Washington: On Friday, the US stock market was being led by Amazon and stocks of computer chipmakers amid oil prices rise and worries about inflation.
According to reports, the S&P 500 rose 0.7% at the end of a fluctuating week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 179 points till 9:35 am (Eastern time). The Nasdaq composite was 1.3% higher.
It was technology that led the way, including a 13.8% leap for Amazon. It reported much stronger profit for the latest quarter, surpassing the expectation of the analysts as cited in several news reports. Its profit was over triple from a year before and the growth being attributed to cloud computing business.
Analysts said this could be a signal that Amazon’s huge investments in artificial-intelligence technology are beginning to pay off.
A day before, Microsoft had got the same stock reaction when it soared to its best day in about 18 years, indicating that AI investments led to higher profits.
Though in the beginning of July, there had been worries that companies pouring billions of dollars into AI data centers may not get enough profit, chipmakers jumped again on Friday, following their gains on Thursday. Micron Technology rose 5.9%, and Advanced Micro Devices climbed 6%. They were two of the strongest forces.
In South Korea, the gains for chip stocks were extreme in South Korea. Seoul’s Kospi index soared 17.9% for its best day ever in its trading history. The index is dominated by two tech giants, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, both soaring at least 26.8% on Friday.
In the oil market, prices swung higher. This happened as uncertainty continues about when oil can begin flowing freely from producers in the Middle East to customers across the world.
According to reports across media, the price for a barrel of Brent crude increased 2.1% to $88.68.