WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After showing a strong move to the upside early in the session, stocks saw considerable volatility over the course of the trading day on Friday.
The major averages pulled back off their early highs in mid-day trading before moving back to the upside only to once again give back ground going into the end the session.
Despite the late-day pullback, the major averages all ended the day in positive territory. The Nasdaq climbed 143.81 points or 0.6 percent to 23,724.96, the S&P 500 rose 17.86 points or 0.3 percent to 6,840.20 and the Dow inched up 40.75 points or 0.1 percent to 47,562.87.
For the week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq surged by 2.2 percent, while the Dow and the S&P 500 advanced by 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.
The early strength on Wall Street largely reflected a positive reaction to earnings news from Amazon (AMZN), with the online retail giant soaring by 9.6 percent on the day.
Amazon reached a new record closing high after reporting better than expected third quarter results amid a sharp increase in cloud computing revenue.
'The e-commerce division may have by far the bigger public profile but it's the cloud services AWS division which is the real engine of Amazon's growth and, it's this which sparked the share price into life,' said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
He added, 'Demand for computing power linked to AI is showing no signs of letting up and that is driving significant growth for AWS, with third-quarter numbers helping to ease fears that this business was losing ground to rival operators.'
Netflix (NFLX) also turned in a strong performance on the day after the streaming giant announced its board of directors has approved a ten-for-one stock split.
On the other hand, iPhone maker Apple (AAPL) moved to the downside despite reporting fiscal fourth quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates and providing upbeat guidance for the current quarter.
Uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates also contributed to the volatility on Wall Street following Federal Reserve Jerome Powell's remarks earlier this week.
While the Fed lowered interest rates by another quarter point as widely expected on Wednesday, Powell's post-meeting remarks partly offset optimism about another rate cut in December.
Powell said a further reduction in rates in December is 'not a foregone conclusion,' noting Fed officials had 'strongly differing views about how to proceed' at the final meeting of the year.
Following Powell's comments, CME Group's FedWatch Tool indicates the chances the Fed cuts rates by another quarter point in December have tumbled to 65.0 percent from 91.7 percent a week ago.
Sector News
Retail stocks turned in a strong performance amid the surge by Amazon, with the Dow Jones U.S. Retail Index spiking by 4.0 percent to its best closing level in over a month.
Significant strength was also visible among airline stocks, as reflected by the 2.7 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. The index bounced off its lowest closing level in well over two months.
Biotechnology, computer hardware and brokerage stocks also saw considerable strength on the day, while gold stocks moved notably lower amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Friday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index surged by 2.1 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index slid by 0.8 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled by 1.4 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index is down by 0.6 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is down by 0.5 percent and the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.4 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the session before closing roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, crept up by less than a basis point to 4.101 percent.
Looking Ahead
With the ongoing shutdown likely delaying key U.S. economic data from the government, next week's trading may be impacted by reaction to private reports on manufacturing and service sector activity and private sector employment.
Trading may also continue to drive by reaction to the latest earnings news, with a number of well known companies due to report their quarterly results next week.
Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2025 AFX News