By Abigail Summerville and Sukriti Gupta
(Reuters) -The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose on Thursday, as investors sifted through several upbeat earnings reports while awaiting Friday’s key jobs report and any trade policy moves.
Drugmaker Eli Lilly rose 3.4% after the company forecast annual profit largely above estimates, while fashion house Tapestry jumped 12.6% on an annual sales and profit forecast increase.
Philip Morris International advanced 10.2% after the cigarette maker posted better-than-expected quarterly results and forecast 2025 profit above estimates.
Amazon.com ticked up 0.7% ahead of its quarterly earnings report, expected after the bell. Investors will look for updates on its artificial intelligence investments, after Chinese startup DeepSeek’s cheaper AI model sharpened investor scrutiny of the billions U.S. tech giants have spent developing the technology.
“Today, the main focus is corporate earnings. Tariffs are in the background,” said Zachary Hill, head of portfolio management at Horizon Investments.
“Amazon will be the sixth of the Magnificent Seven to report. The AI theme has been under quite a lot of volatility over the last few weeks with the DeepSeek news …We’re watching tonight for any thoughts that (Amazon) has to say around that,” Hill said.
Honeywell fell 5.5% after the industrial and aerospace giant said it would split into three independently listed companies and forecast downbeat sales and profit for 2025. The sharp decline dragged down the Dow.
At 1:45 p.m. ET (1845 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 179.25 points, or 0.40%, to 44,694.03, the S&P 500 gained 11.56 points, or 0.20%, to 6,073.04 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 67.37 points, or 0.34%, to 19,759.70.
Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors traded higher, with consumer staples leading gains, and energy stocks losing the most ground.
Markets saw a dismal start to the week when U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping trade tariffs over the weekend, but suspended the levies on goods from Mexico and Canada on Monday for a month.
The January nonfarm payrolls report is due on Friday, a crucial metric in gauging the state of the labor market and the Federal Reserve’s rate path.
Traders do not expect the Fed to make a move on interest rates in its next meeting in March, but a cut is widely anticipated in June, according to the CME’s FedWatch.
Data released on Thursday showed the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits increased moderately last week.
Elsewhere in corporate moves, Skyworks Solutions plunged 23.5% after the Apple supplier forecast declines in revenue in its mobile segment and projected current-quarter profits below estimates.
Qualcomm fell 4.8% as the chip designer’s executives said its lucrative patent-licensing business would not see sales growth this year after a license agreement with Huawei Technologies expired.
Ford Motor dropped 6.4% after the automaker forecast up to $5.5 billion in losses in its electric vehicle and software operations this year.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.07-to-1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange, and by a 1.04-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 30 new 52-week highs and nine new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 111 new highs and 77 new lows.
(Reporting by Abigail Summerville in New York, Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai, Shinjini Ganguli and Nia Williams)
