S&P 500 heads for its best month since 2020 — plus, Apple earnings on deck

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Stocks surged on the last day of April . The S & P 500 hit an all-time, intraday high and went above 7,200 for the first time ever. The Nasdaq also rallied and traded just under Monday's record high. Both indexes were on track for their best months since 2020. Ahead of the close, the S & P 500 is up more than 10% in April, while the Nasdaq is up over 15% for the month. Lower oil prices and lower bond yields certainly helped stocks on Thursday. Brent crude pulled back from Iran wartime highs of $126 per barrel. The 10-year Treasury yield dipped on slower-than-expected U.S. economic growth. The big four hyperscalers — Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta — all boosted their already hefty full-year capital expenditure guides, alongside their earnings on Wednesday evening. It's a rarity that they all delivered their quarters on the same night, which gave us an immediate picture of how much more they're all prepared to spend to keep pace in the artificial intelligence race. Normally, we're left piecing it together over several days. With all four outlooks in hand, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta are committing to spend a total of at least $695 billion this year. That's an over 14% increase from the previous estimate of $608 billion. Here is how that $695 billion number breaks down for this year. …