US STOCKS-Indexes gain as investors weigh key corporate earnings

Updates to afternoon

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Reuters) - All three major U.S. stock indexes rose on Thursday as investors digested a stack of key earnings reports, with upbeat comments from Tesla TSLA.O helping to offset a disappointing forecast from Microsoft MSFT.O.

All the S&P 500 sectors were higher, except for technology .SPLRCT, which fell 0.8%.

Tesla shares rose 3.3% and were among the biggest boosts to the S&P 500. CEO Elon Musk vowed to launch long-awaited cheaper models in the first half of 2025 and start testing an autonomous ride-hailing service in June. The comments overshadowed its quarterly results that fell short of expectations.

Also helping the S&P 500, Meta shares gained 1.4% after the company beat Wall Street's fourth-quarter revenue estimates but said current-quarter sales may not meet forecasts. IBM IBM.N shares jumped 12.2% after the company surpassed fourth-quarter profit expectations.

Shares of Microsoft MSFT.O fell 6.1% after the company forecast disappointing growth in its cloud computing business.

Investors also took in comments from the CEOs of Meta and Microsoft defending their heavy investments in artificial intelligence, days after Chinese startup DeepSeek unveiled a breakthrough in cheap AI models that rattled Wall Street and triggered a sell-off in AI-linked stocks.

"It's the push and pull of continued strong earnings against a backdrop of a less accommodating Federal Reserve and persistent inflation," said Oliver Pursche, senior vice president, advisor for Wealthspire Advisors in Westport, Connecticut.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 226.94 points, or 0.51%, to 44,942.34. The S&P 500 .SPX climbed 30.93 points, or 0.51%, to 6,070.24 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 42.49 points, or 0.22%, at 19,674.72.

The Fed on Wednesday kept interest rates unchanged and removed language acknowledging easing inflation from its latest policy meeting statement.

The majority of S&P 500 companies that have reported fourth-quarter results have beaten analysts' expectations, LSEG data showed.

United Parcel Service UPS.N lost 14.3% and weighed on the Dow Jones Transportation Average .DJT after the company forecast 2025 revenue below expectations.

Results from Apple AAPL.O and Intel INTC.O are due after the closing bell.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 4.66-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 217 new highs and 42 new lows on the NYSE.

On the Nasdaq, 2,990 stocks rose and 1,315 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.27-to-1 ratio.