Apr 26 | Daily Finance News

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U.S. STOCK PICKS

Closing: 4:00 PM EST

Stocks jumped Friday, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite notched their best week since November as Big Tech names rallied on strong earnings and traders pored through fresh U.S. inflation data.
The broad market index advanced 1% to settle at 5,099.96. The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 2% to close at 15,927.90 and secure its best daily move since February. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 153.86 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 38,239.66.
The S&P and Nasdaq clinched their best week since November. The S&P popped 2.7% to snap a three-week losing streak, while the Nasdaq gained 4.2% for its first positive week in five. The Dow edged up 0.7%.
Stocks got a boost from robust results from artificial intelligence competitors Alphabet and Microsoft after the bell Thursday. Alphabet jumped more than 10% on better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and recorded its best day since July 2015. The company also authorized its first-ever dividend and a $70 billion buyback.
Microsoft added about 2% as the software maker posted strong fiscal third-quarter results and showed an acceleration in cloud growth.
Investors also parsed March’s core personal consumption expenditures reading following a spate of reports that suggested slowing growth and sticky inflation. The gauge, excluding food and energy, rose 2.8% from a year ago and came in ahead of the 2.7% expected by Dow Jones. Personal spending rose 0.8%, ahead of a 0.7% estimate.
Intel, once the biggest and most valuable U.S. chip company, has been surpassed by numerous rivals in recent years due to a series of missteps. The shares plummeted further on Friday following disappointing earnings.
Federal regulator finds Tesla Autopilot has ‘critical safety gap’ linked to hundreds of collisions.
The busy earnings season continues next week, headlined by results from technology giants Apple and Amazon. The Federal Reserve’s next rate decision is due out Wednesday.

Apr 26 | Daily Finance News

U.S. STOCK PICKS

Stocks jumped Friday as Big Tech names Alphabet and Microsoft rallied on strong earnings and traders pored through fresh U.S. inflation data.
Shares of Alphabet jumped more than 10% following better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and headed for their best day since July 2015. The company also authorized its first-ever dividend and a $70 billion buyback.
Microsoft, meanwhile, climbed 1.7% after also reporting stronger profit and revenue than expected. It cited strong growth in its cloud-computing business as it pushes artificial-intelligence technology to its customers.
They helped offset a 12.5% drop for Intel. It reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected, but its revenue fell short of analysts’ estimates. So did its forecast for profit in the current quarter.
Stocks also appeared to get a boost from March’s core personal consumption expenditures reading. The gauge, excluding food and energy, rose 2.8% from a year ago and came in ahead of the 2.7% expected by Dow Jones. Personal spending rose 0.8% and ahead of a 0.7% estimate.
Those moves are helping Wall Street regain some of its footing after a down day. The blue-chip Dow slid 375 points Thursday after new U.S. economic data showed a sharp slowdown in growth and pointed to persistent inflation. Gross domestic product expanded by 1.6% in the first quarter, compared to a Dow Jones forecast of 2.4%.
The Fed has been keeping its main interest rate at the highest level since 2001 in hopes of undercutting inflation by putting downward pressure on the economy and financial markets. Inflation has come down from its peak, and progress last year had the Federal Reserve recently indicating it could cut rates three times this year. But the recent stalling in progress pushed top Fed officials to since say they could hold its main interest rate high for a while.

*All information sourced from news portals such as CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Reuters, etc.