On Friday, US stocks continued their rally, thanks to upbeat forecasts from both Amazon.com and Apple Inc., with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 both recording their biggest monthly gains in two years.
S&P 500
Most of the sectors part of the S&P 500 index ended the day in the green, with the biggest rise seen in the energy sector by 4%.
There was a 4.6% rise in Exxon Mobil’s shares, while a jump of 8.9% was recorded in Chevron Corp after the companies posted record revenues for the quarter.
There was a 3.3% gain in the shares of Apple Inc. after the iPhone maker disclosed that demand for its smartphones was up and parts shortages had eased.
A 10.4% rise in Amazon.com Inc. was recorded, after it forecast a rise in the revenue for the third quarter, thanks to higher fees from its Prime monthly subscriptions.
Market analysts said that Apple and Amazon numbers were supporting the market for the day because it seems that the two largest companies in the S&P 500 have managed to navigate these difficult times.
Indexes rise
There has also been a rally in the stock market this week because of increasing speculation that the US Federal Reserve may not need to be as aggressive in hiking interest rates, as had been feared.
There was a 0.97% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as it gained by 315.5 points to reach 32,845.13, while a 1.42% gain in the S&P 500 took it up by 57.86 points to reach 4,130.29.
A 1.88% gain was also recorded in the Nasdaq 100 and this pushed it up by 228.10 points to 12,390.69. Gains were recorded by all three Wall Street indexes for this month.
There was a 9.1% rise in the S&P 500 in July alone, which makes it the biggest percentage rise since November 2020.
A 12.3% jump was seen in the Nasdaq 100, making it the biggest monthly gain for the index since April 2020.
Company earnings
There was an 8.6% decline in Intel Corp. after the company missed estimates for the second quarter and also cut back on its profit and annual sales forecasts.
Most of the US corporate results for the second quarter have turned out to be stronger than expected. About 279 companies have posted their earnings so far and 77.8% have turned out to be better than expected.
It is now expected that there is a 7.1% increase in S&P 500 companies’ earnings in the second quarter, as opposed to the 5.6% prediction at the beginning of July.
The economic data for the day showed that there was a strong increase in US labor costs in the second quarter, as wage growth got a boost thanks to a tight jobs market.
However, a government report had shown on Thursday that the US economy had declined for the second consecutive quarter, which suggested to some that a recession might be close.
It could possibly deter the US Fed from increasing the interest rates aggressively in its battle against inflation.