NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The tech giants Amazon and Apple once again created a good mood on the record-high US stock market with their quarterly reports and statements on further business development on Friday. Above all, the Nasdaq indices (NASDAQ Composite Index), which are heavily populated with technology stocks, but also the market-wide S&P 500 rose.
After Microsoft reported a record profit the day before, Amazon and Apple have now followed suit, wrote portfolio manager Thomas Altmann from QC Partners. “However,” he added, “these gains are also sorely needed, because with the recent rally, valuations on the US stock market have risen significantly.”
The NASDAQ 100 selection index gained 0.9 percent to 25,965 points in early trading and the S&P 500 rose 0.5 percent to 6,855 points. The Wall Street index Dow Jones Industrial, which is heavily stocked with standard values, rose by 0.1 percent to 47,572 points. All three indices had reached records the day before or in the middle of the week.
The shares of the retail, media and technology giant Amazon jumped to a record high of $250.50 right at the start of trading. Then the paper came back a little and recently increased by 11.5 percent. Amazon generated significantly more sales than expected, primarily due to the AWS cloud division, which grew strongly in the third quarter. The profit was also far better than feared, wrote analyst Brad Erickson from the Canadian bank RBC.
After an increase of more than two percent, Apple recently turned into the red and fell by 0.5 percent. The iPhone manufacturer performed as expected by the market, but gave a strong outlook for the Christmas business thanks to the new iPhone model. However, the long-term prospects remain subdued, said Jefferies analyst Edison Lee.
Among the other tech companies, Netflix was also in view with a 10-to-1 stock split, which is scheduled to take place in mid-November. The shares of the market leader in the video streaming sector gained 3.2 percent.
The Dow-listed oil company Chevron and industry colleague Exxon Mobil (ExxonMobil), whose shares can be found in the S&P 100, also presented business figures. Although both reported a year-on-year decline but still better than expected profits, the share prices went in different directions. Chevron rose 2.9 percent while Exxon Mobil fell 0.7 percent.
Investors also focused on the shares of the cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase and the social news aggregator and discussion platform Reddit based on quarterly figures. JPMorgan wrote to Coinbase that sales surprised positively. RBC called Reddit’s numbers “strong again.” Both papers rose significantly: Reddit by almost 18 percent and Coinbase by 7 percent./ck/he