Tesla, IBM and Meta Platforms helped lead most U.S. stocks higher on Thursday following a rush of profit reports from some of the country’s most influential companies. The S&P 500 rose 0.5%, as four out of every five stocks in the index climbed.

U.S. stocks slipped after the Federal Reserve held its main interest rate steady and broke a run of cuts that began in September

United Parcel Service Inc. shares plunged after the company projected annual revenue well below expectations, telling investors that a long-awaited rebound in demand for its parcel services won’t arrive this year and prompting it to slash its low-margin business with Amazon.

Nvidia crossed below its 200 day moving average for the first time since 2023 this week. Analysts say the correction could deepen.

Chip stocks in the U.S. and Europe rose on Wednesday for a second straight day, recovering from a punishing selloff triggered by China's low-cost DeepSeek artificial intelligence tool at the start of the week.

Investors grow concerned that AI expenses and a looming price war in cloud services could blow up its profits.

Microsoft reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street estimates on Wednesday. The stock, however, was dropping. The company reported earnings of $3.23 a share on revenue of $69.