Wall Street advances as shares in Microsoft, Meta surge

Wall Street's main indexes have advanced, led by gains on the tech-heavy Nasdaq, as strong quarterly results from heavyweights Microsoft and Meta pointed to a resilient outlook for the technology sector.

Microsoft surged 8.8 per cent, hitting its highest level since late January, after it forecast stronger-than-expected quarterly growth for its cloud-computing business Azure.

The gains helped the stock surpass Apple to became the world's most valuable company.

Meta Platforms gained 4.7 per cent after posting higher-than-expected revenue on the back of a strong advertising performance.

"Their (Meta and Microsoft's) outlooks weren't as bleak as some of the tech companies that we've heard from of late ... momentum coming into the day after a late-day rally yesterday combined with better news on two of the Mag Seven names, (and) you've got the potential set-up for a pretty good start to a new month," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.

The strong results helped calm jitters over an increasingly uncertain outlook for businesses caused by erratic shifts in US tariff policy and an escalating trade war with China.

Other technology megacaps also rose, with Nvidia up 3.8 per cent.

The information technology and communication services sectors rose 2.6 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively.

In early trading on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 189.96 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 40,859.32, the S&P 500 gained 42.73 points, or 0.82 per cent, to 5,614.85 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 262.71 points, or 1.51 per cent, to 17,709.06.

The Nasdaq was trading at levels last registered on March 28 and was on track to recoup all declines since the April 2 announcement of reciprocal tariffs.

Results from megacaps Amazon.com and Apple are due after markets close.

Amazon shares were up 2.0 per cent while Apple slipped 1.0 per cent after a federal judge ruled the iPhone maker had violated a US court order to reform its App Store.

Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims data, coming ahead of Friday's non-farm payrolls data, showed lay-offs increased more than expected last week, potentially hinting at a pick-up in job cuts following tariffs.

"It's hard to hide from the number of jobs - either jobless claims or number of jobs being created - so this may well be the week where some of the hard data starts to catch up with some of the soft data," Hogan said.

The Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) gauge of manufacturing activity came in at 48.7 for April, above estimates of 48, according to economists polled by Reuters.

That followed Wednesday's data showing the US economy contracted for the first time in three years in the last quarter.

Among other earnings, Eli Lilly lost 8.2 per cent after its quarterly results while McDonald's dipped 1.4 per cent after posting a surprise drop in first-quarter global sales.

Mobile chip designer Qualcomm fell 7.6 per cent after it forecast a hit to revenue from the trade war.

CVS Health surged 7.7 per cent after its results.

General Motors gained 1.2 per cent after offering a new forecast for 2025 core profit.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.94-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.26-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 6 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 25 new highs and 32 new lows.