Tech stock earnings exceed expectations

With US earnings season winding to a close, investors will be relieved the world’s biggest tech stocks have not only met analyst expectations, but exceeded them. Stocktake recently quoted DataTrek Research’s Nicholas Colas as saying there was a “lot riding” on tech stock earnings, given just seven mega-cap stocks were responsible for almost all the S&P 500′s gains in 2023.

The fear was the run-up in mega-cap stocks left them susceptible to disappointment, notes Bespoke Investment, but that hasn’t happened. Bespoke looked at the performance of the six biggest tech companies. Only one (Amazon) fell following its earnings report. One (Alphabet) was flat. Two (Nvidia and Facebook parent Meta) surged over 10 per cent. Apple and Microsoft also delivered the goods, rising 4.5 and 7 per cent, respectively. There was much market “angst” before to the tech giants’ earnings reports, notes Bespoke, but they are “still carrying their weight”.