The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 188.57 points, or 0.58 percent, to 32,485.59. The S&P 500 added 40.53 points, or 1.04 percent, to 3,939.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 329.84 points, or 2.52 percent, to 13,398.67.
Eight of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in green, with technology up 2.12 percent, leading the gainers. Financials slipped 0.28 percent, the worst-performing group.
U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded higher, with all the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index ending the day on an upbeat note.
Biden on Thursday signed the 1.9-trillion-U.S.-dollar COVID-19 relief bill into law, after weeks of partisan fighting in the Congress.
The package includes funding for COVID-19 vaccination and testing, extra unemployment benefits, direct payments to working Americans, support for small businesses, state and local governments, along with schools.
On the economic front, U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to gauge layoffs, stood at 712,000 in the week ending March 6, a decrease of 42,000 from the prior week's revised level, the Department of Labor reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal had forecast new claims of 725,000 in the latest week.
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