US stocks fell Thursday but pulled back from a steeper tech-driven sell-off, as investors came away from megacap tech earnings fretting about AI spending.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) led losses, shedding roughly 0.7% as a plunge in Microsoft (MSFT) shares dragged on the index. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) shed 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) turned slightly positive.
Microsoft‘s slide deepened Thursday, with shares falling over 10% after its earnings report spooked investors with higher-than-anticipated capital spending and a slowdown in quarterly cloud sales growth.
That took some of the wind out of Meta’s (META) earnings performance. Shares gained over 10% thanks to a surprisingly strong quarterly revenue outlook. And the company said it plans to spend up to $135 billion on its data center build-out this year, a boost to its push to win the AI race.
Meanwhile, Tesla (TSLA) flipped to a loss, shedding over 3% as the company focused on a strategy shift from EVs to robots and a quarterly earnings beat. But the company also saw its first-ever decline in annual revenue. Investors are now gearing up for Apple’s (AAPL) quarterly earnings, due after the closing bell.
The tech moves took focus amid an escalation in US-Iran tensions, stoked by President Trump’s warning to Iran that it must agree to a nuclear deal quickly or be hit with military strikes. Crude oil futures climbed to build on Tuesday’s four-month high as US ships massed in the region, with Brent surging past its latest resistance level of $70 per barrel.
Wall Street is also digesting the Federal Reserve’s first monetary policy decision of 2026, in which it kept interest rates unchanged. Markets are pricing in two quarter-point rate cuts by year-end, per CME FedWatch, but an easing may not come before the end of Jerome Powell’s tenure in May. The watch is now on for an announcement from Trump of his pick as the next Fed chair, which he has said will come soon.
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Stocks sink as Microsoft weighs on market, Apple earnings on deck
US stocks retreated as investors weighed concerns about AI spending following Big Tech quarterly results.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropped 0.7% as Microsoft (MSFT) stock sank, raising questions about hefty capital spending.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.1% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was the lone index in the green, rising 0.1%.
Investors awaited Apple (AAPL) earnings, due after the bell.
Amazon reportedly in talks to invest $50 billion in OpenAI
Amazon (AMZN) is reportedly in talks to invest $50 billion into OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The report states that OpenAI is seeking up to $100 billion in new investments, a figure that could value it at as much as $830 billion.
Gold, silver hold steady after backing off record highs
Gold (GC=F) held steady near $5,300 per ounce after easing from a record north of $5,600 on Thursday, while silver (SI=F) stayed firm north of $114 as a massive rally in precious metals took a pause.
The declines came alongside a sell-off in the stock market, with the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropping as much as 2% amid a plunge in Microsoft stock (MSFT). The tech giant’s quarterly earnings report spooked investors, given higher-than-anticipated capital spending and a slowdown in quarterly cloud sales growth.
Zuckerberg’s big AI reset
Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howely reports:
Meta (META) reported a blowout fourth quarter after the bell on Wednesday, posting better-than-anticipated earnings per share and revenue. But the big news came during the company’s earnings call.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg used his opening remarks to deliver what felt more like a state-of-the-union address, laying out his plans for the company’s AI moves in 2026 after a tough 2025.
Tesla just made it clear: It’s no longer a car company
On Tesla’s (TSLA) Q4 earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk said, “We’re really moving into a future that is based on autonomy.”
The essentially amounted to a crossing of the Rubicon, Yahoo Finance’s Pras Subramanian writes. It lays the groundwork for Tesla’s departure from being a car company into an embodied AI future.
Apple shares fell just fractionally Thursday ahead of the iPhone maker’s earnings report after the bell, defying drawdown in “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks and a 2.5% drop in the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) as Microsoft’s (MSFT) results weighed on the index.
Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley breaks down what investors are watching for in Apple’s results:
Royal Caribbean earnings puts wind in cruise stocks’ sails
Despite a broader sell-off in the markets on Thursday, cruise stocks were buoyed by an upbeat outlook from Royal Caribbean (RCL).
Shares of the cruise line surged 15% after the company forecast double-digit revenue and earnings growth for the full year. Royal Caribbean also issued higher-than-expected earnings per share guidance for the first quarter.
Signs of strong demand lifted shares of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), up 9%, Carnival (CCL), up 7%, and Viking Holdings (VIK), up 4%.
