US markets end mixed for third session; Apple posts better-than-expected revenue growth

The US markets ended in mixed for the third consecutive session as the post-earnings outlook on AI-related stocks concerned investors. The NASDAQ and S&P500 slipped by 0.5% and 0.1%, while the Dow Jones edged 0.1% higher on Thursday. The losses in tech stocks were primarily driven by a reassessment of AI stocks' valuation after Microsoft posted slower cloud growth and a surge in AI infrastructure spending. The shares of Microsoft plunged over 10%, weighing on the sentiment on all tech stocks.

However, other megacap names like Meta jumped over 10% on a better-than-expected revenue outlook. While Apple Inc outperformed the expectations in the quarterly earnings, the company’s revenue jumped 16% YoY to $143.7 billion. The iPhone sales surged 23.8% YoY to $85.27 billion, primarily driven by 38% surge in sales to China. The company’s CEO Tim Cook said, “ The demand remains strong across the current iPhone lineup, it exceeded our expectations”.

The Federal Reserve actions were also in focus after the central bank kept the interest rates unchanged at 3.5%-3.75%, after policymakers cut interest rates three times last year. President Trump, in a press conference, said that he will announce the new Federal Reserve Chairman as early as Friday morning. Consequently, the US stock market futures traded in red on Friday morning ahead of the key developments.

The gold and silver prices witnessed a sharp pullback on Thursday evening, after the US dollar strengthened for the first time in the past three sessions. The gold prices fell to as low as $5,100 per ounce, while silver prices fell to $106 per ounce on Thursday. However, on Friday morning, gold and silver prices recouped the majority of the losses to trade back in green.