to be a little cautious over the next few weeks” pecsok said “but the market could just as easily keep going higher and we want to participate in that” elsewhere chinese stocks fell hong kong’s hang seng index was down 12 after a potential us trade ban on artificialintelligence chip exports to china sparked jitters the stoxx europe 600 and japan’s nikkei 225 each inched up 01