Wall Street closes higher with earnings boost

Apr 26, 202420:24 UTC

IXIC

SVX

GOOG

MSFT

Key points:

Main U.S. equity indexes advance; Nasdaq leads, up 2%
Comm svcs biggest gainer among S&P sectors; Energy weakest group
Dollar gains; gold, crude edge up; bitcoin down >1%
U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield falls to ~4.67%

WALL STREET CLOSES HIGHER WITH EARNINGS BOOST

On Friday, Wall Street's three major indexes closed higher for the day and for the week, with the Nasdaq composite IXIC leading the charge as investors jumped back in after Thursday's sell-off, taking courage from some bullish earnings reports.

Growth stocks outperformed value by a mile with the S&P 500 growth index (.IGX) adding 2% compared with decline of 0.15% for the S&P 500 value index SVX.

Wall Street had ended red on Thursday after a worrying economic data combination of high inflation and slowing growth.

Equities were in favor again on Friday as data releases held fewer shocks, allowing investors to take risk again and hone in on the strongest earnings updates from companies including megacaps Alphabet GOOG, up 10%, and Microsoft MSFT, which added 1.8%.

Industry wise, communication services S5TELS was the biggest gainer, adding 4.7%, with the next biggest gain from the tech sector's S5INFT 1.9% advance.

The biggest laggards included utilities S5UTIL, down 1.1%, and energy SPN, which lost 1%.

For the week, the S&P 500 added 2.7%, snapping a 3-week losing streak and registering its biggest weekly gain since early November. The Nasdaq composite added 4.2% for the week, ended a four-week losing streak, while also posting its biggest weekly again since early November. As for the Dow, it added 0.7% for the week versus its barely perceptible gain the week before.

Here is your closing snapshot: