S&P 500 Soars Past 7,000 For First Time, Driven By Tech And Energy Stocks

Schwab Center for Financial Research expects profits of the “Magnificent Seven” companies to collectively grow by 17% this quarter, making this the most important stretch of the earnings season so far.

• Fueling the S&P 500’s gains on Wednesday are the Information Technology, Energy, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, and Consumer Staples sectors.
• Tesla, Microsoft, Meta, and IBM are also set to announce their latest quarterly results.
• As the FOMC’s interest rate decision is scheduled to be announced on Wednesday, Mohamed El-Erian said the focus will instead be on the central bank’s economic outlook and policy implications.

The S&P 500 index soared past the 7,000 level for the first time ever, driven by investor optimism around the earnings of U.S. companies.

At the time of writing, the S&P 500 was hovering at 6,981 after reaching an all-time high of 7,002.28, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.01% at the time of writing, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.13%.

What’s Driving The Surge?

Fueling the S&P 500 index’s gains on Wednesday are the Information Technology, Energy, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, and Consumer Staples sectors.

However, the Financials and Health Care sectors were hovering in the red at the time of writing.

Here are the top five performing S&P 500 sectors year-to-date:

Sector	Year-to-date change
Energy	11.23%
Materials	10.34%
Consumer Staples	6.95%
Industrials	6.4%
Consumer Discretionary	3.12%

Source: S&P Global, as of Jan. 28, 2026

Earnings Season Underway

The earnings season is gathering steam, with Tesla Inc. (TSLA), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Meta Platforms Inc. (META), and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), among others, scheduled to report their latest quarterly results on Wednesday.

The Future Fund’s Gary Black said he expects better-than-expected tech company earnings to drive the surge in equities on Wednesday.

“We expect equities to continue their record advance, given stronger-than-expected tech earnings and President Trump’s likely nomination this week of Rick Rieder, Blackrock’s global fixed income CIO as the next Fed chair,” he said in a post on X.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is set to announce its results on Thursday, while Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) are scheduled to report next week.

Analysts at the Schwab Center for Financial Research echoed Black’s optimism about tech earnings. “Collectively, profits for the Magnificent Seven are projected to grow by nearly 17%, making this the most important stretch of earnings season so far,” the firm stated in a recent note.

Eye On Fed

Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, on Wednesday said that the focus will not be on what the Federal Reserve does with respect to rates.

“Instead, the focus is on how central bankers characterize the economic outlook and policy implications,” he said in a post on X.

Jeremy Siegel, professor emeritus of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, stated that markets will focus on the Fed Chair nomination. He views ex-Fed official Kevin Warsh and BlackRock Inc.’s Chief Investment Officer, Rick Rieder, to be among the frontrunners now.

At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was up by 0.16%, the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) gained 0.56%, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) rose 0.07%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘extremely bearish’ territory.

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