US STOCKS-S&P 500, Nasdaq set for higher open as markets assess earnings barrage

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By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta

Jan 30 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were on track to open higher on Thursday, driven by post-earnings gains in Meta and Tesla, while Microsoft's lackluster cloud forecast and downbeat results from Cigna tempered the overall market optimism somewhat.

Microsoft MSFT.O dropped 4.5% after forecasting disappointing growth in its cloud computing business.

Meta Platforms META.O rose 2.4% in premarket trading after beating estimates for fourth-quarter revenue, but forecast that first-quarter sales might miss estimates.

Tesla TSLA.O gained 4.4% after saying it was on track to roll out new, cheaper EV models in the first half of 2025. It also said it would start testing a paid autonomous car service in June, overshadowing quarterly results that fell short of expectations.

"We had a number of results yesterday, which showed that grand ambitions are still rewarded," said Frédérique Carrier, head of investment strategy for RBC Wealth Management.

"We saw that with the difference in performance between Tesla and Meta, which both have grand ambitions, compared to the market reaction to Microsoft earnings."

Health insurer Cigna CI.N slid 10.7% after it forecast annual profit below expectations and missed estimates for the fourth quarter, while United Parcel Service UPS.N lost 14.6% after forecasting 2025 revenue below expectations.

Lam Research LRCX.O rose 6.8% after the chip-making equipment supplier forecast third-quarter revenue above expectations, driven by a surge in orders from chip firms amid the AI boom.

Chip-related companies Broadcom AVGO.O and Marvell Technology MRVL.O jumped 5.2% and 4.5%, respectively.

Apple AAPL.O and Intel INTC.O are scheduled to report results after markets close.

At 08:48 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were down 93 points, or 0.21%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 11.75 points, or 0.19% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 88.75 points, or 0.41%.

The U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, removing language acknowledging easing inflation from its latest policy meeting statement. Chair Jerome Powell said there would be no rush to cut rates again until inflation and jobs data made it appropriate.

Meanwhile, data showed U.S. economic growth slowed in the fourth quarter, while a jobless claims report showed claims fell more than expected last week.

Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Wednesday, but were well shy of session lows and still below levels seen at the end of the previous week, as investors assessed Powell's comments.

Markets were rocked earlier this week by the meteoric rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek's AI models, which posed stiff competition to leading U.S. artificial-intelligence model providers and sparked worries of a price war.

Among other movers, IBM IBM.N jumped 9.5% after the company surpassed fourth-quarter profit expectations. ServiceNow NOW.N lost 10.6% after the software firm forecast annual subscription revenue below Wall Street estimates.