US market surges on news of Facebook parent Meta’s results despite fears over GDP figures

Major indexes clawed back some of the stinging losses from tech sell-off on Thursday

Wall Street saw technology and growth stocks surge on Thursday after strong earnings from Facebook’s parent company Meta allayed concerns the US economy contracted in the first quarter of 2022.

As of 3pm, the markets were enjoying their best day since May 2020, with all three major indexes enjoying a sustained boost.

Leading the charge was Meta Platforms, which rebounded from a major sell-off in January to be up 18 per cent.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was up more than 3.5 per cent, while the S&P 500 was up 2.8 per cent.

Also surging on Thursday afternoon were Apple (4.46 per cent) and e-commerce giant Amazon (5 per cent), with both mega cap companies due to report their quarterly reports after the closing bell.

Investors had been selling off growth stocks since late March due to fears over inflation, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Federal Reserve raising interest rates and a broader economic slowdown.

That fear was confirmed when the US economy unexpectedly contracted by 1.5 per cent in the first quarter as Covid-19 cases surged again, and government pandemic relief money dropped.

Even after Thursday’s rally, the Nasdaq was still down by 10 per cent in April, its worst month since March 2020.

A Wall Street trader on the floor during Thursday’s rally (New York Stock Exchange)

“When interest rates, the inflation path and what the Fed is going to do are so volatile, it just means that pricing every other asset is that much more difficult,” Zach Hill, head of Portfolio Strategy at Horizon Investments, told Reuters.

“We’ve done a lot of earnings data over the last couple days and weeks and by and large, outside of a few particular cases, corporate America’s underlying fundamentals have been relatively strong,” Mr Hill said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.1 per cent late afternoon Thursday afternoon.

Agencies contributed to this report