Amazon Leads US Stock Market to Another Winning Week and Month
The US stock market ended the week on a high note, with the S&P 500 rising 0.3% and inching closer to its all-time high set on Tuesday. This marks the third consecutive winning week and the sixth straight winning month for the index, its longest monthly winning streak since 2021. The Dow Jones industrial average added 40 points, or 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.6%.
Amazon was the driving force behind the market’s gains, with its stock jumping 9.6% after reporting a profit that exceeded analysts’ expectations. The company’s cloud-computing business saw accelerated growth, with CEO Andy Jassy noting that it hasn’t seen a pace like this since 2022. Amazon’s massive size, with a market value of roughly $2.4 trillion, means its stock movements have a significant impact on the S&P 500. In fact, without Amazon’s gains, the S&P 500 would have ended the day in the red.
Other Notable Stocks
Another influential stock, Apple, had a more muted effect on the market despite being worth more than $4 trillion. The iPhone maker’s stock swung between gains and losses before finishing with a 0.4% dip. Apple’s profit report for the latest quarter was better than expected, but not by as wide a margin as Amazon’s. CEO Tim Cook attributed the company’s strong revenue to its iPhone lineup and services offerings, including its app store.
Other stocks that made notable moves included online message board Reddit, which jumped 7.5% after reporting stronger-than-expected profit and revenue. Coinbase Global rose 4.6% after the crypto exchange’s profit topped expectations. Netflix added 2.7% after announcing a 10-for-1 stock split, which will make its stock price more affordable for investors. However, AbbVie fell 4.5% despite reporting stronger-than-expected profit, as analysts noted that the company’s beat was less impressive than in previous quarters.
Market Outlook
The pressure is on companies to deliver big growth in profits to justify the significant gains their stock prices have made since April. Critics have been growing increasingly vocal about the US stock market becoming too expensive. The S&P 500 slumped 1% a day earlier, as investors were unnerved by big increases in spending planned by Meta Platforms and Microsoft as part of the investment spree in artificial-intelligence technology.
On Friday, Microsoft and Meta were the two heaviest weights on the US market, with drops of 1.5% and 2.7%, respectively. The S&P 500 rose 17.86 points to 6,840.20, while the Dow Jones industrial average added 40.75 to 47,562.87, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 143.81 to 23,724.96.
In international markets, indexes dipped in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia. Stocks fell 1.4% in Hong Kong and 0.8% in Shanghai after data showed factory activity in China contracted for a seventh straight month. Japan’s Nikkei 225, meanwhile, jumped 2.1% to another record after a report showed industrial production rose more in September than expected.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased following their spurt higher in the middle of the week, when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that another cut to interest rates in December “is not a foregone conclusion — far from it.” The yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped to 4.09% from 4.11% late Thursday.
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