FX168 Financial News (North America) News The US stock market rebounded on Friday, and earnings from Alphabet and Microsoft rekindled people's hopes that large technology stocks will drive a rebound.

The S&P 500 index rose 1% to close at 5099.96 points; the Nasdaq index, which mainly focuses on technology stocks, rose 2% to close at 15927.90 points, the best one-day gain since February; the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 153.86 points, or 0.4%, to close at 38239.66 points.

(Source: FX168)

(Source: FX168)

The S&P and Nasdaq recorded their best week since November last year. The S&P 500 rose 2.7%, ending three consecutive weeks of decline, while the Nasdaq rose 4.2%, the first increase in five weeks.

The performance of tech giants

After last week's worst weekly decline in history, tech giants fought a turnaround this week and became the main driver of the rebound in the US stock market.

On Friday, Alphabet's shares rose more than 10% due to better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and recorded its best single-day performance since July 2015. Alphabet's market capitalization exceeds $2 trillion, making it one of the elite groups. The company also approved its first-ever dividend and $70 billion buyback.

Software manufacturer Microsoft announced strong third-quarter earnings and showed that cloud growth accelerated, and the stock price rose about 2%.

Strong results from Alphabet and Microsoft boosted the stock market. This performance encouraged people's confidence that the profits of the “Big Seven Tech Companies” could help the market escape the slump. Those hopes were dampened by Meta's disappointing predictions earlier this week.

Mahajan said the two companies impressed investors not only by investing in artificial intelligence, but also by showing results. She said this helped ease concerns about Meta Platforms' disappointing guidance earlier this week.

Mona Mahajan, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones, said, “We are ending a turbulent week with strong momentum. Obviously, one of the driving factors is excellent reporting from Megacapital Technology.”

The busy earnings season continues next week, and the results of tech giants Apple and Amazon will make headlines.

PCE data

The US Department of Commerce reported on Friday that the increase in the personal consumer expenditure price index (PCE) in March exceeded expectations, excluding food and energy components that fluctuated greatly, and rose 0.3% month-on-month, up 2.8% from a year ago.

The US Federal Reserve announced on Thursday, the PCE price index, which favors inflation, unexpectedly rebounded in the first quarter. The March core PCE price index announced on Friday rose, but it did not surprise the market.

The market originally thought that this potential inflation index preferred by the Federal Reserve would heighten concerns that interest rate cuts might be delayed. However, some commentators say that the March data is not enough to further dampen the market's expectations for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this year.

After the data was released, the market bet that the probability that the US Federal Reserve would cut interest rates in September rose from 60% to 65%, and the total rate cut is expected to rise slightly this year.

Notably, the Federal Reserve's next interest rate decision will be announced next Wednesday.

Individual stocks in focus

Social media Snap shares soared 27.63%. The company's revenue for the first quarter surpassed expectations by 21%, and rose nearly 30% in early trading. Wall Street welcomed the reform of its digital advertising business looking for recipients.

Intel slumped 9.2%. The company's guidance for the second quarter fell short of expectations, sounding the alarm for a slower recovery.

Nvidia, which had a big rebound on Thursday, continued to rise 6.18, supporting the continuous rise in the chip stock index.

Tesla failed to achieve four consecutive gains and is back 1.11% today. The company rose 12% on Wednesday, the first trading day after the earnings report, and this week's trend will be about 10% cumulatively.

Among individual stocks that announced financial reports, Roku fell more than 10% after revenue for the first quarter was higher than expected but warned that streaming service distribution activities would be difficult to compare year-on-year growth rates.

Broadband and cable operator Charter Communications, whose first-quarter earnings and revenue were lower than expected, fell about 1.7%.

ExxonMobil, which had lower earnings than expected in the first quarter due to falling refining profits and falling natural gas prices, fell 2.78.

Old rival Chevron, which had higher-than-expected first-quarter earnings but lower revenue than expected, rose slightly by 0.37%.

Despite higher-than-expected earnings in the first quarter and an increase in full-year guidance, biomedical company AbbVie fell 4.58%.

First-quarter revenue and profit better-than-expected blood sugar monitoring system manufacturer Dexcom fell nearly 10%.

Medical device company Resmed, whose third-quarter revenue and profit were higher than expected, rose nearly 19%.

Shoe company Skechers, whose profit and revenue were higher than expected in the first quarter, rose more than 11%.

Asset management company T Rowe Price Group, whose revenue and profit for the first quarter were higher than expected, rose more than 4.77%.

L3Harris Technologies, a military stock with better-than-expected first-quarter results and raised full-year guidance, rose 3.45%.