(Updated with the end of the trading session)
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Meta climbs after report of more layoffs
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Fidelity national payments business flipped on spinoff
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Tech giants lead S&P 500 gains
by Noel Randwich
Feb 13 (Reuters) – Wall Street closed higher on Monday as investors waited for inflation data to give clues on the path of future interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, while Meta platform gained after a report It happened that the Facebook parent was planning fresh layoffs.
The meta jumped on Sunday after the Financial Times reported that the company was preparing to announce a new round of job cuts, adding to the layoffs last November.
Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple and Amazon also gained. Along with Meta, the tech giant contributed more to the S&P 500’s gains for the session than any other stock.
Helping to lift Microsoft, Stifel raised its price target on the software company, saying it is clearly looking to increase Alphabet’s Google search dominance through its integration with ChatGPT.
Investors are focusing on January inflation data to re-evaluate their bets on the central bank’s monetary policy path.
Wall Street’s main indexes lost ground last week after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that the central bank’s fight against inflation may require raising interest rates more than expected.
“Today there is a natural reaction in the opposite direction as we have seen heavy selling pressure,” said Keith Buchanan, portfolio manager at Global Investments in Atlanta.
The S&P 500 rose 46.50 points, or 1.15%, to 4,137.48, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 174.12 points, or 1.49%, to 11,892.24, according to preliminary data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 374.45 points, or 1.11%, to 34,243.72.
So far this year, the S&P 500 is up about 8%, and the index remains down about 14% from its record high in January 2022.
Fidelity National Information Services Inc plunged following the banking and payment processing conglomerate’s decision to spin off its merchant payments business.
Coca-Cola went ahead with its quarterly report early Tuesday.
As US quarterly earnings reports loomed, 69% of S&P 500 firms reported results so far that exceeded profit expectations, according to Refinitiv data. Analysts expect December-quarter earnings to fall about 3% from a year earlier. (Reporting by Johan M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel, Sriraj Kalluvila, Shinjini Ganguly and Deepa Babington)
Source: finance.yahoo.com
