US: Dow ends 2.6% higher, adding to weekly gains

WALL Street stocks rallied Friday (Oct 28), propelled by big gains in Apple after solid earnings and positive momentum amid hopes of a pivot in Federal Reserve policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 2.6 per cent, around 830 points, at 32,861.8 for its sixth straight positive session.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 2.5 per cent to 3,901.06, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 2.9 per cent to 11,102.45.

Apple, the biggest company in terms of market value, soared 7.6 per cent after reporting higher profits despite lower-than-expected iPhone sales.

The gains by Apple helped prompt an advance by large tech companies like Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet that were punished earlier in the week following disappointing results.

Art Hogan, analyst at B Riley Financial, said tech shares benefited from an “oversold rebound”, adding that semiconductor shares were lifted by Facebook parent Meta’s plan to boost investment in the metaverse.

Stocks have also been boosted in recent sessions by hopes the Federal Reserve will soon moderate its policies to counter inflation.

Markets largely shrugged off a mixed economic data that showed inflation lingering but also a jump in household spending.

Among other companies, Amazon sank 6.8 per cent as it predicted a slowdown in sales growth during the year-end holiday shopping season.

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But oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron piled on 2.9 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively after reporting blowout profits on lofty commodity orices. AFP