Microsoft, Meta Platforms lead Wall Street higher

Microsoft and Meta Platforms are driving Wall Street higher on Thursday after profits for the Big Tech companies at the start of the year turned out to be even bigger than analysts expected.

The S&P 500 was up 1% and heading for an eighth straight gain, which would be its longest winning streak since August, AP reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 248 points, or 0.6%, as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.8% higher.

Microsoft jumped 9% after the software giant said strength in its cloud computing and artificial intelligence businesses drove its overall revenue up 13% from a year earlier.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also topped analysts’ targets for revenue and profit in the latest quarter. It said artificial intelligence tools helped boost its advertising revenue, and its stock climbed 5.3%.

CVS Health, Carrier Global and a bevy of other companies also joined the stream of better-than-expected profit reports that have helped steady Wall Street over the last week. The S&P 500 is back to within 8.5% of its record set earlier this year, after briefly dropping nearly 20% below the mark.

Still, plenty of uncertainty remains about whether President Donald Trump’s trade war will force the economy into a recession. A couple mixed reports on the U.S. economy Thursday followed up on several recent updates that have suggested it's weaker than expected.

One of Thursday's reports said more US workers filed for unemployment benefits last week than economists had forecast, setting the stage for a more comprehensive report on the job market arriving Friday.

A separate update said US manufacturing activity was better last month than economists expected, though it still contracted again.

And even though companies have been reporting better profits for the first three months of the year than analysts expected, many CEOs are remaining cautious about the rest of the year, reports UNB.