Stock Market Today: Live Look at Meta Stock

Investing

Stock Market Today Generic (Positive or Negative)

Published: January 30, 2025 11:52 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2025 1:36 pm

Live Updates

Tech Turbulence and Gold Price Soars

1:00 pm

By midday, most sectors of the economy are trading in the green, with the glaring exception of technology, which is down 1.1% as a sector. Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPE) stock is down over 3% as its merger plans come crashing down. The U.S. government is suing to block HP’s blockbuster acquisition of rival Juniper Networks for its impact on the competitive landscape. On another note, the spot gold price clinched a new all-time high of $2,789 per ounce, surpassing its previous record set last year.

Tesla has found its way decidedly higher on the heels of its earnings report. Tesla’s energy storage division is growing by leaps and bounds and is now a $10 billion-plus annual business. The EV maker is close to launching unsupervised driving in 2025, though it will take longer for the software to be released to the public. Elon Musk had this to say: “When people look back on 2025 and the launch of Unsupervised FSD, they may regard it as the biggest year in Tesla’s history; It will be regarded as the most important year in Tesla’s history.” Roth Capital’s Craig Irwin seemingly agrees, raising TSLA price target to $450 from $380 with a “buy” rating attached.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) is bucking the broader tech downward trend, soaring over 12% in what is shaping up to be its best trading day in over two decades. Investors can chalk it up to AI, which is powering IBM’s software business and giving it a rosy outlook for the future.

All eyes are now on Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), which will report its Q1 earnings report after the bell. China worries surrounding AI have sent a gray cloud, sending the stock lower on the day. All eyes will be on AI, China, and iPhone sales.

Key Points from Meta Earnings Call

11:52 am

A number of great nuggets from Meta’s earnings call last night:

“Meta AI is on track to reach over 1 billion users this year, making it the most widely used AI assistant.”
“Llama 4 will be natively multimodal, omni-capable, and have agentic capabilities—unlocking new AI use cases.”
“Meta expects 2025 to be the year when AI engineering agents reach the level of a mid-level software engineer.”
“Hundreds of billions of dollars will be invested in AI infrastructure, including a two-gigawatt data center.”
“Advantage+ AI-driven ad products now generate over $20 billion annually, growing 70% year-over-year.”

Meta is making an aggressive AI push, aiming to dominate both consumer and enterprise AI. With AI assistants scaling to 1 billion users, Llama 4 leading in open-source AI, and AI-driven ads already generating billions, the company is betting that AI will redefine computing, business automation, and social media. While direct AI monetization is still in its early stages, the groundwork is being laid for a massive transformation.

The broad market is less volatile today, but the big news continue to be tech stocks releasing quarterly earnings.

Dow Jones Industrial Average: Up 0.35%

Nasdaq: Up 0.04%

S&P 500: Up 0.26%

Meta Rises, Microsoft Sinks and Tesla Uncertain

In what has started as a volatile day on Wall Street, shares of Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: META) are trading decidedly higher in early morning trading, rising over 4% to a fresh all-time high. While shares of Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) were rising in early morning trading, they have since been meandering between positive and negative territory. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has been tumbling all morning, most recently sinking 6% to the bottom of the heap. Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) shares fell another 3.5% on DeepSeek fears, extending the high-flying stock’s weekly loss.

What is behind tech’s mixed picture? Big Tech earnings have sent the Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average higher but have managed to weigh on the Magnificent 7 stocks. Meta had a massive quarter in which it surpassed consensus estimates on pretty much everything – sales, earnings, cash flow, etc. Tesla left investors wanting a bit more clarity, while Microsoft is getting punished for a revenue outlook that fell short.

Big Tech earnings results have not silenced the topic du jour – China startup DeepSeek’s looming threat to the U.S. leadership position in AI chatbots while corporate America continues to pour massive amounts of capital into the industry. Microsoft and Meta’s AI spending surpassed a combined $37.4 billion in Q4.

Key Points

All three major indexes – the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq – are trading in the green.
Big Tech reported earnings, but China’s DeepSeek threat lingers.
Meta stock is soaring while Microsoft is sent reeling. Tesla is meandering between positive and negative ground.

Analysts Response to Meta’s Earnings

Barclays, Benchmark, Bernstein, BofA, among other banks all issued bullish notes on Meta following its strong Q4 earnings. Barclays raised its price target to $705, citing accelerating ad revenue growth despite infrastructure spending weighing on earnings. Benchmark upgraded Meta to Buy with an $820 price target, citing a strong 2025 outlook and AI automation advancements. Bernstein increased its target to $800, emphasizing Meta’s pricing power and its Advantage+ ad product’s $20B run rate.

BofA lifted its target to $765, noting solid AI-driven revenue growth, while Cantor Fitzgerald boosted its target to $790, pointing to engagement and monetization gains. Citi highlighted Meta’s “product super-cycle” with a $780 target. JPMorgan, with a $725 target, sees 2025 as a defining year but expects near-term digestion due to high expenses.

Mizuho, Oppenheimer, and Piper Sandler raised their targets to $750, $800, and $775, respectively, emphasizing AI innovations, ad pricing power, and core platform improvements. Pivotal Research issued the highest target at $875, calling Meta the biggest winner among internet giants due to its AI strategy. Wedbush, Stifel, and Cantor echoed similar bullish sentiment, maintaining strong ratings and raising their targets, while noting that FX headwinds slightly dampened Q1 guidance.

The consensus Wall Street price target for Meta is $748, which is 10% higher than the stock is trading today.

The Average American Is Losing Momentum on Their Savings Every Day (Sponsor)

If you’re like many Americans and keep your money ‘safe’ in a checking or savings account, think again. The average yield on a savings account is a paltry .4%* today. Checking accounts are even worse.

But there is good news. To win qualified customers, some accounts are paying nearly 10x the national average! That’s an incredible way to keep your money safe and earn more at the same time. Our top pick for high yield savings accounts includes other benefits as well. You can earn up to 3.80% with a Checking & Savings Account today Sign up and get up to $300 with direct deposit. No account fees. FDIC Insured.

Click here to see how much more you could be earning on your savings today. It takes just a few minutes to open an account to make your money work for you.

^*https://www.fdic.gov/national-rates-and-rate-caps