Equities ended higher Thursday after a mixed batch of earnings and a somewhat disappointing but still solid GDP report. The Dow Jones industrial average firmed by 0.4 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.5 percent and the Nasdaq edged up 0.2 percent. US bond yields slipped as the market saw weakness in economic data. The dollar declined while oil prices rose.

Among megacaps, Meta and IBM were winners after their quarterly updates and Tesla rallied as the market liked its autonomous vehicle plans. On the downside, Microsoft lost ground as investors focused on disappointing results in its cloud business. UPS dropped on an earnings miss. Nvidia came under pressure while Broadcom and Intel fared better.

Among sectors, best were communication services, energy, utilities, real estate, financials, health care, and consumer staples. Technology lagged.

In economic data, GDP for the fourth quarter missed expectations at a 2.3 percent growth rate but the report featured stronger than expected consumer spending, offset by weaker business investment and net exports. Also on the soft side, pending home sales dropped by 5.5 percent on the month in December, much worse than expected. On the stronger side, weekly jobless claims fell much more than expected as the series remained volatile -- with a drop in claims filed in California, in particular.

Market Reflections track market reaction to the trading day's major events. Economic data, policymaker speeches, and company news are featured in this report as well as key indexes and financial instruments.

Understanding why markets respond as they do is fundamental for an investor. Market Reflections help explain how the day's events, news, and data impact the outlook for the economy and for market prices.