Media, tech gains lead stocks higher

U.S. stocks closed higher on gains by big technology and media companies, outweighing laggard financial and industrial shares. The dollar hit an 11-month high and 10-year Treasury yields tightened.

Comcast Corp. and Walt Disney Co. were among the big gainers in the S&P 500 Index Thursday as bidding for 21st Century Fox Inc.’s entertainment assets heated up. Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and other tech giants also climbed, sending the Nasdaq Composite Index to a record high. But banks lagged thanks to a flattening yield curve.

“Technology stocks tend to be less inclined to be slowed down by rising interest rates,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR Inc., said by phone. “Of the two major concerns we have in the market, whether it’s monetary policy or trade policy, tech seems to be a bit agnostic to those concerns.”

European stocks also gained after the region’s central bank delivered a somewhat dovish message to investors who had been reeling from disappointing China data and the Federal Reserve’s hawkish shift.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed after the ECB held interest rates and signaled that stimulus may last until the end of the year and rates will remain steady until at least the summer of 2019. The euro suffered its biggest drop in about two years and major government bonds rallied.

After the decision, ECB President Mario Draghi struck a balanced tone. He said substantial progress had been made in adjusting the path of inflation — one of the goals of the QE program — but that growth in the region is poised to slow this year, while protectionism remains a risk.