stocks closed sharply higher on thursday a day after minutes of the federal reserves meeting in early may signaled a willingness by the central bank to consider pausing rate hikes later this year if the economy shows signs of wobbling the dow jones industrial average djia added about 518 points or 16 ending near 32638 booking its 5th straight day of gains the dow scored its longest streak of wins since march 18 according to dow jones market data the sp 500 spx advanced 2 while the nasdaq composite index comp closed up 27 the fed still looks poised to lift its policy rate in halfpoint increments in june and july but a view has emerged that it could hit reassess its approach in the fall particularly if economic growth shows signs of sputtering or the labor market starts to falter