Meta Platforms and most other U.S. stocks are rising, but drops for Nvidia and Microsoft are weighing on the market. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% in afternoon trading Thursday.

U.S equity future edged higher in early Wednesday trading, while the dollar extended gains and Treasury yields dipped, as investors looked for clarity on two key issues from today's Federal Reserve rate decision and fourth quarter earnings updates from three megacap tech giants.

Microsoft reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street estimates on Wednesday. The company said earnings were $3.23 a share on revenue of $69.6 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting earnings of $3.

Microsoft reported slower-than-expected growth in its crucial Azure cloud business on Wednesday despite beating estimates for overall quarterly revenue, sending its shares down 4% in extended trading.