US stocks fell Thursday but pulled back from a steeper tech-driven sell-off, as investors came away from megacap tech earnings fretting about AI spending.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) led losses, shedding roughly 0.7% as a plunge in Microsoft (MSFT) shares dragged on the index. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) shed 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) turned slightly positive.

Microsoft's slide deepened Thursday, with shares falling over 10% after its earnings report spooked investors with higher-than-anticipated capital spending and a slowdown in quarterly cloud sales growth.

That took some of the wind out of Meta's (META) earnings performance. Shares gained over 10% thanks to a surprisingly strong quarterly revenue outlook. And the company said it plans to spend up to $135 billion on its data center build-out this year, a boost to its push to win the AI race.

Meanwhile, Tesla (TSLA) flipped to a loss, shedding over 3% as the company focused on a strategy shift from EVs to robots and a quarterly earnings beat. But the company also saw its first-ever decline in annual revenue. Investors are now gearing up for Apple’s (AAPL) quarterly earnings, due after the closing bell.

The tech moves took focus amid an escalation in US-Iran tensions, stoked by President Trump's warning to Iran that it must agree to a nuclear deal quickly or be hit with military strikes. Crude oil futures climbed to build on Tuesday's four-month high as US ships massed in the region, with Brent surging past its latest resistance level of $70 per barrel.

Wall Street is also digesting the Federal Reserve's first monetary policy decision of 2026, in which it kept interest rates unchanged. Markets are pricing in two quarter-point rate cuts by year-end, per CME FedWatch, but an easing may not come before the end of Jerome Powell's tenure in May. The watch is now on for an announcement from Trump of his pick as the next Fed chair, which he has said will come soon.

US stocks retreated as investors weighed concerns about AI spending following Big Tech quarterly results.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropped 0.7% as Microsoft (MSFT) stock sank, raising questions about hefty capital spending.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.1% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was the lone index in the green, rising 0.1%.

Investors awaited Apple (AAPL) earnings, due after the bell.

Amazon (AMZN) is reportedly in talks to invest $50 billion into OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The report states that OpenAI is seeking up to $100 billion in new investments, a figure that could value it at as much as $830 billion.

Gold (GC=F) held steady near $5,300 per ounce after easing from a record north of $5,600 on Thursday, while silver (SI=F) stayed firm north of $114 as a massive rally in precious metals took a pause.

The declines came alongside a sell-off in the stock market, with the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropping as much as 2% amid a plunge in Microsoft stock (MSFT). The tech giant's quarterly earnings report spooked investors, given higher-than-anticipated capital spending and a slowdown in quarterly cloud sales growth.

Yahoo Finance's Dan Howely reports:

Meta (META) reported a blowout fourth quarter after the bell on Wednesday, posting better-than-anticipated earnings per share and revenue. But the big news came during the company’s earnings call.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg used his opening remarks to deliver what felt more like a state-of-the-union address, laying out his plans for the company’s AI moves in 2026 after a tough 2025.

Read more here.

On Tesla's (TSLA) Q4 earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk said, “We're really moving into a future that is based on autonomy.”

The essentially amounted to a crossing of the Rubicon, Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian writes. It lays the groundwork for Tesla’s departure from being a car company into an embodied AI future.

Pras writes:

Gone are some of the company’s most famed EVs, and in their place are more self-driving cars, robotaxis, and, of course, robots.

\\"Forget the Tesla you knew. The Tesla of yesterday is gone,\\" Canaccord Genuity analyst George Gianarikas wrote in a note on Thursday. \\"We believe Elon Musk has reached a definitive burn-the-ships inflection point, a total commitment to a vision that leaves no room for retreat.\\"

“The company is burning the boats, pinning its future on autonomous cars and robots,” added Piper Sandler’s Alex Potter.

Read more here.

Apple shares fell just fractionally Thursday ahead of the iPhone maker's earnings report after the bell, defying drawdown in \\"Magnificent Seven\\" tech stocks and a 2.5% drop in the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) as Microsoft's (MSFT) results weighed on the index.

Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley breaks down what investors are watching for in Apple's results:

Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook and company will take center stage on Thursday when the company reports its first quarter earnings results. The Street is looking for a strong showing on the strength of Apple’s iPhone 17 sales and Services segment.

During Apple’s fourth quarter earnings call, Cook said the company anticipates first quarter revenue to be the “best-ever for the company and the best ever for iPhone.” That’s set some big expectations for the company’s results.

But there’s more going on in Apple World than iPhone sales. The company, like many in the tech industry, is contending with a worldwide memory shortage caused by the global AI data center buildout, which is driving up prices on the key components.

That could put pressure on Apple’s margins or force the company to raise iPhone prices in the coming months.

Read more here.

Despite a broader sell-off in the markets on Thursday, cruise stocks were buoyed by an upbeat outlook from Royal Caribbean (RCL).

Shares of the cruise line surged 15% after the company forecast double-digit revenue and earnings growth for the full year. Royal Caribbean also issued higher-than-expected earnings per share guidance for the first quarter.

Signs of strong demand lifted shares of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), up 9%, Carnival (CCL), up 7%, and Viking Holdings (VIK), up 4%.

\\"The fourth quarter capped an incredible year for us, as strong demand for our vacation experiences, coupled with strong execution by our teams, resulted in happy guests and robust financial results,\\" CFO Naftali Holtz said on the Royal Caribbean earnings call.

Gold (GC=F) futures fell to $5,200 after briefly topping $5,600 per ounce on Thursday, while silver also slid as a blistering rally in precious metals appeared to come to a halt.

The greenback (DX-Y.NYB) strengthened, bouncing off its lowest level since early 2022 earlier this week, putting pressure on the prices of gold and silver, which had seen stunning gains up until then.

Gold prices had rallied roughly 20% year to date as the greenback weakened against other currencies.

Meanwhile, strategists have increasingly warned traders about the rally's speed.

“The continued surge across metals, especially gold and silver, is entering a dangerous phase, in my opinion,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said on Thursday.

“The problem is volatility feeding on itself. As price swings intensify, liquidity thins,” he added.

Silver futures crashed 3% to hover near $106 after topping $120 per ounce on Thursday. The precious metal is up 42% year to date after a stunning rally in 2025.

Copper (HG=F) has spent the past six months surging amid trade policy uncertainty and a series of supply-and-demand shocks, which have rocked markets for the base metal, which recently crossed $13,000 per ton for the first time. Demand has skyrocketed as the metal is crucial to the buildout of AI technology.

But analysts say the intense price action may be overheated — and largely driven by speculative trading.

As I reported:

It's not just silver (SI=F) and gold (GC=F) surging to record highs — copper is also ripping to a record as the metals complex continues to be the defining trade of 2026.

Copper futures (HG=F) were up 10% on Thursday morning, topping $13,000 per ton as supply chain disruptions, trade policy, and quickly growing demand have pushed prices higher. Priced per pound, copper is currently trading near $6.50; a year ago, prices were closer to $4.25.

Copper is essential for data centers and the other technologies underpinning the AI revolution, as well as for worldwide electrification efforts spanning electric vehicles to power-grid expansion.

Global demand for copper is now expected to surge from 28 million tons in 2025 to 42 million tons by 2040, but without meaningful supply expansions, the market will run up against a 10 million-ton shortfall, according to S&P Global. Even so, copper at its all-time high prices may not reflect reality, analysts say.

Instead, speculation and preemptive trading may have made the intense price action ungrounded.

\\"We see speculative positioning as overdone and unrelated to the realities in the market,\\" wrote StoneX senior metals demand analyst Natalie Scott-Gray. The metal looks \\"unsustainable with downward pressure likely to come.\\"

Read more here.

The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) sank by more than 2.5% on Thursday, on track for its largest one-day drop since October, as the tech sector sold off during the heaviest earnings week for Big Tech.

Shares in Meta (META) spent Thursday morning surging by more than 10% before paring gains after the company beat analysts' estimates on both the top and bottom lines and boasted of even stronger AI spending to come. But Mark Zuckerberg's company was the lone bright spot on the day.

Microsoft (MSFT) shares plummeted by more than 12% as investors worried about slowing cloud growth and the company's ballooning AI-fueled spending, and Tesla (TSLA) slid by nearly 2% after CEO Elon Musk announced a hard pivot toward robotics.

In what will be the most-watched tech news of the day, Apple (AAPL) is set to report earnings after the bell. Investors will be focused on the strength of Apple’s iPhone 17 sales and Services segment.

Shares of software services providers fell on Thursday morning after industry giant SAP's (SAP) quarterly results revived worries about the risk of AI disruption to its business.

The German company's cautious cloud sales outlook saw its stock shed 16%, while a weak earnings report from US peer ServiceNow (NOW) also signaled a stutter for the sector.

Leaders Salesforce (CRM) and Workday (WDAY) lost 8.2% and 9.6% in the sell-off, while ServiceNow saw a loss of more than 11%.

In recent months, the software sector has struggled to make solid gains as investor attention focused on its members' exposure to competition from AI-linked companies. Their products could supplant much of what service software companies provide.

US stocks began Thursday's session trading mixed as the market reacted to the latest megacap tech earnings, with Apple's (AAPL) report to come after the bell.

Meanwhile, gold (GC=F) and oil (BZ=F) both picked up gains as President Trump hardened his tone against Iran, while the dollar (DX-Y.NYB) slid.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) shed around 0.6%, while the blue-chip benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) picked up roughly 0.4%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) hovered right above flat.

Investors will be watching to see whether the S&P 500 can cross 7,000 again after Meta (META) shares surged over 8% in the first minutes of trading, thanks to a surprisingly strong quarterly revenue outlook.

Oil prices jumped more than 3% in morning trading on Thursday as investors priced in the risk of potential escalations in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial shipping route Iran largely controls.

Futures on Brent crude (BZ=F), the international pricing benchmark, flirted with $70 a barrel, while those on the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) crude gained to trade above $65.

The gains add to a run-up over the past month that has seen oil pick up roughly 15% as geopolitical risk premiums and cold weather have buoyed prices even as global onshore crude stocks have remained elevated.

\\"We expected Brent below $60/BBL by now and trending towards the low $50 range. Instead, geopolitical risk premium and physical supply losses have created a strong floor,\\" Macquarie Group global energy strategist Vikas Dwivedi wrote in a recent note to clients.

Recent moves by the US military to position near Iran naval vessels and other equipment capable of striking inside the country have kept worries alive around potential disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz. The strait sees roughly 20 million barrels of oil, or a full quarter of global maritime oil trade, cross its waters every day. disruptions would have wide ripple effects on supply and pricing.

On top of the geopolitical risk, US commercial crude inventories in the US for the week ended Jan. 23 decreased by 2.3 million barrels from the previous week, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration. Analysts at Macquarie had expected a growth of 900,000 barrels.

US applications for unemployment benefits decreased modestly to 209,000 for the week ending Jan. 24, data from the Labor Department showed Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected jobless claims to fall to 205,000.

Continuing claims, a proxy for the total number of people receiving benefits, fell by 38,000 to 1.82 million, bringing the four-week moving average of continuing claims lower, to 1.86 million.

The data comes a day after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady and Fed Chair Jerome Powell made the case that the labor market had \\"stabilized\\" after a period of gradual cooling.

While job gains have remained low, the unemployment rate has changed little in recent months, Powell said.

Caterpillar (CAT) stock rose 1.5% in premarket trading after its earnings showed it's still a beneficiary of the AI data center build-out, but also that it expects to take another major hit from tariffs in 2026.

The construction and mining equipment maker reported an adjusted profit of $5.16 per share for the quarter, up from $5.14 ⁠per share a ‌year earlier. Revenue rose to $19.1 billion from $16.2 billion. Those figures were above Wall Street's expectations of $4.71 earnings per share and revenue of $17.7 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The results were boosted by sales of power generation equipment to AI data center developers. Sales in Caterpillar's power and energy segment rose 23% year over year to $9.4 billion.

