By TERESA CEROJANO and MATT OTT, Associated Press
Wall Street was on track to open with solid gains Thursday on the strength of some blowout quarterly reports from the AI-obsessed technology sector.
Futures for the technology-heavy Nasdaq climbed 1.2% before the opening bell, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.9%. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged its counterparts but was still up 0.2%.
Facebook parent company Meta jumped 11.6% overnight after the social media giant crushed Wall Street’s sales and profit targets even as the company continues to pour billions of dollars into artificial intelligence.
Helped by higher advertising and a growing user base on its social media platforms, Meta earned $18.34 billion in the quarter, a 36% increase over the same quarter a year ago. Revenue jumped 22%.
Also posting stellar results was Microsoft, whose shares climbed 8.4% overnight after it also posted better results than analysts were expecting. Microsoft said that annual revenue for its Azure cloud computing platform has surpassed $75 billion, up 34% from a year earlier. Azure is a centerpiece of Microsoft’s efforts to shift its focus to artificial intelligence. Until Wednesday, the company hadn’t disclosed how much money it makes.
Microsoft’s fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $34.3 billion was up 24% over last year.
Early Thursday, CVS Health topped Wall Street expectations for the second quarter and hiked its full-year forecast again, as the health care giant rallies under new management after a forgettable 2024 that saw the sector hammered by rising costs.
CVS, whose shares rose 7.5% before markets opened, said all three of its business segments saw revenue growth of 10% or more.
Amazon and Apple report quarterly results after the markets close Thursday.
Also Thursday, the U.S. releases new data on inflation and layoffs. On Friday, the Labor Department releases its July jobs report.
Stocks were pressured by rising Treasury yields after the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hinted that a rate-cut in September is not a sure thing. The Fed has left its rate alone for the past five meetings as inflation remains stubbornly above the central bank’s 2% target.
The odds of a rate cut in September, according to futures pricing, fell from nearly 60% before the meeting to just 45% after the press conference, the equivalent of a coin flip, according to CME Fedwatch.
President Donald Trump has clamored for a rate cut, which would likely give the job market and overall economy a boost, but it could also risk fueling inflation when Trump’s tariffs may be set to raise prices for U.S. consumers. The Fed’s double mandate is to seek maximum employment, while keeping inflation in check.
Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX ticked down 0.1%, while Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.4%. In Paris, the CAC 40 was 0.3% higher.
In Asian trading, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% to 41,069.82 after the Bank of Japan kept interest rates steady at 0.5% and raised its inflation projections.
In Seoul, the Kospi edged down 0.3% to 3,245.44 after South Korea reached a 15% tariff deal with the U.S., with no levies on American goods like cars, trucks and farm products. The deal also includes South Korea’s purchase of $100 billion in U.S. gas and oil and $350 billion worth of investments in the U.S.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.5% to 24,803.18, while the Shanghai Composite Index slid 1.2% to 3,573.21. Australia’s S&P ASX 200 shed 0.2% to 8,742.80. India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.2% to 81,642.81. Taiwan’s TAIEX added 0.3% to 23,542.52.
China’s manufacturing activity was weaker than expected in July, with data on Thursday showing the official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index PMI slowed to 49.3, down from 49.7.
In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 46 cents to $69.54 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, shed 53 cents to $71.96 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar rose to 149.90 Japanese yen from 149.51 yen. The euro rose to $1.1445 from $1.1404.
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