Tesla, IBM and Meta Platforms helped lead most U.S. stocks higher after a rush of profit reports from some of the country’s most influential companies

Tesla's fourth-quarter net income fell 71% from a year ago when results were boosted by a one-time tax benefit. The latest results fell short of Wall Street forecasts.

Wall Street's main indexes rose on Thursday, driven by post-earnings advances in Meta and Tesla, although Microsoft's weak cloud forecast and downbeat results from Cigna dampened investor enthusiasm. Microsoft MSFT.O dropped 4.7% after forecasting disappointing growth in its cloud computing business.