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Stocks close higher before Meta meltdown
All three Wall Street indexes closed higher on Wednesday, a fourth straight session of gains, after a turbulent start to the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than half a percent, while the S&P 500 gained close to a full percent, and the Nasdaq gained exactly half a percent. The gains were aided by upbeat earnings from Google-parent Alphabet, whose stock finished up more than 7 percent on Wednesday, pushing the search giant closer to a $2 trillion market valuation. Jim Bruderman, vice chairman of 1879 Advisors, says the collective earnings season and upside surprises should reassure investors. “The important thing about earnings and, you know, certainly this quarter, but really looking out to three quarters in advance, is that forecast earnings expected, future earnings across the S&P are at record highs right now, and that kind of earnings momentum and earnings growth, I think, provides a strong downside protection as we look forward in terms of what’s going on in the markets and what Fed tightening means to everything we’re looking at today.” Taking the air out of Big Tech’s tires, though, was a forecast from Facebook-parent Meta Platforms, which posted results after the bell. The company said it was expecting current-quarter revenue below Wall Street expectations. Shares fell over 20% in after-hours trading. Strong earnings and a positive forecast reported by Advanced Micro Devices pushed its stock up more than 5% on Wednesday. The positive sentiment extended to other chipmakers, too, including Nvidia, Qualcomm and Micron Technology. But PayPal plunged Wednesday after it forecast first-quarter revenue and profit well below expectations, dragging down other financial tech stocks and payments firms, including Block, Affirm Holdings and SoFi Technologies.
