U.S. stocks posted outsized gains Thursday, logging their biggest one-day climb in two years, as Wall Street cheered lighter-than-expected inflation data and monitored midterm election tallies.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for October reflected a 7.7% increase over last year and 0.4% increase over the prior month, better than Wall Street expected. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 7.9% annual rise and 0.5% monthly gain.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rallied 5.5% — its biggest intraday gain since April 2020 — while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) jumped 1,200 points, or 3.7%, the most since May 2020. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) advanced a whopping 7.4%, its sharpest climb since emerging from the pandemic crash in March 2020. Meanwhile, Treasury yields tumbled following the report, with the benchmark 10-year note falling well below the 4% level.

Moderations in the data again fueled bets that the Federal Reserve may ease the pace of its monetary tightening campaign, with investors shrugging off Chair Jerome Powell's assertion earlier this month that a policy shift is not imminent. Remarks by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker also suggested Thursday that officials may be nearing a pause, though other officials stressed the need for continued hikes, even if at a slower pace.

Sharp gains were seen across technology stocks, with Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) each up more than 8%. Amazon (AMZN) shares surged 12%, Facebook parent Meta (META) 10% — placing the stock on track for its biggest weekly gain since July 2013 — and Nvidia (NVDA) 14%.

The stocks added roughly $400 billion in market capitalization combined on Thursday, according to Bloomberg data.

"The first downside surprise in inflation in several months will inevitably be received by an equity market ovation," Principal Asset Management Chief Global Strategist Seema Shah said in a note, adding however that Federal Reserve officials remain on pace to proceed with rate increases and a pause is still elusive.

"Let the market enjoy today, it still has another 100 basis points or so of tightening to commiserate," she said.

Elsewhere in economic data — in the shadow of CPI — filings for unemployment insurance rose last week but held near historic lows. Initial jobless claims, the most timely snapshot of the labor market, came in at 225,000, a 7,000 increase from the prior week, Labor Department data showed.

Thursday's market moves come after each of the major averages slid at least 2% in the previous session over midterm election uncertainty.