Microsoft leads a rally on Wall Street, while worries about inflation remain in the bond market
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rebounding Thursday after Microsoft leaped on hopes that its big spending on AI is translating into profits, while computer-chip companies clawed back some of their sharp recent losses.
The S&P 500 rallied 1.1% and recovered two-thirds of its drop from the prior day, which was its worst in seven weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 287 points, or 0.6% as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite, which is full of artificial-intelligence stocks, jumped 2.3% a day after it fell 9.8% below its record set last month.
Microsoft led the way and leaped 15.1% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Growth was strong for its Azure cloud business, and CEO Satya Nadella said it reflects how customers are using Microsoft to move into AI.
Perhaps just as importantly for Wall Street, Microsoft did not announce a big increase in how much it plans to spend on AI investments, something that several other Big Tech rivals have done. Worries are high that such spending is eating into companies’ cash flows and may not ultimately be worth it if AI does not produce as much productivity and profits as promised.
Meta Platforms helped demonstrate such fears after falling 9%. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, even though it made slightly more in revenue than expected. It also raised the lower end of its forecasted range for spending on investments this year.
Companies involved in the making of the computer memory and processors that such “hyperscalers” are buying rose Thursday, recovering some of the big losses they’ve taken on worries that their stock prices shot too high in the euphoria around AI.
Micron Technology jumped 15.4%, for example, to trim its loss for the week to 7.4%. It was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500 after Microsoft.
Lam Research, a supplier to the semiconductor industry, soared 19% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Chip giant Advanced Micro Devices rallied 12.9%.
In the bond market, longer-term Treasury yields held a bit steadier following their sharp accelerations Wednesday. They had jumped after the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, gave few clues about what the central bank will do with interest rates to combat the painfully high inflation that continues to hurt the country.
Higher rates could keep a lid on inflation, but they can also slow the economy and undercut prices for stocks and other investments.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.66% from 4.67% late Wednesday. The 30-year Treasury yield edged up to 5.21% from 5.20%, a day after it shot up from 5.09%. They move with investors’ expectations for inflation and economic growth in upcoming years.
Warsh reaffirmed on Wednesday the Fed wants to get inflation back down to 2%, even though the central bank decided not to raise interest rates despite its remaining higher than that. He also implied the bond market may already be doing some of the Fed’s work to restrain inflation, and he pointed to how yields have climbed since the central bank’s last meeting six weeks earlier.
That leaves investors questioning whether the Fed is prepared to act if inflation worsens, or whether it is relying on financial markets to achieve the same outcome, according to Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.
“If investors conclude that the latter is true, the credibility of the Fed’s inflation-fighting commitment could come under increasing scrutiny. Arguably, it already is.”
President Donald Trump, who nominated Warsh to lead the Fed, has argued for lower interest rates even though they could cause inflation to accelerate.
Reports released Thursday suggested the U.S. economy’s growth slowed by more during the spring than economists expected. A measure of Inflation, meanwhile, remained worse last month than the Federal Reserve’s target, but it slowed from May.
In the oil market, prices eased back.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.9% to $87.28 per barrel. It had swung as low as $72 early this month and as high as $102 last week on uncertainty about whether the United States and Iran could reach a deal to allow oil tankers to move freely again from the Middle East to customers worldwide.
In stock markets worldwide, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia. South Korea's Kospi fell 1.2%, and France's CAC 40 rose 0.8% for two of the world's bigger moves.
Seoul's market has been at the center of the huge recent moves for AI stocks because it's dominated by two tech titans, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. After more than doubling through this year's first six months, the Kospi has plunged 34% so far in July.
Its drop on Thursday came as Samsung Electronics dipped 0.7%. The tech giant reported a record profit for the spring and said demand for its chips continues to outpace supply, but its earnings nevertheless fell shy of analysts' high expectations.
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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
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