U.S. stock futures jumped Thursday morning after Microsoft and Meta reported strong quarterly earnings, easing concerns about a potential slowdown in the tech sector amid economic uncertainties. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 319 points, or 0.8%, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures also rose. Microsoft shares surged more than 8% in premarket trading after the company reported a positive fiscal third quarter, bolstered by its Azure cloud business and encouraging guidance.
Meta’s stock gained more than 6% after the company reported earnings of $6.43 per share on $42.31 billion of revenue, beating analysts’ expectations. Few stocks are truly immune to Trump tariffs and trade war, but AI is less impacted than investors currently believe,” said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management. We’re early in a very steep growth curve right now, and that goes for AI infrastructure.
However, the positive sentiment was dampened by a rise in jobless claims to 241,000, exceeding the Dow Jones estimate of 225,000.
This increase heightened concerns about the economy following a weak first-quarter GDP report earlier in the week. In Wednesday’s session, major indexes rebounded from early losses. The S&P 500 recovered more than 2%, and the Dow recouped over 780 points.
Microsoft’s stock premarket trading surge
Initial jitters were caused by a GDP report showing a contraction of 0.3%, marking the first negative growth quarter since the first quarter of 2022. Traders have been navigating a turbulent April, which began with President Trump’s announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs and was followed by the subsequent suspension of high levies.
The S&P 500 briefly entered bear market territory but recovered some of its losses. General Motors cut its full-year outlook, anticipating a tariffs-related impact of $4 billion to $5 billion. The automaker now expects full-year adjusted earnings before interest and taxes to be between $10 billion and $12.5 billion, down from its prior guidance.
In Asia, Japanese and Australian markets rose following choppy trade on Wall Street. Japan’s benchmark index closed 1.13% higher at 36,452.30, while the broader Topix index edged up 0.46%. Despite individual stock gains, broader market challenges, such as tariff impacts, increases in jobless claims, and GDP contractions, remain.
Investors are looking ahead to economic data and earnings reports for further direction.
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