Tesla, IBM and Meta Platforms helped lead most U.S. stocks higher on Thursday following a rush of profit reports from some of the country's most influential companies.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5%, as four out of every five stocks in the index climbed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 168 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.3%.

Real Madrid will play Manchester City in the Champions League knockout playoffs round in a standout clash of the past two title winners after the draw was made Friday.
Man City, the 2023 champion, will host the first leg on Feb. 11 or 12 and the return game in Madrid is on Feb. 18 or 19. Madrid won a record-extending 15th European title last season.

Manchester United and Tottenham put their inconsistent domestic campaigns aside and advanced to the Europa League round of 16 on Thursday.
Diogo Dalot tapped in a precise cross by Kobbie Mainoo on the hour mark and Mainoo netted eight minutes later for a 2-0 victory over Romanian champion FCSB in Bucharest.

Neymar has confirmed he will sign what is expected to be a short-term contract with his boyhood club, Santos, as the Brazil striker aims to recharge his career ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
The 32-year-old Neymar said Thursday that he's returning to the Sao Paulo club, and local media reported that the deal will extend only to June 30.

Brest is next in line as defending champion Paris Saint-Germain tries to stay unbeaten in the French league.
PSG leads by 10 points with 15 games to go and remains on course for a yet another Ligue 1 and French Cup double.

Karla Sofía Gascón, the Oscar-nominated trans actor and star of the movie "Emilia Pérez," is apologizing for her old posts on social media that denigrated Islam and that called George Floyd "a drug addict and a hustler."
"As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain," the actor said in a statement via Netflix, where her film can be streamed. "All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness."

President Donald Trump said his 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico are coming on Saturday, but he's still considering whether to include oil from those countries as part of his import taxes.
"We may or may not," Trump told reporters Thursday in the Oval Office about tariffing oil from Canada and Mexico. "We're going to make that determination probably tonight."

Germany's parliament is expected to vote Friday on an opposition bill calling for tougher rules on migration that could become the first legislation to pass thanks to a far-right party — adding to a controversy about the attitude of the front-runner in Germany's upcoming election toward the far right.
Opposition leader Friedrich Merz has put demands for a more restrictive approach to migration at the center of his campaign for the Feb. 23 election since a deadly knife attack last week by a rejected asylum-seeker.

India doubled its tiger population in a little over a decade by protecting the big cats from poaching and habitat loss, ensuring they have enough prey, reducing human-wildlife conflict, and increasing communities' living standards near tiger areas, a study published Thursday found.
The number of tigers grew from an estimated 1,706 tigers in 2010 to around 3,682 in 2022, according to estimates by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, making India home to roughly 75% of the global tiger population. The study found that some local communities near tiger habitats have also benefited from the increase in tigers because of the foot traffic and revenues brought in by ecotourism.

Trump administration changes have upended the U.S. agency charged with providing humanitarian aid to countries overseas, with dozens of senior officials put on leave, thousands of contractors laid off, and a sweeping freeze imposed on billions of dollars in foreign assistance.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the pause on foreign assistance Thursday, saying "the U.S. government is not a charity."