\\"I think what often gets overlooked is that AI is really an industrial story,\\" Gabelli Funds portfolio manager Brian Sponheimer told Yahoo Finance. \\"As this data center rollout has happened, ... it's created structural demand for industrial-grade power solutions, and no company is really as well situated to drive that supply than Caterpillar.\\"

However, Caterpillar is still facing headwinds from higher tariffs. Reuters reported that Caterpillar warned of a $2.6 billion tariff impact in 2026. In the fourth quarter, operating profit fell 9%, largely due to unfavorable manufacturing costs.

Media group Comcast (CMCSA) reported a loss in broadband customers in its fourth quarter earnings on Thursday. The decline missed analysts' estimates and was driven by competitors offering consumers more cost-effective, aggressive offers.

The stock edged higher before the bell on Thursday.

Reuters reports:

Promotional campaigns by ‌high-speed fiber providers and the launch of cheaper fixed-wireless access internet services have deepened competition ‌in the U.S. broadband market - long dominated by the likes of Comcast and Charter Communications.

Comcast on Thursday said it lost 181,000 broadband customers in the quarter, compared with an estimate of 173,780-user decline, according to data compiled ⁠by Factset.

Read more here.

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) stock fell as much as 10% during premarket trading. The casino operator's adjusted earnings fell short of analyst expectations.

Royal Caribbean (RCL) stock rose 6% before the bell on Thursday after the cruise operator's 2026 earnings guidance beat Wall Street estimates.

Whirlpool (WHR) stock sank 10% during premarket hours today after reporting an unexpected decline in sales.

SAP (SAP) stock fell 15% before the bell on Thursday after reporting a cloud backlog and posting disappointing guidance.

The German firm said its cloud preorders reached $25 billion, but it missed analysts' estimates by about 1%. The delay has been blamed on a few \\"mega deals\\" that are taking longer to get up and running.

Reuters reports:

The German group reported fourth-quarter revenue ‍that met market estimates, though its cloud backlog and 2026 cloud revenue forecast ​missed expectations.

\\"SAP needed an all-round ‌acceleration to fight the trough sector sentiment, and with puts and takes in the update we see shares underperforming,\\" said Citi analyst ⁠Balajee Tirupati.

Read more here.

Microsoft (MSFT) shares fell almost 7% before the bell as a solid quarterly earnings beat still left investors disappointed.

Yahoo Finance's Daniel Howley reports:

Microsoft reported its second quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, beating Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom lines.

Microsoft is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI explosion, thanks to its early investments in ChatGPT developer OpenAI, sending its market capitalization above the $4 trillion mark in July. But it's come down from those highs as investors continue to raise concerns about the AI industry's massive spending.

In Q2, earnings per share (EPS) of $5.16 on revenue of $81.27 billion topped the $3.92 and $80.3 billion Wall Street was anticipating.

Microsoft Cloud revenue came in at $51.5 billion, just ahead of an expected $51.2 billion. The company reported Cloud revenue of $40.9 billion in the same period last year.

Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes, which includes revenue from Microsoft 365 Commercial and Consumer Cloud, hit $34.1 billion. Wall Street was expecting $33.6 billion.

Read more here.

Shares in Meta (META) surged in premarket, up over 7% as investors welcome raised guidance for this year's spending plans amid a Big Tech AI spending spree.

“We are now seeing a major AI acceleration,\\" Mark Zuckerberg stated on Meta's earnings call late Wednesday.

That theme was consistent throughout Meta's earnings call, as the CEO touted new AI models and products that the company is working on.

Zuckerberg said that since the beginning of 2025, Meta has seen a 30% increase in productivity from its engineers due to the adoption of AI coding tools. The power users of those tools have seen their output increase by 80%, Zuckerberg said.

“We’re starting to see agents really work,\\" he added. \\"This will unlock the ability to build completely new products and transform how we work.”

Mark Zuckerberg on $META's Q4 earnings call: \\"We are now seeing a major AI acceleration.\\"

Adding: \\"Our vision is building personal superintelligence.\\" pic.twitter.com/YmUmk6bNEF

— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) January 28, 2026

Read more here. on Meta's earnings beat from Yahoo Finance's Daniel Howley.