US: Wall Street climbs, S&P 500 powers to record high on solid earnings, robust data
WALL Street advanced on Friday (Feb 2) as strong earnings outlooks and a blowout January employment report boosted confidence in the US economy, even though the Federal Reserve would be less likely to cut interest rates any time soon.
The gains cap a tumultuous week filled with high profile earnings, a Fed rate decision, and renewed jitters over regional banking weakness.
Solid earnings from Meta Platforms and Amazon.com helped boost the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite Index, while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average’s gain was more muted.
All three major US stock indexes were on track for their fourth consecutive weekly gains.
“One of the reasons why the bulls are elated is the corporate C-suites are messaging not only strong earnings but a robust 2024 growth outlook,” said Greg Bassuk, chief executive of AXS Investments in New York.
“So in a macro environment with strong corporate earnings and upcoming rate cuts, that’s a recipe for a lot more room for growth in the equity markets.”
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The US added 353,000 jobs in January, blasting past analysts’ estimates, while wage growth unexpectedly heated up, the Labor Department reported.
The added signs of economic vigour made it more likely that the US central bank will delay cutting its key policy rate until much later than many had hoped. Fed chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday pushed back against the notion of a March rate cut.
Financial markets are pricing in a 20.5 per cent likelihood of a 25 basis point rate cut at the Fed’s March meeting, down from 69.6 per cent a month ago, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
“Looking ahead to the next few days, investors are laser focused on upcoming earnings and economic reports to identify more consistency in the data to gauge the extent and timing of Fed rate cuts,” Bassuk said.
Fourth-quarter earnings season barrels along, with 230 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 80 per cent have come in above Wall Street expectations, according to LSEG.
On aggregate, analysts now see year-on-year S&P 500 earnings growth of 7.8 per cent for the October-to-December period, a significant improvement over the 4.7 per cent estimate as of Jan 1.
Meta Platforms jumped 21.7 per cent to a record high, powering a 3.7 per cent surge in the S&P 500 communication services sector, after issuing its first dividend days ahead of the 20th anniversary of its Facebook unit. Meta’s revenue and profit beat estimates on robust advertising sales in the holiday shopping period.
Amazon.com jumped 8.2 per cent following a fourth-quarter revenue beat as new generative artificial intelligence features in cloud and e-commerce businesses spurred robust growth during the year-end holidays.
Regional bank shares stabilised after two straight days of sharp sell-offs sparked by disappointing earnings from New York Community Bancorp. The bank’s shares rebounded on Friday, rising 5.7 per cent, while the KBW Regional Banking index advanced 0.2 per cent.
At 2.16 pm the Dow rose 189.23 points or 0.5 per cent to 38,709.07, the S&P 500 gained 60.25 points or 1.2 per cent at 4,966.44 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 281.91 points or 1.8 per cent to 15,643.61.
Cigna rose 5.3 per cent after the health insurance provider hiked its annual profit forecast.
Microchip Technology dropped 2.1 per cent in the wake of the chipmaker’s disappointing sales forecast.
Footwear maker Skechers USA also provided a downbeat forecast, sending its shares down 10.1 per cent.
Oil supermajor Chevron gained 2.7 per cent after beating analyst estimates.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2-to-1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
There were 322 new highs and 90 new lows on the NYSE. REUTERS
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