By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta

(Reuters) - 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 dropped 4.7% after forecasting disappointing growth in its cloud computing business.

Meta Platforms rose 4.5% after beating estimates for fourth-quarter revenue, but forecast that first-quarter sales might miss estimates.

Tesla gained 0.5% after saying it was on track to roll out new, cheaper EV models in the first half of 2025. It also said it would start testing a paid autonomous car service in June, overshadowing quarterly results that fell short of expectations.

"We had a number of results yesterday, which showed that grand ambitions are still rewarded," said Frédérique Carrier, head of investment strategy for RBC Wealth Management.

"We saw that with the difference in performance between Tesla and Meta, which both have grand ambitions, compared to the market reaction to Microsoft earnings."

At 10:01 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 102.06 points, or 0.23%, to 44,815.58, the S&P 500 gained 28.19 points, or 0.47%, to 6,067.50, and the Nasdaq Composite added 74.76 points, or 0.39%, to 19,707.08.

Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors traded higher, with communication services leading broader market gains with a 2.1% rise, on a boost from Meta. Technology stocks were down 0.5%.

The Russell 2000 index advanced 1.3%.

Health insurer Cigna slid 9.7% after it forecast annual profit below expectations and missed fourth-quarter estimates, while United Parcel Service lost 14.8% after forecasting 2025 revenue below expectations.

Lam Research rose 5.2% after the chip-making equipment supplier forecast third-quarter revenue above expectations, driven by a surge in orders from chip firms amid the AI boom.

Chip-related companies Broadcom and Marvell Technology jumped 5.8% and 3.8%, respectively. A gauge of semiconductor stocks advanced 1.4%.

Apple and Intel are scheduled to report results after markets close.

The U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, removing language acknowledging easing inflation from its latest policy meeting statement. Chair Jerome Powell said there would be no rush to cut rates again until inflation and job numbers made it appropriate.

Meanwhile, data showed U.S. economic growth slowed in the fourth quarter, while a jobless claims report for the previous week showed claims fell more than expected.

Markets were rocked earlier this week by the meteoric rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek's AI models, which posed stiff competition to leading U.S. artificial-intelligence model providers and sparked worries of a price war.