US stocks close week on high note

The New York Stock Exchange closed the week on a high note as major tech companies’ earnings reports eased concerns about investments in artificial intelligence.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.53%, or 276.97 points, to close at 52,208.06.

The S&P 500 increased 0.7%, or 52.09 points, to finish at 7,489.72, while the Nasdaq Composite soared 1%, or 251.68 points, to end the day at 25,373.85.

The Volatility Index (VIX), often referred to as the market’s “fear index,” decliend by 6.44% to 15.99.

Stock markets trended positively as the financial results announced by major tech companies eased investor concerns regarding the return on artificial intelligence spending.

Following the earnings reports released this week by leading US tech companies Microsoft and Meta, Amazon and Apple also published their financial results on Thursday after the market closed.

E-commerce giant Amazon’s net sales rose 20% year-over-year in the second quarter to $200.6 billion.

The company reported that sales from its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), also rose 37% in the second quarter to $42.2 billion, marking the highest growth rate in the past 18 quarters. Amazon’s shares gained 15.3%.

Strong growth in Microsoft and Amazon’s cloud computing operations helped ease concerns about artificial intelligence investments this week.

Apple, meanwhile, reported that its revenue for the three-month period rose 16.4% year-over-year to $109.4 billion; however, its shares fell 7.4% after the company warned that supply chain issues could negatively impact sales.

Meanwhile, volatility in the bond market continued after the Fed kept its policy rate steady in the 3.50–3.75% range. The yield on the U.S. 30-year Treasury note traded around 5.26%.

- European markets

European stocks saw mixed figures; the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index lost 0.12% to close at 649.19 points.

The UK’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.27% to 10,868.05, while Germany’s DAX 40 rose 0.07% to 25,629.24 points, while France’s CAC 40 went up by 0.28% to 8,509.64.

Italy’s FTSE MIB 30 increased 0.13% to 52,172.53 points, and Spain’s IBEX 35 rose 0.13% to 19,782.90 points.