The US stock market opened in the green on Friday, extending Thursday’s rally. The Dow Jones opened 200 points or 0.4% higher, the S&P500 rose 0.2%, and the NASDAQ jumped over 371 points or 1.4%, led by gains in tech stocks.
However, despite today’s gains, the US stock market will be closing the month of July in the red, led by the NASDAQ 100, which has plunged over 7% to date. The Dow Jones and the S&P500 will close around flat lines. As broader sentiment around tech stocks remained on a cautiously optimistic note throughout the month.
Crude oil prices headed for monthly gains of over 17%, recouping the majority of the previous month’s losses. Brent crude oil prices advanced above $88 per barrel on Friday evening on dimming hopes of diplomatic dialogue between the US and Iran. Meanwhile, WTI crude oil prices soared 2% on Friday evening to above $85 per barrel.
On the major earnings reaction front, Amazon shares opened 14% higher after cloud computing revenue accelerated, alleviating the worries of lower returns on AI cloud computing infrastructure investments. Amazon Inc’s Q1 earnings beat Wall Street estimates, led by strong growth in the cloud business. The company also enhanced its capital expenditure target from $200 billion to $220 billion.
On the flipside, Apple Inc’ share price plunged over 9% on Friday after the company’s June quarter earnings failed to boost investor confidence. Meanwhile, NVIDIA once again dethroned Apple as the most valued company in the world at $5 trillion. Apple Inc’s September guidance for revenue stood at 9% to 11%, falling below market expectations of 12%. Management sounded cautious on shortages of memory chips impacting the supply for its products.
Asian markets settled mostly higher on Friday, led by the South Korean (+17%) and Japanese markets (+4%), tracking a strong global rebound in technology and semiconductor stocks after upbeat earnings from Microsoft eased earlier investor fears regarding heavy artificial intelligence spending. Meanwhile, Wall Street’s gains overnight after the Fed’s interest-rate decision also helped to support market sentiment.
The US long-dated bonds soared to 20-year high levels as investors remain cautious on sticky inflation and impending rate hikes. The US 30Y yields crossed the 5.26% level, last touched in 2007. The US 10Y bond yields hit one-year high levels at 4.73%, fading the hopes of rate cuts in the near future.