Nasdaq climbed more than 300 points on Friday, as the gains came after upbeat forecasts from Apple and Amazon increased investor confidence.
Investors welcomed the positive outlooks from two of the world’s biggest tech companies, helping to lift overall sentiment across Wall Street.
In the early hours of trading, the Nasdaq Composite rose 356 points, or about 1.5%, to 23,932. The S&P 500 gained 50 points, or 0.7%, to 6,873, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 65 points, or 0.1%, at 47,587.
Apple reported a 7.9% revenue increase, reaching $102.5 billion in its fourth quarter. Strong iPhone 17 sales and record services revenue of $28.75 billion drove the growth. CEO Tim Cook said the December quarter could deliver the highest revenue in Apple’s history, with iPhone revenue expected to grow 10 to 12%.
After the report, Apple shares jumped over 3% in after-hours trading, pushing its market value above $4 trillion, the second largest in the world. Amazon’s Q3 earnings also beat expectations.
Revenue rose 13% to $180.17 billion, and earnings per share grew 36% year-over-year. Its cloud unit, AWS, grew to $33 billion, the fastest pace in nearly three years. The company expects Q4 revenue between $206 billion and $213 billion, exceeding Wall Street’s forecasts.
Investors were excited about Amazon’s growth prospects, driven by AI, cloud expansion, and automation, along with a focus on long-term profitability.
The strong earnings and optimistic guidance from Apple and Amazon helped lift Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures. This eased worries after the indexes had their biggest drop in more than three weeks.
The tech giants’ performance has reassured investors that the sector continues to have strong growth potential, especially in AI and cloud technologies.