Stocks rose on Thursday after strong quarterly results from two Big Tech players eased concerns that artificial intelligence progress would slow amid economic turmoil.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 83.60 points, or 0.21%, to close at 40,752.96. The S&P 500 gained 0.63% to end at 5,604.14, still slightly below its levels from before President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs announcement in early April. The Nasdaq Composite increased 1.52%, to close at 17,710.74 and wipe out the decline it experienced since April 2.
Investor fears that Trump’s tariffs and a downturn in the U.S. economy would threaten the AI trade were assuaged after Meta Platforms posted stronger-than-expected revenue in the first quarter, with Meta’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg saying on an earnings call Wednesday that the business is “well positioned to navigate the macroeconomic uncertainty.”
Microsoft also reported top- and bottom-line beats in the fiscal third quarter. The company’s executives said during an earnings call Wednesday that they expect capital expenditures to rise from here as they continue to expand data center capacity, remarking that “cloud and AI are the essential inputs for every business to expand output, reduce costs and accelerate growth.”
Those results sent Microsoft shares up 7.6%, while Meta shares advanced 4.2%. Information technology far outperformed the other 10 sectors in the S&P 500, up more than 2%.
“Few stocks are truly immune to Trump tariffs [and] trade war, but AI is a lot 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.”
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/30/stock-market-today-live-updates.html