© Reuters.
By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500 racked up gains Tuesday, as a surge in Alphabet on better-than-expected quarterly results underpinned the ongoing recovery in tech.
The S&P 500 rose 1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6%, or 225 points, the Nasdaq gained 0.5%.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) jumped more than 8%, taking its market cap to nearly $2 trillion, after the tech giant’s quarterly results topped Wall Street estimates by a wide margin, powered by strength in its advertising businesses.
“We continue to see Search as growing in importance and becoming stronger, while YouTube and Cloud remain in very early stages with long runways," Wedbush said in a note as it upgraded its price target on stock to $3,800 from $3,530.
Facebook-parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) was up more than 1% as Alphabet’s strong advertising growth served as barometer for the social media company’s results, set to be released after the closing bell. Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Spotify Technology (NYSE:SPOT) are also set to report quarterly results after the closing bell.
Some on Wall Street, however, suggest that Apple’s privacy changes are likely to have a bigger impact on Facebook than it did on Google as the latter’s monopoly on web search eased the impact.
Rising chip stocks also pushed broader tech higher in the wake of the steller quarterly results from Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) and guidance that topped Wall Street estimates.
Consumer discretionary stocks, however, struggled to turn positive, however, weighed down by a 9% slump in Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY) and wekaness in eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).
Energy was also slightly lower as oil prices tracked back from session highs after major oil producers agreed to stick with a plan to increase output by 400,000 barrels per day for March.
The slew of megacap quarterly earnings has helped shift the focus back to corporate fundamentals, and overshadowed recent economic data showing the impact of the omicron variant, particularly in the labor market.
Private payrolls unexpectedly fell by 301,000 in Janaury, compared with a downwardly revised 776,000 in December.
The broader market is on pace for its fourth-straight day of gains, with the trend expected to continue as dip-buying resumes.
“As we look out over the balance of this year, we see good economic growth, decelerating inflation, an improving labor market, and robust corporate earnings growth. That means we want to step in and be buyers when the stock market correct,” Wells Fargo said.
