By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:) stood out from the crowd on a Wednesday morning when Wall Street opened in cautious mood ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy announcements.

Alphabet stock rose 3.8% after an earnings update that showed robust growth across all its business segments. Similarly strong results from Apple (NASDAQ:) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:) after the bell on Tuesday – the three notched a combined $57 billion of profits in the quarter – have reinforced the belief that many of the consumer habits adopted since the pandemic started will be permanent rather than just transitory. 

By 9:45 AM ET (1345 GMT), the was up 30 points, or 0.1% at 35,088. Despite the strong results from Big Tech, the underperformed, edging down less than 0.1%, while the fell 0.2%.

Alphabet’s earnings gave a fresh lift to Facebook (NASDAQ:) stock, which rose 0.4% on expectations that it, too, will have profited from the boom in online advertising as companies rushed to sell their services to consumers emerging from months of lockdown. Facebook reports after the close on Wednesday.

For Microsoft and Apple, the spectacular results were already baked into the share price, despite the usual illusion of revenue and earnings “beating estimates”. Apple stock fell 2.4%, while Microsoft stock fell 0.2%. The market’s judgment on Spotify (NYSE:) stock was even harsher, beating the streaming giant down by 9.0% after its monthly active user numbers came in below guidance.

On a busy morning for earnings, Boeing (NYSE:) stock rose 5.0% after returning to profit for the first time in two years. Renewed deliveries of the 737 MAX aircraft, following its clearance from regulators to fly again after two fatal crashes, were behind the result.