Wall Street logged its best day since January on Thursday after Meta Platforms—parent of Facebook—became the latest Big Tech company to blow past profit expectations.
- The benchmark S&P 500 rose 79 points, or 1.9%, to 4,135.
- The Dow rose 524 points, or 1.5%, to 33,826.
- The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 287 points, or 2.4%, to 12,142.
Not only did Meta beat analysts’ estimates for profit during the first three months of the year, it also gave a forecast for revenue that topped expectations. Shares were about 14%. The majority of companies have been beating forecasts so far this earnings reporting season. Hasbro climbed 14%, and Comcast rose 9.7% after they also topped Wall Street’s estimates. But expectations were broadly low coming into this reporting season because of still-high inflation, much higher interest rates, and a slowing economy.
A report on Thursday gave the first indication of just how much the US economy is slowing: down to an estimated 1.1% growth at an annual rate during the first three months of 2023 from 2.6% at the end of last year. That was a worse slowdown than expected, but the economy may be in better shape than it looks. A separate report showed that fewer workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, raising hope that the job market may be remaining resilient as other areas slow. “In our view, pulled all together, the conflicting data signals to us that we are in the ‘bend, not break’ phase of the cycle” for the economy, said Alexandra Wilson-Elizondo, co-head of portfolio management for multi asset solutions at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
(More
stock market stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