“The fourth quarter capped an incredible year for us, as strong demand for our vacation experiences, coupled with strong execution by our teams, resulted in happy guests and robust financial results,” CFO Naftali Holtz said on the Royal Caribbean earnings call.
Gold, silver tumble from records as precious metals rally enters ‘dangerous phase’
Gold (GC=F) futures fell to $5,200 after briefly topping $5,600 per ounce on Thursday, while silver also slid as a blistering rally in precious metals appeared to come to a halt.
The greenback (DX-Y.NYB) strengthened, bouncing off its lowest level since early 2022 earlier this week, putting pressure on the prices of gold and silver, which had seen stunning gains up until then.
Gold prices had rallied roughly 20% year to date as the greenback weakened against other currencies.
Meanwhile, strategists have increasingly warned traders about the rally’s speed.
“The continued surge across metals, especially gold and silver, is entering a dangerous phase, in my opinion,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said on Thursday.
“The problem is volatility feeding on itself. As price swings intensify, liquidity thins,” he added.
Silver futures crashed 3% to hover near $106 after topping $120 per ounce on Thursday. The precious metal is up 42% year to date after a stunning rally in 2025.
Copper prices have surged to cross $13,000 per ton, but analysts say price action may be overheated
Copper (HG=F) has spent the past six months surging amid trade policy uncertainty and a series of supply-and-demand shocks, which have rocked markets for the base metal, which recently crossed $13,000 per ton for the first time. Demand has skyrocketed as the metal is crucial to the buildout of AI technology.
But analysts say the intense price action may be overheated — and largely driven by speculative trading.
Nasdaq sinks by 2.5% in biggest drop since October
The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) sank by more than 2.5% on Thursday, on track for its largest one-day drop since October, as the tech sector sold off during the heaviest earnings week for Big Tech.
Shares in Meta (META) spent Thursday morning surging by more than 10% before paring gains after the company beat analysts’ estimates on both the top and bottom lines and boasted of even stronger AI spending to come. But Mark Zuckerberg’s company was the lone bright spot on the day.
Microsoft (MSFT) shares plummeted by more than 12% as investors worried about slowing cloud growth and the company’s ballooning AI-fueled spending, and Tesla (TSLA) slid by nearly 2% after CEO Elon Musk announced a hard pivot toward robotics.
In what will be the most-watched tech news of the day, Apple (AAPL) is set to report earnings after the bell. Investors will be focused on the strength of Apple’s iPhone 17 sales and Services segment.
Software services stocks slide as SAP earnings revive AI disruption worries
Shares of software services providers fell on Thursday morning after industry giant SAP’s (SAP) quarterly results revived worries about the risk of AI disruption to its business.
The German company’s cautious cloud sales outlook saw its stock shed 16%, while a weak earnings report from US peer ServiceNow (NOW) also signaled a stutter for the sector.
Leaders Salesforce (CRM) and Workday (WDAY) lost 8.2% and 9.6% in the sell-off, while ServiceNow saw a loss of more than 11%.
In recent months, the software sector has struggled to make solid gains as investor attention focused on its members’ exposure to competition from AI-linked companies. Their products could supplant much of what service software companies provide.
US stocks diverge as Thursday trading opens
US stocks began Thursday’s session trading mixed as the market reacted to the latest megacap tech earnings, with Apple’s (AAPL) report to come after the bell.
Meanwhile, gold (GC=F) and oil (BZ=F) both picked up gains as President Trump hardened his tone against Iran, while the dollar (DX-Y.NYB) slid.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) shed around 0.6%, while the blue-chip benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) picked up roughly 0.4%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) hovered right above flat.
Investors will be watching to see whether the S&P 500 can cross 7,000 again after Meta (META) shares surged over 8% in the first minutes of trading, thanks to a surprisingly strong quarterly revenue outlook.
Oil prices jump in Iran risk premium, tighter than expected US commercial reserves
Oil prices jumped more than 3% in morning trading on Thursday as investors priced in the risk of potential escalations in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial shipping route Iran largely controls.
Futures on Brent crude (BZ=F), the international pricing benchmark, flirted with $70 a barrel, while those on the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) crude gained to trade above $65.
The gains add to a run-up over the past month that has seen oil pick up roughly 15% as geopolitical risk premiums and cold weather have buoyed prices even as global onshore crude stocks have remained elevated.
