S&P 500 rises on tech strength ahead of Microsoft, Alphabet Results

investing.com:

Investing.com — The S&P 500 advanced Tuesday as investors piled into tech stocks ahead of quarterly results from Microsoft and Alphabet and the Federal Reverse decision due Wednesday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%, or 59 points, Nasdaq was up 0.8%.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) climbed more than 1% into their quarterly results due after the market closes.

Microsoft’s report is likely to garner the bulk of investor attention, Wedbush says, as there “is no better barometer of the overall cloud and enterprise spending environment than Redmond [Microsoft].”

«The company’s cloud segment Azure is the key number to focus on,» Wedbush adds, with the Street expecting 26% growth.

For Google, meanwhile, investor focus will likely be looking out for signs of improvement in the advertising market, updates on AI investments, and the performance of the tech giant's cloud business.

Chip stocks also pushed the broader tech sector following a rally in NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) after the major automotive chip supplier reported upbeat guidance and quarterly results that topped Wall Street estimates.

The stronger-than-expected results were driven by automotive growth that looks set to continue, Oppenheimer says, as NXP's partnership with Chinese EV manufacturer Nio Inc (NYSE:NIO) for 4D imaging radar and China's $72B EV tax credit subsidy provides a tailwind.

Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) was marginally higher as quarterly revenue that missed Wall Street estimates was offset by an unexpected rise in its wireless subscriber base following plans to ramp up its enterprise customer base.

General Motors (NYSE:GM), meanwhile, fell more than 3% despite reporting quarterly