Stock markets have experienced a great year during 2023 despite central banks raising interest rates and the global economy weakening. They closed the year with massive gains and have started 2024 in the same manner, ending January with solid gains as well. We also have seen some strong buying momentum in the first two days of February, with the S&P500 making new highs, helped by corporation earnings and the NFP report, both of which were strong.

Impressive Q3 Earnings Figures from the US

In the last two days, US companies have published their financial reports, showing impressive earnings in general. Last year Chevron and ExxonMobil reported their second-largest profits in a decade which helped their stocks open with a bullish gap today. Some IT stocks are also soaring on the release of earnings, including Amazon and Meta. Amazon’s AWS cloud division saw sales of $24.2 billion which is a great performance in Q4 of 2023, while Meta recorded revenue of $40.1 billion and profit of $14 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, considerably above analysts’ expectations.

Apple stock fell lower yesterday due to the drop in iPhone sales in China, where local brands have been taking over, but its fourth-quarter results also came above expectations. Earlier this week, Alphabet’s Q4 financial results fell short of analysts’ expectations, which was the only disappointment of major Tech companies, sending shares down more than 6 percent.

Nonetheless, stock markets had a strong performance in the last two days, which contributed to an additional $300 billion to US markets, with the S&P500, NASDAQ Composite Index, and Dow Jones Industrial Average all ending at new or close to record highs. S&P 500 futures were up 50 points after the publication of the non-farm payrolls report, trading over 9,460 points, but have retreated somewhat and are presently trading 20 points lower, however with substantial gains for the day nonetheless.

S&P 500 Live Chart