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

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.

World markets mostly rose on Friday following gains on Wall Street driven by Tesla, IBM and Meta Platforms after strong profit reports. European markets opened higher after the European Central Bank cut its key interest rate to by a quarter-point to 2.

U.S. stocks slipped after the Federal Reserve held its main interest rate steady and broke a run of cuts that began in September. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% Wednesday. The

Wall Street pointed higher early Friday as more strong earnings results trickled in along with a closely-watched report from the U.S. government showing that inflation ticked higher. Futures for the

Adjusted per-share earnings came ahead of Wall Street estimates.

IBM stock has risen by 22 percent over the past year, with shares rising by nine percent on the morning following the earnings announcement.

For the December quarter, the technology company reported earnings of $3.92 a share versus the consensus estimate of $3.78 a share.