The S&P 500 rose to a five-month high Thursday as the Meta leads a tech comeback

The S&P 500 rose to a five-month high on Thursday as better-than-expected Meta results improved sentiment around technology stocks, sending the market lower last year.

The broader market index jumped 1.4%, or its best level since August. Meanwhile, the high-tech Nasdaq Composite advanced 3% to its highest level since September. The gains come ahead of a trio of results from Big Tech after the bell at Apple, Amazon and Alphabet.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average underperformed, dropping 150 points, or about 0.4%. The main indicator has been pulled from before merck stocks after the drugmaker issued a poor outlook on its latest earnings results, despite beating estimates in earnings.

meta increased by more than 25% Best day since 2013 After reporting a The fourth quarter outperformed revenue And the announcement of a $40 billion to buy back shares. This helped investors look to the past losses In the business unit that oversees Metaverse.

Other big tech stocks rose on the back of the results. Google parent posts the alphabet were more than 6%, while Amazon It jumped more than 6%. an Apple gained more than 3%.

Tech stocks outperformed in 2023, buoyed by recent signs of slowing inflation that investors expect could lead the Federal Reserve to pause in its aggressive campaign to raise interest rates. The S&P 500 IT sector is up more than 14% this year after falling more than 28% last year.

“It shows that growth is outperforming value as it relieves some of the pressures that hawkish rhetoric has brought to risk markets over the course of 2022,” said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Global Investments.

Wall Street came out with a winning session after the Fed announced on Wednesday Raise the interest rate by 0.25 percentage points. While the central bank gave no indication of an upcoming pause in rate hikes, investors were encouraged by the smaller increase and comments from Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledging easing inflation.

Traders await the latest jobs report on Friday which will give an insight into the labor market. Any signs of a slowdown could suggest to investors that further rate hikes are off the table.