US equity markets made a positive start to May, with the Dow and S&P 500 extending their rally into an eighth consecutive session amid fresh gains for megacap technology stocks - Dow added +84-points or +0.21% Microsoft Corp +7.63% was the leading performer in the 30-stock index the technology giant reported better-than-expected third-quarter financials after the close of the previous session amid soaring cloud demand. Nvidia Corp rose +2.47% investors welcomed the news that Microsoft and Meta Platforms Inc expect to continue investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure
