PARIS, April 28 (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened higher on Thursday on the strength of technology stocks after Meta Platforms’ results and despite concerns over a surprise contraction in the U.S. economy in the first quarter.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index gained 164.21 points, or 0.49%, to 33,466.14 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.86% to 4,219.96 points.
The Nasdaq Composite took 1.12%, or 140.216 points, to 12,629.149.
Benchmark futures pared gains following the Commerce Department’s release of an early estimate of GDP for the January-March period.
The GDP of the United States fell by 1.4% at an annualized rate in the first quarter, after growth of 6.9% over the last three months of 2021 and against 1.1% expected by the consensus.
If this bad news on the macroeconomic front hinders the progress of the markets, it is not enough to take over the quarterly publications which continue to rain.
Meta Platforms soared 14.93% after reporting stronger-than-expected profit and Facebook daily active user growth above expectations in the first quarter.
Semiconductor maker Qualcomm gained 7.16%, buoyed by better-than-expected quarterly earnings and guidance.
Apple and Amazon, which will release their results after the close, take 2.39% and 2.25% respectively.
Twitter rose only 0.4%, torn between the announcement of a more marked increase than expected in the number of social network users and the drop in advertising revenue.
Red lantern of the Dow Jones, Caterpillar drops 4.22% after reporting pressure on its margins in the current quarter due to inflation.
So far, first-quarter results have been better than expected, with nearly 80% of the 176 S&P 500 companies reporting results beating market expectations, compared to an average of 66% in this period.