U.S. stocks are bouncing back Thursday after Microsoft leaped on its latest profit report and computer-chip companies clawed back some of their big recent losses.
The S&P 500 rose 0.9% and recovered more than half its drop from the prior day, which was its worst in seven weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 250 points, or 0.5%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite, which is full of chip stocks and others in the artificial-intelligence business, jumped 1.8% a day after it fell 9.8% below its record set last month.
Microsoft led the way and leaped 15.2% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Growth was strong for its Azure cloud business, and CEO Satya Nadella said it reflects how customers are using Microsoft to move into AI.
Perhaps just as importantly for Wall Street, Microsoft did not announce a big increase in how much it plans to spend on AI investments, something that several other Big Tech rivals have done. Worries are high that such spending is eating into companies’ cash flows and may not be worth it if AI does not produce as much productivity and profits as promised.
Meta Platforms helped demonstrate such fears after falling 8.9%. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, even though it made slightly more in revenue than expected.
Some analysts pointed to how it raised the lower end of its forecasted range for spending on investments this year.
Companies involved in the computer memory and processors that such “hyperscalers” are buying rose on Thursday, clawing back some of the big losses they’ve taken recently on worries that their stock prices shot too high in the euphoria around AI.
Micron Technology jumped 8.4%, for example, to trim its loss for the week down to 13%. It was one of the strongest forces after Microsoft lifting the S&P 500.
Lam Research leaped 18.3%, and Advanced Micro Devices rallied 7.3%. Stocks broadly got some help after longer-term Treasury yields slowed their big accelerations from the day before. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.65% from 4.67% late Wednesday, while the 30-year Treasury yield held at 5.20%, a day after it shot up from 5.09%.
They had jumped Wednesday after the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, gave few clues about what the central bank will do to combat the painfully high inflation that is still hurting the country.
Higher yields can keep a lid on inflation, but they can also slow the economy and undercut prices for stocks and other investments.
Reports released Thursday suggested the U.S. economy’s growth slowed by more during the spring than economists expected, while inflation remained worse last month than the Federal Reserve’s target but not quite as bad as expected.
In the oil market, prices slowed their big recent moves caused by increased fighting in the Middle East. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.5% to $86.79 per barrel. It’s swung as low as $72 early this month and as high as $102 last week on uncertainty about whether the United States and Iran could reach a deal to allow oil tankers to move freely again from the Middle East to customers worldwide.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
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