U.S. stock markets closed higher on Thursday to start May. Strong earnings results by AI giants have boosted market participants’ confidence on risky assets like equities. No bad news on tariffs and trade related issues also bolstered investors’ sentiment. All three major stock indexes ended in green.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 0.2% to close at 40,752.96. The blue-chip index posted a eight-day winning streak, for the first time since July 2024. Notably, 15 components of the 30-stock index ended in positive territory and 15 finished in negative zone.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished at 17,710.74, rising 1.5% or 264.40 points due to strong performance of technology bigwigs. The S&P 500 was up 0.6% to finish at 5,604.14. The benchmark posted a eight-day winning run, for the first time since November 2024.
Eight out of 11 broad sectors of the broad-market index ended in positive territory and three in negative zone. The Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) rose 1.5%, while the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (XLV) fell 2.7%.
The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 0.4% to 24.60. A total of 16.15 billion shares were traded on Thursday, lower than the last 20-session average of 19.56 billion. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 1.31-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 1.19-to-1 ratio favored advancing issues.
Meta Platforms Inc. META reported first-quarter 2025 earnings of $6.43 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 23.18%. The figure surged 36.5% year over year. Revenues of $42.31 billion beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.61% and increased 16.1% year over year. At constant currency, revenues soared 19% year over year.
Microsoft Corp. MSFT reported third-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings of $3.46 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 8.13% and increased 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. Revenues of $70.06 billion increased 13.3% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.46%. At constant currency, revenues grew 15% year over year, showcasing strong demand for cloud and AI offerings.
Consequently, stock price of Meta Platforms and Microsoft climbed 9% and 7.6%, respectively. Both stocks currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The institute of Supply Management (ISM) reported that manufacturing PMI (purchasing managers’ index) for April contracted to 48.7% from 49% in March. The consensus estimate was 48.8%. Any reading below 50% indicates contraction in manufacturing activities. The new orders index rose to 47.2% in April from 45.2% in March. The Employment Index in April came in at 46.5% from March’s figure of 44.7%.
