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 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 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 fell 1.09%, or more than 19 points, to $1,761.33 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 (NASDAQ:AMZN) 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) fell 1.4% 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 $1,505 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.