Strong results from Microsoft Corp., Tesla Inc., Twitter Inc. and Xilinx Inc. are helping to salve wounds after technology stocks led the Nasdaq 100 Stock Index to its biggest rout in seven years.
Better-than-expected sales from Microsoft’s cloud business helped the company exceed Wall Street estimates for revenue, while Tesla surprised investors with a quarterly profit. Twitter Inc. added to the good news, beating earnings and revenue expectations to send the stock higher by 14 percent pre-market. Comcast Inc. also gained after broadband subscribers grew faster than expected.
The biggest exchange traded fund tracking the Nasdaq 100 gained almost 2 percent in early trading before U.S. markets opened on Thursday. Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc., the two biggest stocks in the index by weighting, were among the gainers.
“We believe Microsoft’s quarter/guidance and underlying metrics give the bulls something to hang their hat on and reinforce our positive thesis on the name,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note to clients.
A rosy revenue outlook from logic chipmaker Xilinx Inc. may help calm nerves after Texas Instruments Inc. spooked investors by saying that demand is slowing across most of its markets. That helped send the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index tumbling 6.6 percent on Wednesday, its worst drop in four years.
To be sure, it wasn’t all good news overnight for tech investors. Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the best performing stock in the S&P 500 this year, gave a weak revenue forecast that sent the shares down 20 percent in pre-market trading. The next test comes after the close when heavyweights Amazon, Alphabet Inc. and Intel Corp. all report earnings.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeran Wittenstein in San Francisco at jwittenstei1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Rebecca Jones, Courtney Dentch
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