S&P 500 heads for its best month since 2020 — plus, Apple earnings on deck

An important development from the financial markets: Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Stocks surged on the last day of April . The S & P 500 hit an all-time, intraday high and went above 7,200 for the first time ever.

The Nasdaq also rallied and traded just under Monday's record high. Both indexes were on track for their best months since 2020. Ahead of the close, the S & P 500 is up more than 10% in April, while the Nasdaq is up over 15% for the month.

Economic Details

Lower oil prices and lower bond yields certainly helped stocks on Thursday. Brent crude pulled back from Iran wartime highs of $126 per barrel. The 10-year Treasury yield dipped on slower-than-expected U.

The big four hyperscalers — Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta — all boosted their already hefty full-year capital expenditure guides, alongside their earnings on Wednesday evening. It's a rarity that they all delivered their quarters on the same night, which gave us an immediate picture of how much more they're all prepared to spend to keep pace in the artificial intelligence race. Normally, we're left piecing it together over several days.

With all four outlooks in hand, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta are committing to spend a total of at least $695 billion this year. That's an over 14% increase from the previous estimate of $608 billion. Here is how that $695 billion number breaks down for this year.

Analyst Views

(The following order is also how Jim Cramer ranked the earnings. ) Alphabet: $180 billion to $190 billion, up from the previous estimate of $175 billion to $185 billion Amazon: unchanged at $200 billion Microsoft: roughly $190 billion (Microsoft did not give a total in its previous guide, which was estimated from analysts estimates on FactSet) Meta Platforms: $125 billion to $145 billion, increased from its prior range of $115 billion to $135 billion One thing is clear. All four companies are not letting up on their spending because nobody wants to be left behind in AI.

However, the market is viewing capex guides differently between companies with clouds — Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft — and the odd man out with no cloud, Meta. Both Alphabet and Meta boosted spending and their stocks went in opposite directions. Alphabet shares surged nearly 10%, tracking for another record-high close.

Meta stock, on the other hand, got crushed, falling almost 8% on the session. Tech giant Apple reports earnings after the bell. It will be the first earnings call since CEO Tim Cook said he would step down , and that John Ternus would take his place in September.

Financial markets are tracking the development closely as investors assess the likely impact.