NEW YORK — Wall Street is rallying Friday, led by Apple, Exxon Mobil and other companies that made even bigger profits during the summer than expected.
The S&P 500 was 1.2% higher in early trading and on pace to close out its first back-to-back weekly gains since August. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 533 points, or 1.7%, to 32,576, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.1% higher.
Stocks have revived recently in part on hopes that the big hikes to interest rates shaking the market may be set to dial down later this year. Some investors are even talking again about a “pivot” by the Federal Reserve away from a focus solely on beating down inflation through rate hikes, even if many analysts say such hopes may be overstretched. More recently, many big U.S. companies have been reporting stronger earnings than expected, though the bag remains decidedly mixed.
Apple rose 5% and was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 in its first trading after reporting fatter revenue and profit than expected for the latest quarter. Oil producers were also strong after delivering record earnings on the back of rising crude prices. Exxon Mobil climbed 2.8%, and Chevron rose 2%.
They helped to offset a 10.8% drop for Amazon, which offered a weaker-than-expected forecast for upcoming revenue. It was the latest in a lengthening list of discouraging trends for some of the Big Tech companies that have dominated Wall Street for years with their seemingly unstoppable growth.
Earlier in the week, Meta Platforms lost nearly a quarter of its value after reporting a second straight quarter of revenue decline amid falling advertising sales and stiff competition from TikTok. Microsoft and Google’s parent company also reported weaker trends than Wall Street expected.
Rising interest rates have hit Big Tech stock prices harder than the rest of the market, and the pressure increased Friday as yields climbed.
Data released in the morning showed the raises that U.S. workers got in wages and other compensation during the summer was in line with economists’ expectations. That should keep the Fed on track to keep hiking rates sharply in hopes of weakening the job market enough to undercut the nation’s high inflation.
The yield on the two-year Treasury, which tends to track expectations for Fed action, rose to 4.38% from 4.28% late Thursady.
The 10-year yield, which helps set rates for mortgages and many other loans, climbed to 3.98% from 3.93% and was briefly back above 4%.
Trading in Twitter’s stock has ended, after Elon Musk has taken control of the company following a lengthy legal battle.
In Europe, stock indexes were mixed in relatively muted trading.
Shares fell 0.9% in Tokyo even as the government approved a massive stimulus spending package to help the world’s No. 3 economy cope with inflation. As expected, the Bank of Japan wrapped up a policy meeting by keeping its ultra-lax monetary policy unchanged even as it forecast higher inflation.
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Associated Press writers Elaine Kurtenbach, Matt Ott and Mari Yamaguchi contributed.
