US stocks move higher as investors weigh slowdown risks

US stocks rose on Thursday, but the move did little to recoup this week’s decline on worries about the effect of sustained high interest rates on the American economy. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 gained 0.8 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallied 1.1 per cent. In Europe, the regional Stoxx 600 and London’s FTSE 100 both fell 0.2 per cent. The S&P 500 had fallen for the previous five consecutive sessions as stronger than expected jobs and services sector data have chipped away at investors’ conviction about the direction of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate rises.