US STOCKS-Wall Street leaps to 1-month highs as Microsoft, Meta surge

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Purvi Agarwal

May 1 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes jumped to around one-month highs on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading gains, as strong quarterly results from heavyweights Microsoft and Meta pointed to a resilient outlook for the technology sector.

Microsoft MSFT.O surged 9% to its highest level since late January, driven by an upbeat quarterly growth forecast for its cloud-computing business Azure. The jump helped the stock surpass Apple AAPL.O to became the world's most valuable company.

Meta Platforms META.O gained 5.6% after posting higher-than-expected revenue on the back of a strong advertising performance.

The ongoing tech earnings represent a "critical inflection point" for the market, said Joe Tigay, portfolio manager of Rational Equity Armor Fund.

"Microsoft, Amazon, and their peers aren't just reporting numbers, they're revealing whether businesses are doubling down on cloud and IT or pulling back amid trade wars and economic uncertainty."

The fallout from erratic shifts in U.S. trade policy has been the dominant theme this earnings season, with many companies slashing or withdrawing their profit outlooks. Still, S&P 500 first-quarter earnings are seen growing 12.9% on an annual basis, per LSEG data.

Results from megacaps Amazon.com AMZN.O and Apple AAPL.O are due after markets close. Amazon shares were up 2.9%.

Apple shares were little changed, lagging the rest of the "Magnificent Seven" stocks after a federal judge ruled the iPhone maker had violated a U.S. court order to reform its App Store.

The S&P 500 and Dow were at nearly one-month highs, while the Nasdaq jumped to its highest since March 28. The S&P 500 is headed for an eight-session winning streak, its best since August, if gains hold.

At 11:44 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 333.61 points, or 0.82%, to 41,001.86, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 71.53 points, or 1.28%, to 5,640.59 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 398.64 points, or 2.28%, to 17,844.98.

Other technology megacaps also rose, with Nvidia NVDA.O up 4.8%. That lifted the information technology .SPLRCT and communication services .SPLRCL sectors 3.3% and 2.1%, respectively, to over one-month highs.

The day's economic data releases were mixed.

Weekly jobless claims, coming in ahead of Friday's crucial nonfarm payrolls data, showed layoffs increased more than expected last week, potentially hinting at a pick-up in job cuts following tariffs.

ISM PMI data showed U.S. manufacturing contracted further in April, though slightly less than expected by economists polled by Reuters.

That followed Wednesday's data showing the U.S. economy contracted for the first time in three years in the last quarter.

Among other earnings, Eli Lilly LLY.N lost 10.7% after its quarterly results, pressuring the healthcare sector .SPXHC, while McDonald's MCD.N dipped 0.7% after posting a surprise drop in first-quarter global sales.

Mobile chip designer Qualcomm QCOM.O fell 8.3% after it forecast a hit to revenue from the trade war.

General Motors GM.N gained 0.9% after offering a new forecast for 2025 core profit.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.09-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.68-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 9 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 33 new highs and 44 new lows.