U.S. stocks rose Thursday, boosted by strong results from Meta Platforms.
The Nasdaq Composite jumped around 1.4%. The S&P 500 climbed 1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 231 points, or 0.7%.
Meta shares leapt more than 13% as the company reported quarterly revenue that beat analysts’ expectations. The company also issued stronger-than expected guidance for the current period. Teladoc, Comcast and Merck were also among companies trading higher after reporting earnings.
But Caterpillar, which is often seen as a barometer of the global economy, traded down more than 3% despite the Dow member posting much better-than-anticipated results.
Amazon and Intel will share their quarterly results after the closing bell Thursday amid what has been seen as a major earnings week for the technology sector.
Liz Young, head of investment at SoFi, warned investors that despite the majority of S&P 500 companies reporting earnings higher than expectations, the worst is not yet behind the market.
“We’ve seen expectations get revised downward about 15%,” she said. “So the fact that companies are beating those lowered expectations — although probably a good thing for sentiment in the moment, because markets don’t like to hear about misses — we’re beating pretty unimpressive numbers.”
However, sentiment was kept in check after GDP data showed less economic growth than expected. The U.S. economy grew 1.1% in the first quarter, while economists polled by Dow Jones forecasted an expansion of 2%. The report also showed stronger-than-expected inflation, with prices increasing 4% compared with a consensus estimate of 3.7%.
Source: CNBC
