NEW YORK (Reuters) - TRADING DAY

Making sense of the forces driving global markets.

By Alden Bentley, Americas Finance and Markets Breaking News

Editor.

Jamie is away so I'll provide a round-up of today's main market moves below. I'd love to hear from you, so please reach out to me with comments at [email protected].

If you have more time to read today, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in the markets.

1. China pushes for tariff cancellation to end US trade war 2. US durable goods orders soar on aircraft bookings inMarch 3. US labor market holds steady despite darkening cloudsfrom tariffs 4. Fed officials argue for patience while gauging tariffimpact 5. Bank of England's Bailey says he is focused on thegrowth hit from tariffs 6. China has scope to ramp up stimulus, fix property woes,IMF says 7. Trump trade war spreads more gloom across businessesacross the world

Today's Key Market Moves

1. The S&P 500 closes up 2.02%, the Nasdaq Composite ends2.74% higher and Dow Jones Industrial Average rises 1.23%. 2. The dollar falls 0.6% against the yen, trading at 142.52. The euro rises 0.7%. 3. Gold closes up 1.85%. 4. The 10-year Treasury note yield falls 7.6 basis points to4.311%. 5. Brent crude oil falls 0.4% to $66.38 a barrel. 6. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rises 0.36%, whileEurope's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index rises 0.40%. 7. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outsideJapan closes down 0.33%, while Japan's Nikkei rises 0.49%.

Stocks rally for third day, earnings optimism trumps tariffs confusion

While Thursday marked Wall Street's third rally in a row, given three topsy-turvy weeks of tariff headlines, and the ugly selloff four sessions ago, it is premature to declare "confidence is back!"

The S&P 500 is up six-plus percent since Tuesday, but is still down about 10% from its record close on February 19 and down more than 3% since U.S. President Donald Trump's ill-received April 2 "Liberation Day" tariff news conference.

But some okay earnings reports have stabilized the mood of investors, if not of business which has yet to feel the full brunt of whatever tariff regime is left on the books.

ServiceNow's shares jumped 14.8% on profit that was better than expected due to resilient demand for AI-powered software. The release of Alphabet earnings after the market close could provide more information on how AI investments are paying off.

Beijing said the U.S. should remove all "unilateral tariff measures" against China "if it truly wanted" to solve the trade issue. It also said there have been no economic and trade negotiations between the two countries, which Trump refuted. So the confusion continues.