By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- The Dow delivered swashbuckling gains Friday as a rally in Apple on “solid” quarterly results revived investor appetite for big tech just as bets on the Federal Reserve reining its aggressive plans to hike rates gather momentum.
The S&P 500 rose 2.5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.6% or 828 points, and the Nasdaq was up 2.9%.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose more than 7% after its third-quarter results topped estimates, lifting the broader tech sector in what has been a “horror show week for Big Tech earnings [this week],” Wedbush said in a note.
“iPhone demand was relatively strong despite the macro with a heavy iPhone 14 Pro mix seen in the quarter,” Wedbush added, though cut its price target on the tech giant to $200 from $220.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), meanwhile, moved off session lows to end the day about 6% lower after its third-quarter revenue fell short of estimates. “The Q4 ’22 operating income guidance [from Amazon] came in about $1bn lower than expected at the high end of the range,” Goldman Sachs said in a note.
Tech was also helped by an Intel-led (NASDAQ:INTC) jump in chip stocks after the chipmaker’s quarterly earnings topped Wall Street expectations and it outlined plans to cut costs over the coming years.
Oil majors Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) led the charge higher in energy after the duo reported better-than-expected quarterly results.
In other news, Elon Musk completed his $44 billion deal to take Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) private, with the billionaire hinting at the completion in a tweet Thursday night saying, “the bird is freed.”
The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield ended the week back up above 4% despite economic data showing a slowdown in inflation encouraged further bets on less hawkish Federal Reserve monetary policy action.
The core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, which excludes food and energy, rose 5.1% in the 12 months through September, slower than the 5.2% predicted.
Consumer spending, meanwhile, remained robust, growing faster than expected in September, underpinned by falling gas prices.
The Fed is expected to hike rates by 0.75% next week, but many believe that the central bank could hint at slowing the pace of rate hikes at subsequent meetings.
"We expect the FOMC to deliver a fourth 75bp rate hike at its November meeting, and indicate that it could soon be appropriate to step down the pace of hikes," Morgan Stanley said in a recent note.