US STOCKS-Nasdaq outshines Wall St peers on tech boost, earnings glee

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Visa rises after Q2 results beat

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Meta, Snap up after Senate passes TikTok ban bill

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Indexes: Dow down 0.09%, S&P up 0.29%, Nasdaq up 0.81%

(Updated at 9:39 a.m. ET/1339 GMT)

By Shristi Achar A and Shashwat Chauhan

April 24 (Reuters) -

The Nasdaq outpaced Wall Street peers on Wednesday, with Tesla leading gains among megacap stocks after its quarterly results, while upbeat earnings reports across other sectors also offered support.

Tesla led gains across megacap stocks with a 9.7% jump after the electric-vehicle maker eased some worries about growth with a prediction that sales would rise this year and said it would roll out more affordable models in early 2025.

Some other growth stocks also advanced, with Microsoft and Nvidia up 0.8% and 1.6%, respectively.

The earnings season was in full swing with drugmaker Biogen adding 3.7% on beating first-quarter profit expectations.

Boston Scientific

rose 6.1% after the medical device maker raised its annual profit forecast.

Hasbro

gained 13.9% after the toymaker reported a smaller-than-expected drop in first-quarter sales and handily beat profit estimates.

Wabtec

advanced 10.8% after the heavy industrial parts maker raised its full-year profit forecast.

Meanwhile, social media firms Meta Platforms and Snap gained 1.8% and 0.6%, respectively, after the U.S. Senate passed a bill late on Tuesday that would ban TikTok in the United States if its owner, the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, failed to divest the popular short video app.

Meta, Microsoft and Alphabet are scheduled to report their quarterly results later this week.

"Last week was really rough for the Nasdaq, it was almost indiscriminate selling of all growth stocks," said Russell Hackmann, president of Hackmann Wealth Partners.

"So certainly you're just kind of seeing some bounce."

U.S. equities have recouped some losses following last week's slump when investors turned risk-off amid tensions in the Middle East and more data prompting a tuning to their rate-cut expectations from the Federal Reserve.

On the data front, new orders for key

U.S.-manufactured capital goods

rose moderately in March and data for the prior month was revised lower, suggesting business spending on equipment was likely sluggish in the first quarter.

Focus will now shift to the much anticipated Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index reading for March, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, due on Friday.

At 9:39 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 33.34 points, or 0.09%, at 38,470.35, the S&P 500 was up 14.60 points, or 0.29%, at 5,085.15, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 127.90 points, or 0.81%, at 15,824.54.

Eight of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were trading lower, with utilities the worst hit. Consumer discretionary was amongst top gainers.

Visa added 2.4% after the payments processing giant's second-quarter results sailed past Wall Street estimates.

Texas Instruments climbed 6.2% after the chipmaker forecast second-quarter revenue above analysts' estimates.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 2.9% as most chip stocks rallied.

Solar inverter maker Enphase Energy lost 3.3% after projecting second-quarter revenue below analysts' estimates.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.45-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.04-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded seven new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 22 new highs and 27 new lows. (Reporting by Shristi Achar A and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Maju Samuel)