Wall Street's major averages pushed higher in Thursday's topsy-turvy trade, as investors sorted through quarterly results from some Magnificent 7 tech heavyweights, including Microsoft, and as they continued to assess the Federal Reserve’s outlook on interest rates.
Investors react to the Federal Reserve's policy decision and Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference, as well as results from Meta, Microsoft and Tesla.
All three major U.S. stock indexes were higher in late-afternoon trade as focused turned away from Wednesday's Federal Reserve meeting and toward corporate earnings on deck. The S&P 500 index was leading the equity gauges higher with a 0.
The Nasdaq and other major indices declined following the Federal Reserve’s first meeting of the year, with the tech-heavy index falling 1.1% by the afternoon as investors digested the central bank’s cautious stance on interest rates.
Futures tied to the Nasdaq gained on Wednesday as semiconductor-related stocks rose after chip equipment maker ASML's quarterly orders topped estimates, with focus also on a raft of company results and the Federal Reserve's rate verdict later in the day.
U.S. stocks slipped after the Federal Reserve held its main interest rate steady and broke a run of cuts that began in September
U.S. stocks ended higher on Tuesday, with Nvidia and other artificial intelligence-linked technology shares recovering from sharp losses the previous day as investors snapped up bargains. The Nasdaq jumped 2% and AI chip leader Nvidia rose 8.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell sharply on Monday, led by Nvidia and other chipmakers as popularity of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model raised investor worries about the outlooks for current AI leaders in the United States.
On Wall Street, Tesla drove 2.9% higher even though Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle company reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Mr Musk asserted Tesla will offer unsupervised “full self-driving” technology to its customers as a paid service starting in Austin in June.
Meta and Tesla shares rally. Follow along for live updates on stocks, bonds and other markets, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.