Stocks continued to rise on Friday. Amazon.com (AMZN) and Apple ( AAPL ) closed out a busy week of Big Tech earnings in good fashion.
Amazon shares rose 10.4% after the e-commerce company reported a second-quarter top-line win, thanks to 33% year-over-year revenue growth from its cloud division (Amazon Web Services) and an 18% jump in ad sales. . AMZN has released its earnings outlook for the current quarter, which it calls a “record-breaking prime day.”
Meanwhile, Apple shares gained 3.3% after the iPhone maker reported better-than-expected revenue and earnings in its fiscal third quarter. However, the company’s revenue growth has slowed significantly compared to last year.
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On the economic side, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index rose 6.8 percent annually in June — the largest one-year increase since January 1982. But the title figure may not be what it first appears. “This inflation measure is from June and we know a lot has changed since then, especially gas prices, so investors need to put this inflation report into historical context,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at independent broker-dealer LPL Financial. July inflation should ease slightly as food and energy costs rebound this month, he added.
Tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite It rose 1.9 percent to 12,390, outpacing its peers; S&P 500 index (+1.4% to 4,130) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (+1.0% to 32,845) still posted strong gains. All three indices ended the week higher. And for July, the Dow and S&P 500 had their best month since November 2020, while the Nasdaq enjoyed its biggest monthly gain since April 2020.
Other news on the stock market today:
- Small-cap Russell 2000 It was taken by 0.7% to 1,885.
- US crude futures It jumped 2.3 percent to $98.62 a barrel.
- Gold futures It rose 0.7% to end at $1,781.80 an ounce.
- Bitcoin It rose 0.5% to $23,906. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m.)
- year ( ROKU ) fell 23.1% after the streaming company reported earnings. ROKU reported a better-than-expected loss of 82 cents in the second quarter, which missed the mark on revenue of $764 million. The company forecasts a struggling advertising market with its current quarterly revenue below analysts’ consensus estimates. “Roku is facing a variety of near-term challenges, including volatile ad spending, and ongoing supply chain issues combined with inflation have impacted smart TV sales,” said Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. “Meanwhile, Roku continues to invest heavily in future growth, resulting in unfavorable results for investors.” But while the analyst called ROKU “dead money for at least the next quarter,” he maintained an outperform rating on the stock, expecting a rebound in the next 12 months.
- Oil major Chevron (CVX) and Exxon Mobil ( XOM ) posted huge gains in Q2 due to rising commodity prices. For the three months, CVX posted adjusted earnings of $5.82 per share on revenue of $68.8 billion, while XMM posted $4.14 per share on revenue of $115.7 billion. Both energy stocks rose in response, with CVX up 8.7% and XOM up 4.7%.
What the smart money is buying.
Investors may rejoice as the stock market completes its best month of 2022, but if history is any guide, that joy may be short-lived. “Analyzing monthly average returns for the S&P 500 through 1950, the worst month [for stocks] Giuseppe Sette, president of AI-driven investment research firm Toggle AI, is September, followed by August.
We’ve covered many ways for investors to tread water — think yield-friendly sectors like utilities or real estate investment trusts (REITs) — and sometimes it pays to see what the “smart money” is doing in these tough times. While you can’t get rich by simply copying the moves of billionaire investors, their wealth and connections give them a unique insight into a market that most of us don’t, and that alone makes them take a closer look at their top products.
Karee Venema was long AMZN and AAPL at the time of this writing.
