- Dow Jones gins 1.5% on Thursday as Meta Platforms posts an upbeat Q1 report.
- Apple and Amazon are expected to report their earnings tomorrow.
INDEXDJX: .DJI was up 1.5%, or 500 points and the S&P 500 was up 1.9%. Stocks in the technology sector rose Thursday, led by Meta Platforms, as investors welcomed the company’s solid earnings report, which showed resilience amid inflation.
Facebook added more users than investors expected in the first quarter, sending its shares soaring by 17%. S&P 500 tech was the best-performing index group during midday trading, thanks to gains of 2.1% for the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 technology sectors. Apple and Amazon report earnings after the market close on Friday.
Government bonds yielded 2.875% instead of 2.817% on the bond market. As a result, bond prices and yields move in the opposite direction.
Meta’s stock and technology gains on Thursday were solid, but they pale compared to last year’s losses. The S&P 500 technology sector has been down nearly 17% since the close of 2021. Meta stocks are down more than 40% this year.
US companies are in the middle of earnings season, and while gains and losses impact individual stocks, analysts and traders are worried about CEO earnings.
Christina Hooper, Invesco’s chief global market strategist, said she wanted to hear whether earnings met or exceeded expectations and what you see going forward. In this earnings season, management is portraying a picture where the challenges facing companies may be escalating.
Twitter’s shares rose 0.2% on Thursday after the social network reported stronger earnings and withdrew financial guidance ahead of Elon Musk’s takeover. The shares of Southwest Airlines rose 1.5% following forecasts that the airline will be profitable by the end of the year.
Caterpillar shares dropped 4.9% after the industry leader reported lower margins in the first quarter. However, the stock rose 2.7% after McDonald’s said its earnings were higher than analysts had predicted.
The US economy contracted by 1.4% year-on-year during the first quarter, the first contraction since the pandemic. Even though the rate of decline is worrying, some analysts said the underlying data does not point to a recession. US trade deficit has grown much more imports than exports, a major factor in the decline. This period also saw an increase in consumer spending, which was slightly faster than last year.
Federal Reserve officials could also consider the data when deciding whether and how much to raise rates at their meeting scheduled for next week.
Dow Jones technical analysis:
The Dow Jones price remains solid on the day. The index posted a bullish pin bar followed by a bullish engulfing bar. It shows a high potential for the index to rally further.
