US sharemarkets were higher on Thursday, with returns for the Nasdaq index turning positive for the year. Shares of tech giants Apple, Facebook and Alphabet rose by 1.0%-1.8%. Shares of PayPal jumped by 14.0% after the company said it expects a strong recovery in payment volumes in the second quarter as social distancing drives more people to shop online.
Shares of media company ViacomCBS rose by 10.4% after reporting solid first quarter earnings. At the close of trade, the Dow Jones index was up 211 points or 0.9%. The S&P500 index was up by 1.2% and the Nasdaq index lifted 125 points or 1.4%.