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UPS down after lower-than-expected 2025 revenue forecast

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Microsoft ( MSFT ) forecast disappoints

(Updates to close)

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Reuters) -

U.S. stocks ended higher on Thursday as investors digested a

stack of key earnings reports, with upbeat comments from Tesla

helping to offset a disappointing forecast from

Microsoft ( MSFT ).

Indexes briefly lost ground late in the session after

U.S. President Donald Trump repeated that the United States will

impose a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada.

Tesla shares 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 was Meta, whose shares

gained after the company beat Wall Street's fourth-quarter

revenue estimates but said current-quarter sales may not meet

forecasts. IBM ( IBM ) shares jumped after the company surpassed

fourth-quarter profit expectations.

Shares of Microsoft ( MSFT ) dropped after the company

forecast disappointing growth in its cloud computing business.

Investors also took in comments from the CEOs of Meta and

Microsoft ( MSFT ) 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.

Investors have been worried about the impact of tariffs on

the U.S. economy and inflation.

"Until we understand what tariff policies, what fiscal

policies are going to go into play, it's going to be very

difficult for the market to find a trajectory that is

sustainable," said Oliver Pursche, senior vice president,

advisor for Wealthspire Advisors in Westport, Connecticut.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500

gained 30.35 points, or 0.50%, to end at 6,069.66 points,

while the Nasdaq Composite gained 45.72 points, or

0.23%, to 19,678.05. The Dow Jones Industrial Average

rose 166.09 points, or 0.37%, to 44,879.61.

The Fed on Wednesday kept interest rates unchanged and

removed language acknowledging easing inflation from its latest

policy meeting statement.

More than 70% of S&P 500 company earnings for the final

quarter of 2024 have beaten analysts' expectations, LSEG data

showed.

Among other outlooks, United Parcel Service ( UPS )

forecast 2025 revenue below expectations and its shares weighed

on the Dow Jones Transportation Average.

Results from Apple ( AAPL ) and Intel ( INTC ) are due

after the closing bell.

(Additional reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta in

Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai, Shounak Dasgupta and Richard

Chang)