“We expected Brent below $60/BBL by now and trending towards the low $50 range. Instead, geopolitical risk premium and physical supply losses have created a strong floor,” Macquarie Group global energy strategist Vikas Dwivedi wrote in a recent note to clients.
Recent moves by the US military to position near Iran naval vessels and other equipment capable of striking inside the country have kept worries alive around potential disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz. The strait sees roughly 20 million barrels of oil, or a full quarter of global maritime oil trade, cross its waters every day. disruptions would have wide ripple effects on supply and pricing.
On top of the geopolitical risk, US commercial crude inventories in the US for the week ended Jan. 23 decreased by 2.3 million barrels from the previous week, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration. Analysts at Macquarie had expected a growth of 900,000 barrels.
Weekly jobless claims fall slightly to 209,000
US applications for unemployment benefits decreased modestly to 209,000 for the week ending Jan. 24, data from the Labor Department showed Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected jobless claims to fall to 205,000.
Continuing claims, a proxy for the total number of people receiving benefits, fell by 38,000 to 1.82 million, bringing the four-week moving average of continuing claims lower, to 1.86 million.
The data comes a day after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady and Fed Chair Jerome Powell made the case that the labor market had “stabilized” after a period of gradual cooling.
While job gains have remained low, the unemployment rate has changed little in recent months, Powell said.
Caterpillar stock rises as power equipment sales lift profits
Caterpillar (CAT) stock rose 1.5% in premarket trading after its earnings showed it’s still a beneficiary of the AI data center build-out, but also that it expects to take another major hit from tariffs in 2026.
The construction and mining equipment maker reported an adjusted profit of $5.16 per share for the quarter, up from $5.14 per share a year earlier. Revenue rose to $19.1 billion from $16.2 billion. Those figures were above Wall Street’s expectations of $4.71 earnings per share and revenue of $17.7 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The results were boosted by sales of power generation equipment to AI data center developers. Sales in Caterpillar’s power and energy segment rose 23% year over year to $9.4 billion.
“I think what often gets overlooked is that AI is really an industrial story,” Gabelli Funds portfolio manager Brian Sponheimer told Yahoo Finance. “As this data center rollout has happened, … it’s created structural demand for industrial-grade power solutions, and no company is really as well situated to drive that supply than Caterpillar.”
However, Caterpillar is still facing headwinds from higher tariffs. Reuters reported that Caterpillar warned of a $2.6 billion tariff impact in 2026. In the fourth quarter, operating profit fell 9%, largely due to unfavorable manufacturing costs.
Comcast sheds more broadband customers as wireless competition mounts
Media group Comcast (CMCSA) reported a loss in broadband customers in its fourth quarter earnings on Thursday. The decline missed analysts’ estimates and was driven by competitors offering consumers more cost-effective, aggressive offers.
The stock edged higher before the bell on Thursday.
Premarket trending tickers: Las Vegas Sands, Royal Caribbean and Whirlpool
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) stock fell as much as 10% during premarket trading. The casino operator’s adjusted earnings fell short of analyst expectations.
Royal Caribbean (RCL) stock rose 6% before the bell on Thursday after the cruise operator’s 2026 earnings guidance beat Wall Street estimates.
Whirlpool (WHR) stock sank 10% during premarket hours today after reporting an unexpected decline in sales.
SAP shares plunge after cloud backlog, guidance disappoint
SAP (SAP) stock fell 15% before the bell on Thursday after reporting a cloud backlog and posting disappointing guidance.
The German firm said its cloud preorders reached $25 billion, but it missed analysts’ estimates by about 1%. The delay has been blamed on a few “mega deals” that are taking longer to get up and running.
Meta stock climbs after Zuckerberg says: ‘We are now seeing a major AI acceleration’
Shares in Meta (META) surged in premarket, up over 7% as investors welcome raised guidance for this year’s spending plans amid a Big Tech AI spending spree.
“We are now seeing a major AI acceleration,” Mark Zuckerberg stated on Meta’s earnings call late Wednesday.
That theme was consistent throughout Meta’s earnings call, as the CEO touted new AI models and products that the company is working on.
Zuckerberg said that since the beginning of 2025, Meta has seen a 30% increase in productivity from its engineers due to the adoption of AI coding tools. The power users of those tools have seen their output increase by 80%, Zuckerberg said.
“We’re starting to see agents really work,” he added. “This will unlock the ability to build completely new products and transform how we work.”
