S&P 500, Nasdaq Gain, Powered By Meta, Tesla Stock - SPCX, META, TSLA, SKYD, IBM In Focus

(MENAFN- AsiaNet News)

• The S & P 500 ended Wednesday 0.3% higher, the Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1%.
• Our AI investments are paying off, Meta CEO Zuckerberg said. 
• Media mogul John Malone sees possible investment by SpaceX in Skydance.

U.S. stock indices ended higher on Wednesday, with robust results from Meta and Tesla helping aid investor confidence in technology shares. 

The S & P 500 ended Wednesday 0.6% higher, the Nasdaq 100 added 1.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%. The Russell 2000, which tracks small-cap stocks, gained 0.3%.

Stock futures ticked higher immediately after market close, however, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures eventually ticked lower 0.1%. S & P 500 futures fell 0.2%, and Nasdaq-100 futures dropped 0.3% at the time of writing.

The SPDR S & P 500 ETF (SPY) rose 0.5%, and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) added 0.6%. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq-100 tracking Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) rose 1.1% on Wednesday.  

Meanwhile, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and the iShares Semiconductor ETF gained about 0.8% on Wednesday amid strength in Micron Tech (MU), Nvidia (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO), and most other silicon makers. The broader Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) jumped 1.2%.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits for SPY and DIA was 'bearish' with 'high' message volumes, while sentiment improved to 'neutral' from 'bearish' for the QQQ.

US Market Drivers

Index	Move	Close
Dow Jones Industrial Average	0.7%	52,856.09
S & P 500	0.6%	7,757.17
Nasdaq 100	1.1%	29,822.52

Elon Musk-led SpaceX advanced 7%, providing a boost to the tech-focused Nasdaq throughout regular trading following a 161% revenue increase in Q3. Musk additionally revealed that SpaceX and Tesla have established special committees to evaluate a potential merger, sending shares of the electric vehicle maker up over 3% ahead of its quarterly report. 

“SpaceX suggests there is still a longer runway here, but that fundamental tension or experience of getting overly enthusiastic and overly capitalizing things I don't think has changed,” said Joe Zidle, Cresset's chief market strategist. 

Meanwhile, robust quarterly earnings from Meta, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg iterating that AI investments are paying off, aided tech stocks in after-hours trading. Tesla, on the other hand, reported third-quarter results that were marginally below revenue expectations and ahead of forecasts on adjusted earnings. 

“The quarter showed the AI investment paying off in the core,” said Dan Ives, partner and senior managing director at Yorkville Ives in his post-Meta earnings note.  

Key Trending Stocks

A New Mexico state judge on Wednesday ordered Meta Platforms (META) to pay $25 billion for deceiving users regarding data privacy and content moderation practices in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. 

Media mogul John Malone said on Wednesday that he sees a possible transaction between media firm Skydance (SKYD) and Elon Musk's rocket and AI company SpaceX (SPCX). 

Morgan Stanley's top bullish conviction AI selections are Western Digital (WDC), TeraWulf (WULF), and Williams Companies (WMB). 

Shares of Mattel (MAT) pared losses and closed roughly flat on Wednesday following a report that a major shareholder is preparing a proxy contest to push for a sale of the toymaker. 

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) share price added 3% after-hours on Wednesday after the company reported third-quarter revenue and earnings that beat Wall Street expectations, bolstered by steady software expansion and a resurgence in big-ticket mainframe sales. 

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