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Key Takeaways
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The S&P 500 added 0.4% on Thursday, Jan. 30, as a report showed consumer spending continued to buoy economic growth.
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Las Vegas Sands shares pushed higher as the casino operator topped sales forecasts, receiving a boost from its Singapore property.
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UPS missed quarterly estimates and said it would reduce Amazon delivery volumes, and shares of the logistics firm dropped.
Major U.S. equities indexes moved higher as a report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed consumers continued to spend, despite the slight deceleration in gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
The S&P 500 advanced 0.5% on Thursday. The Dow was up 0.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the session roughly 0.3% higher.
Shares of energy producer Vistra (VST) jumped 13.6%, logging the S&P 500's top performance. With Thursday's push higher, the utility stock clawed back some of the heavy losses posted earlier in the week as a cost-effective artificial intelligence (AI) model from Chinese startup DeepSeek casts a shadow on AI-related stocks. Optimism about Vistra's opportunity to power AI data centers has helped the stock skyrocket about 330% over the past year.
IBM (IBM) stock surged 13.0% after the legacy tech giant topped earnings and sales estimates for the fourth quarter. "Big Blue" highlighted strong year-over-year growth in revenue from its software business, boosted by demand for AI technology and momentum from its Red Hat Linux operating system.
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) shares popped 11.1% after the casino operator's quarterly report. Softness in the company's Macao business weighed on profits, which came in below forecasts. However, fourth-quarter sales topped estimates, boosted by a strong performance from its Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore. Las Vegas Sands also repurchased $450 million worth of shares during the period.
United Parcel Service (UPS) reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter sales and profits, and shares of the package delivery company plunged 14.1%, losing the most ground of any S&P 500 stock on Thursday. UPS also announced an agreement to cut its volume of deliveries for Amazon (AMZN) by 50% by the end of next year. Although Amazon is the shipper's largest customer, accounting for almost 12% of revenue in 2024, UPS said that winding down its collaboration with the e-commerce giant will allow for a shift toward more profitable projects, helping boost margins.
ServiceNow (NOW) shares tumbled 11.4% following the software and IT services firm's fourth-quarter earnings release. Although adjusted profits topped forecasts and sales were in line with expectations, subscription revenue growth fell short of guidance. ServiceNow predicted a slight deceleration in the key metric during the first quarter.