Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq is back on track, having recovered its losses from US President Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff reveal after better-than-expected earnings from Microsoft and Meta Platforms overshadowed concerns investors might have about General Motors’ tariff woes and the light appetite consumers had for McDonald’s.
Among the other Magnificent 7 mega-stocks, Apple and Amazon’s earnings announcements after the bell will occupy analysts for the rest of the day, while Tesla continues to push back against reports its board considered searching for a successor to its mercurial chief executive Elon Musk and Nvidia reportedly aired its concerns about Huawei Technologies’ growing capability with US policymakers.
As Australia prepares to head to the polls on Saturday – where the incumbent Labor administration is looking like securing a minority government – Rio Tinto’s shareholders rejected jostling to overhaul its structure.
And locally, New Zealand’s weather woes are continuing with states of emergency still in place across the nation, while carriers have resumed some flights in and out of the capital city.
Just magnificent
Stocks on Wall Street were led higher by a resurgent Nasdaq Composite, which was up 2.1% at 7am in Auckland, after strong earnings reports from Microsoft and Meta.
Microsoft jumped 8.8% as investors interpreted its revenue and earnings growth as signs that corporates aren’t cutting their technology budgets, while Meta advanced 5.4% as ad sales beat expectations and assuaged concerns that tariffs would dent marketing spending, particularly Chinese firms.
Apple and Amazon are next up from the Big Tech cohort that drive much of the movement on US markets.
“US equities are higher following strong earnings reports from Microsoft and Meta and the ISM manufacturing index didn’t fall as much as expected, even if there are clear signs of cracks opening in the US economy,” Bank of New Zealand senior market strategist Jason Wong said in a note. “Sentiment has also been supported by chatter that the US is trying to initiate trade talks with China.”
Tesla was up 0.4% after rejecting reports by the Wall Street Journal that the board had considered searching for a replacement CEO. Musk is set to spend more time at the electric vehicle maker having poured much of his time engaged in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
And Nvidia rose 3.7% with the renewed investor appetite for tech stocks. Reuters reported that the chipmaker’s chief executive Jensen Huang met US lawmakers to discuss how export restrictions on Nvidia chips in China could make Huawei’s chips more competitive.
Less magnificent
Meanwhile, General Motors dipped after slashing annual guidance and saying tariffs could knock earnings by US$5 billion, while McDonald’s declined after reporting a bigger fall in quarterly revenue than expected with softer demand in the US.
Rio Tinto shareholders rejected a bid by Palliser Capital for the world’s second-biggest miner to drop its primary London listing and become a wholly-owned Australian company, which the London-based hedge fund claims restricts the company’s ability to pursue stock-based deals and make full use of Australian tax credits.
Meanwhile, stock markets in Europe were broadly stronger with Germany’s DAX 30 up 0.3% and France’s CAC 40 increasing 0.5%.
The kiwi dollar fell to 59.08 US cents at 7am in Auckland from 59.42 cents yesterday, with US employment figures on Friday the major focus in currency markets and expected to show modest jobs growth and a stable unemployment rate.
Local data today include new dwelling consents for March, while retail sales figures are due across the Tasman.
