Wall St rallies as Amazon's gains offset weak job growth

By Abigail Summerville

(Reuters) -Wall Street's major indexes climbed on Friday, rebounding from the previous day's sell-off as Amazon's strong earnings countered a significant drop in U.S. job growth in October.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN ) rose 6.4% after it reported earnings on Thursday that revealed strong retail sales, boosting profit above Wall Street estimates.

Meanwhile, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL ) dropped 1.6%, the only so-called Magnificent Seven member in the red, as investors worried about a decline in its China sales.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT ) also reported earnings earlier this week and warned on AI-related infrastructure costs, dragging the Nasdaq down on Thursday.

"A new month frequently seems to offer new optimism for investors - especially after we saw a sharp decline yesterday - and after seeing encouraging results from Apple and Amazon," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

Equity markets brushed off weak U.S. October nonfarm payrolls data, given disruptions from hurricanes and strikes. The data showed an increase of 12,000 jobs, much smaller than economists' estimate of a 113,000 rise.

However, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%, reassuring investors the labor market remained on solid ground ahead of the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday.

"Third-quarter earnings, interest rates and the election continue to be the main drivers in the near term," Stovall said.

After the data was released, investors largely stuck to bets that the central bank would cut rates by 25 basis points in November.

The U.S. election is on investors' minds, with many analysts predicting a close presidential race and some uncertainty over the final outcome. The Fed's November meeting kicks off the following day.

At 2:15 p.m. EDT (1815 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 308.61 points, or 0.74%, to 42,072.07, the S&P 500 gained 29.65 points, or 0.52%, to 5,735.10 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 147.37 points, or 0.81%, to 18,242.52.

Amazon.com's gains lifted the Consumer Discretionary index up 2.3% to a more than two-year high, while Utility and Real Estate stocks were the biggest sectoral decliners.

The Dow, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were on track for weekly declines.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC ) jumped 6.7% after a better-than-expected revenue forecast. An index of chip stocks was up 1.4%.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX ) rose 2.5% after beating third-quarter profit estimates on higher oil output.



Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.02-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.15-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted ten new 52-week highs and five new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 63 new highs and 96 new lows.

Source: Investing.com