Markets live: US stocks lift and ASX 200 set to follow despite fresh conflict in Middle East

US stocks rallied on Thursday as Microsoft jumped 15.5% after forecasting strong cloud growth. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2% to 52,209.57, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.8%. Jed Ellerbroek said, "Microsoft is going to be able to move itself from the 'battleground' camp to a 'trusted AI winner' stock."