Stocks were higher on Wednesday as investor sentiment remained positive even as mega cap tech stocks Alphabet and Advanced Micro Devices fell deeply throughout the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared over 300 points, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite added about 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
Shares of Alphabet
The Google-parent missed revenue estimates for its fourth-quarter, as its advertising revenue grew by 10.6%, compared to 11% a year ago -- search revenue rose 12.5%, compared with 12.7% a year ago, YouTube ads increased by 13.8%, compared with 15.5% a year ago. AMD's fourth-quarter data center revenue also disappointed analysts, and forecasted for $7.1 billion in sales in its first quarter, plus or minus $300 million.
Alphabet said it plans to invest $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025 to expand its AI strategy, with CFO Anat Ashkenazi telling analysts during the company's earnings call that that figure primarily reflects the company's investment in its technical infrastructure and data centers "to support the growth of our business across Google Services, Google Cloud and Google DeepMind."
CEO Lisa Su told analysts during the company's earnings call that its big infrastructure buyers, including Meta Platforms
On the Economic Front:
U.S. Private Employers added more jobs than expected in January, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday, as the labor market remains stable as inflationary pressures continue to ease across the economy.
Companies created a net 183,000 jobs last month, coming in slightly above December's print of 176,000 and above the 150,000 expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. All of the month's job creation came from the service industry, adding 190,000 positions, while goods producers lost about 6,000 jobs.
"We had a strong start to 2025 but it masked a dichotomy in the labor market," said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, in a statement. "Consumer-facing industries drove hiring, while job growth was weaker in business services and production."
In Other Earnings News:
Uber Technologies
"Our performance has been powered by rapid innovation and execution across multiple priorities, including the massive opportunity presented by autonomous vehicles," CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement. "We enter 2025 with clear momentum and will continue to be relentless against our long-term strategy."
Disney
Chipotle Mexican Grill
"While we believe underlying transaction trends are healthy and we have a strong plan for the year, we do compare against progressively tougher comps in the first half of the year and therefore are guiding to a low to mid single digit comp for the full year," CEO Adam Rymer told analysts during the company's earnings call.
For Thursday:
The earnings season continues on Thursday, with companies including Qualcomm