On Wednesday, the Dow eked out a small gain, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed lower after Microsoft Corp. issued a disappointing earnings guidance that further fueled worries about the state of corporate profits and an overall slowing economy.
U.S. stocks ended the day modestly lower on Wednesday, with the exception of the Dow which managed to close fractionally higher. Investors were taking in a slew of corporate earnings reports from technology titans and watching the Federal Reserve’s upcoming interest-rate decision next week.
The Nasdaq Composite Index, which is heavily populated with tech stocks, is up 8.1% on the year so far, as investors made bets some of the big names had been sold down too much in the wake of the 2022 bear market.
According to FactSet, more than 19% of the S&P 500 companies have reported fourth-quarter earnings, and 68% of them have posted stronger-than-expected results.
On Wednesday after the markets closed, Tesla, AT&T, IBM, ServiceNow, Lam Research, CSX, Abbott, Wynn and Nasdaq all reported their earnings numbers. While the individual reports varied from one company to the next, overall investors were pleased with the numbers which are being seen as a sign of recovery after the brutal selloff at the beginning of the year.
Analysts are expecting to see continued improvement in corporate earnings in the coming weeks as more companies report their numbers, and the Federal Reserve’s decision next week could play an important role in determining the direction of the markets…….
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