(Bloomberg) — Stocks staged a rebound as Wall Street traders looked beyond distorted economic data to focus on the strength of Corporate America.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Equities rose after a two-day rout, with the S&P 500 up almost 1% amid a string of solid signals from industry bellwethers. The “Magnificent Seven” cohort of megacaps, which bore the brunt of the recent selling, led gains on Friday. Amazon.com Inc. surged 6% on strong results. Intel Corp. rallied 5.7% as its outlook sparked optimism the company is capable of reclaiming some lost market share. Apple Inc. dropped 0.7% amid lingering weakness in an intensely competitive China market.
Investors also waded through economic data that showed the impacts severe hurricanes and a major strike. Nonfarm payrolls increased 12,000 last month, following a downward revision to the prior two months. The unemployment rate held at 4.1% and hourly earnings remained firm. US manufacturing activity shrank in October for a seventh month to the lowest reading since July 2023, as two hurricanes may have limited production in parts of the Southeast.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7%. The Nasdaq 100 added 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.7%.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 4.30%. The dollar was little changed.
Corporate Highlights:
-
Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. beat analysts’ estimates as rising oil production from the Permian Basin helped offset weaker crude prices.
-
Amazon.com Inc. reported strong results that showed a company humming on all cylinders, a testament to its efforts to cut and reallocate costs and put the cloud computing and e-commerce giant on sounder footing.
-
Intel Corp. rallied after it gave a fourth-quarter revenue forecast slightly above estimates, sparking optimism that it’s capable of reclaiming some lost market share.
-
Apple Inc., heading into its most critical sales period of the year, sparked fresh concerns about revenue growth and lingering weakness in an intensely competitive China market.
-
Boeing Co. and union leaders representing 33,000 striking workers reached a tentative agreement to end a lengthy labor dispute that’s crippling the company’s commercial airplane manufacturing.
-
B. Riley Financial Inc. agreed to sell a portion of its wealth-management business to Stifel Financial Corp. for as much as $35 million in cash, the latest in a series of asset sales aimed at cutting the money-losing investment firm’s debt load.
-
Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc jumped following a US jury verdict that cleared it and Abbott Laboratories over claims they hid potential risks of their premature-infant formulas.
