Big Tech earnings ‘crucial’ to markets this week

Between Tuesday and Thursday, five Big Tech companies with a combined market value of more than $10 trillion will report earnings: Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve will issue its decision on interest rates, followed by Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference where he’s expected to discuss the outlook ahead.

The stakes couldn’t be much higher, with the S&P 500 Index pushing deeper into record territory on bets that central bankers are poised to began easing monetary policies and tech behemoths like Microsoft getting more valuable by the day.

“Tech disproportionately moved the market last year and big tech continues to have the biggest earnings power, so the results will be crucial for the markets,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance.

After a shaky start to the year, the S&P 500 is rising again and on pace for a third monthly advance that’s added more than 18% since late October, when the index hit a near-term low before Fed officials started signaling that rate hikes were over. 

The rally is again being led by megacaps including Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon.com, Nvidia and Meta Platforms, which were responsible for a majority of the index’s 24% gain last year as investors became captivated by the possibilities of artificial intelligence services. The so-called Magnificent Seven, which also includes Tesla Inc., just hit a record 29% of the S&P 500 despite a slump in shares of the electric-vehicle maker that’s erased more than $200 billion in market value just this month.

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