US stocks rise ahead of more mega-cap tech earnings
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks rose Thursday, rebounding after the previous session’s sharp losses in the wake of the latest Federal Reserve meeting and ahead of the release of more mega cap tech earnings.
By 06:55 ET (11:55 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 60 points, or 0.2%, the S&P 500 traded 13 points, or 0.3%, higher and Nasdaq Composite climbed 90 points, or 0.6%.
Amazon, Apple and Meta set to report
There tech sector remains in the spotlight Thursday with more of the sector's mega-cap stocks set to report Thursday, in the form of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Facebook-owner Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) after the closing bell.
This followed weakness in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) on Wednesday, as the both tech giants warned of rising costs needed to build out their artificial intelligence capabilities.
Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) stock also fell 4% despite the company reporting a fiscal second-quarter profit that topped Wall Street estimates, but investors were concerned that the San Diego-based AI chipmaker is losing crucial market share in China.
Elsewhere, Merck (NYSE: MRK) stock rose over 2% after the drugmaker posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter results on strong sales of its cancer immunotherapy Keytruda, now the world's biggest selling prescription medicine.
Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ: PTON) stock slumped 14% after the fitness company offered a weak outlook for revenue and free cash flow, while Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL) stock rose 0.6% after the cruise operator projected 2024 profit above expectations after robust demand for cruise vacations.
Fed reins in early rate cut hopes
The Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold at more than two-decade highs on Wednesday, as widely expected, but Chair Jerome Powell prompted a hefty selloff after he reined in hopes that the central bank would soon start to cut interest rates.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Powell noted that a reduction as soon as March was not his "base case" despite growing signs of cooling inflation.
Goldman Sachs pushed back its expectation of the Fed starting interest rate cuts to May from March, while maintaining its forecast of five 25 basis points rate cuts this year.
The influential investment bank expects four consecutive cuts starting in May through September and a final cut in December.
Data released earlier Thursday showed that the labor market is steadily easing, as initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 224,000 for the week ended Jan. 27.
This was more than expected, and sets up Friday's monthly nonfarm payrolls release.
Crude rises on increased Middle East tensions
Oil prices rose Thursday, helped by the elevated tensions in the Middle East but amid caution with OPEC+ meeting.
By 09:55 ET, the U.S. crude futures traded 0.8% higher at $76.45 a barrel, while the Brent contract climbed 0.7% to $81.07 a barrel.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, held its first major meeting of 2024, but had little price impact as production policy changes weren't on the agenda.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.1% to $2,066.95/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.0829.