Investing.com – Stocks surged higher Friday as investors embraced the prospect of more technology growth and shrugged off cautious fourth-quarter guidance from Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN).
The S&P 500, ended up 0.41% on the day at 3,022.55. The index briefly breached its July 26 closing high and came within a point of breaking its intraday high of 3,027.98.
The Nasdaq 100, meanwhile, soared to a new intraday high of 8,032.35 and closed up 0.78% to a new closing high of 8,029.22. The old closing high was 8,021.35, also set on July 26.
The day's catalyst was that chip giant Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) said it sees more growth ahead, especially in sales of server chips. Intel jumped 8.1% and added 17.4 points to the Nasdaq 100..
Gains for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and graphics-chip maker Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) also contributed to the Nasdaq-100's new highs. These stocks and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) together contributed more than 48 points to the index's gain of 62 points.
The Dow Jones industrials finished up 0.57% and ended the day off 1.53% below its all-time high in July. While Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) was the biggest percentage gainer, the Dow was also pushed higher by new highs for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM). Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) also moved up 4.4% and added nearly 40 points to the Dow's 152-point gain.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.7% on the day and is 1.2% below its peak.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) fell 1.09%, or more than 19 points, to ,761.33 after reporting weaker than expected third quarter results late Thursday. It was the company's first profit decline in two years The company also offering softer-than-expected fourth quarter guidance. The share decline reduced the Nasdaq's gain by 8.1 points.
The decline wasn't as large as might have been expected, but Amazon has aggressive plans for fourth-quarter promotions. And it has a history of offering soft guidance that's blown away when earnings are announced.
The market's gains were dominated by tech stocks but still quite broad except for interest-rate sensitive stocks, like utilities and real estate investment vehicles. The sectors were the weakest among the 11 S&P 500 sectors as rates moved higher with stocks. The 10-year Treasury yield move to 1.803% from Thursday's 1.766%.
Home builders, however, gained, with new highs for DR Horton (NYSE:DHI), Lennar (NYSE:LEN), PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM)and KB Home (NYSE:KBH).
Boeing (NYSE:BA) 1.4% fell as the 737 MAX issue continued to weigh on the company .
While earnings were the biggest driver's in the stock market's performance, there was some early fuel provided by the Trump Administration, which said the negotiations of a text for the first phase of what is hoped to be a comprehensive trade agreement were going well.
Gold was flat on the day at about ,505 an ounce. West Texas Intermediate crude and Brent crude moved higher.
Medical-equipment maker ResMed (NYSE:RMD), flooring company Mohawk Industries Inc (NYSE:MHK) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) were the top S&P 500 performers.
Real-estate-investment-trust Ventas (NYSE:VTR); Edison International (NYSE:EIX), parent of Southern (NYSE:SO) California Edison; and chemical maker Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) were the weakest S&P 500 performers.