30.04.202613:37:00UTC+00US Stocks Inch Higher Despite Mixed Tech

US equities were mostly higher on Thursday, supported by strong hyperscaler earnings and rising energy prices. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 posted modest gains, while the Dow advanced about 300 points.

Alphabet rallied more than 6% in pre-market trading and Amazon climbed over 3% pre-market after both beat expectations for cloud computing revenues and reported strong enterprise demand for their AI technologies. Amazon also traded higher after significantly exceeding earnings forecasts.

In contrast, Meta slumped 10% after projecting a sharp increase in AI-related capital expenditures, stoking concerns that its infrastructure build-out may struggle to keep pace with demand. Microsoft fell 4% despite delivering in-line results for its AI and cloud services businesses.

On the macro front, fresh data showed that AI-related investment helped lift US GDP to a 2% annualized growth rate in the first quarter, offsetting weaker consumption as elevated gasoline prices weighed on household spending.

Among individual names, Eli Lilly gained 5% following its earnings release, while Mastercard declined after reporting its results.