U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday, powered by Magnificent Seven heavyweights Microsoft and Meta as their strong quarterly results pointed to a resilient outlook for the technology sector.

Market Snapshot

At 08:13 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 339 points, or 0.83%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 71.75 points, or 1.28% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 375.5 points, or 1.91%.

Pre-Market Movers

Microsoft reported fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue that beat analysts' expectations and the stock jumped 8.9%. Revenue rose 13% to $70.06 billion, topping estimates of $68.44 billion. Microsoft's cloud-computing business, which includes Azure, reported revenue of $26.8 billion, up 21% from a year earlier and higher than company forecasts. The company also issued upbeat guidance for each of its key units in the current fourth quarter. Shares climb 7.3%, to $424.04, in postmarket trading.

Meta Platforms, Inc. was up 7% after the parent company of Facebook and Instagram posted first-quarter revenue that rose 16% from a year earlier to $42.3 billion and beat analysts' expectations. Two of Meta's main revenue drivers, users and ad views, came in as expected, but ad price growth of 10% from a year earlier more than doubled projections. The company boosted its annual range for capital expenditures to $64 billion to $72 billion, largely on investments in artificial intelligence.

Roblox Corporation raised its annual bookings forecast on Thursday and beat quarterly results estimates, a sign that spending on its vast library of user-generated videogames was holding up despite economic uncertainty driven by U.S. tariffs. Shares of the company rose around 8% in premarket trading.

Tesla Motors was up 0.6%. The Wall Street Journal reported the electric-vehicle maker's board had asked CEO Elon Musk to spend more time at the company and had contacted executive search firms to investigate the possibility of a new chief executive. The Journal report cited people familiar with the discussions. Tesla's official account on social-media platform X denied the report.

Apple declined 1.4% after a federal judge said the tech giant violated an antitrust ruling related to App Store restrictions. The company had been required to make changes to the App Store to allow alternative processors for in-app payments. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers referred the case to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California for possible criminal contempt charges. "We strongly disagree with the decision," an Apple spokesperson told Barron's. "We will comply with the court's order and we will appeal."

Meanwhile, the iPhone maker is expected by analysts to report fiscal second-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.63 a share on revenue of $94.54 billion. The iPhone maker is scheduled to report quarterly earnings after the closing bell Thursday.

McDonald's was falling 1.7% after the fast-food giant reported first-quarter revenue that missed analysts' expectations and said U.S. comparable-store sales dropped 3.6%. The company cited "negative comparable guest counts."

Qualcomm reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue but the outlook for the third quarter from the maker of mobile processors and 5G wireless chipsets was disappointing. The stock fell 5.6% after Qualcomm said it expects a revenue range for the current third quarter of $9.9 billion to $10.7 billion, which at the midpoint was below consensus of $10.33 billion.

CVS Health jumped 8.8% after the company beat first-quarter earnings expectations. The health conglomerate, which holds a major insurer, a big retail pharmacy chain, and one of the largest U.S. pharmacy benefit managers, reported adjusted earnings in the quarter of $2.25 a share.

Eli Lilly declined 3.4%. The pharmaceutical company posted better-than-expected first-quarter earnings but said it now sees 2025 adjusted earnings of between $20.78 and $22.28 a share versus prior projections of between $22.50 and $24. The company reiterated its revenue guidance of between $58 billion and $61 billion.

Moderna, Inc. fell 1.4% after the vaccine maker posted a first-quarter loss of $2.52 a share, narrower than expectations that called for a loss of $3.12. Revenue fell 35% to $108 million but beat Wall Street estimates of $106.2 million.

MGM Resorts International was rising 3.4% after the casino operator reported first-quarter earnings that topped analysts' estimates.

In addition to Apple, earnings reports are expected after the closing bell Thursday from Amazon.com, Amgen, MicroStrategy, Airbnb, Roblox, and Block.

Shares of Amazon were up 3.7% in premarket trading ahead of the tech and online retailing giant's first-quarter earnings report.

Market News

US Treasury chief urges Fed to cut rates

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday called on the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut rates, saying yields on two-year rates were lower than Fed fund rates.

"We are seeing that two-year rates are now below Fed funds rates, so that's a market signal that they think the Fed should be cutting," Bessent said in an interview on Fox Business Network's "Mornings with Maria" program.

GM Expects Tariffs to Cost Up to $5 Billion in 2025, Slashes Outlook

General Motors cut its outlook for 2025 to account for a $4 billion to $5 billion dent in profits from automotive tariffs, despite President Trump’s decision to walk back some of the levies.

Trump moved to soften the impact of his automotive tariffs, preventing duties on foreign-made cars from stacking on top of other tariffs he has imposed and easing some levies on foreign parts used to manufacture cars in the U.S.