Amazon.com, Apple fall in late trade after quarterly reports; Caterpillar, Merck rise after posting higher profits
Wall Street closed higher on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq boasting record closing levels thanks partly to gains in Apple and Amazon, while solid results from companies including Caterpillar and Merck helped ease concerns about slowing economic growth denting profits.
After the bell, however, shares of both Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc moved sharply lower following the release of quarterly results.
Amazon was down 4% in extended trading after forecasting holiday-quarter sales below Wall Street expectations.
Apple fell more than 3% in late trading after it said supply-chain woes cost it $6 billion in sales in the last quarter and that the impact will be even worse in the holiday-sales quarter.
During the regular session, heavyweights including Tesla Inc , finishing up 3.8%, and Apple, which closed up 2.5%, spurred on the Nasdaq and the S&P.
The S&P was also boosted by Caterpillar Inc, which closed up 4% after reporting a better-than-expected quarterly profit on rising commodity prices and a bullish forecast from drugmaker Merck & Co Inc, which added 6%.
Investors also eyed Washington, where President Joe Biden said he had secured a new $1.75 trillion framework for economic and climate change spending.
"Earnings continue to be very good," said Bill Stone, chief investment officer at the Glenview Trust Co in Louisville, Kentucky, who also noted that Biden's framework, if it succeeds, would not boost corporate taxes as investors had previously feared.
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