Key facts
- Nasdaq futures rose significantly due to Amazon's strong performance.
- Amazon reported its largest revenue growth in over four years, driven by cloud services.
- Apple shares declined premarket on warnings of supply constraints affecting growth.
- The tech sector experienced volatility in July, with investors assessing AI investment returns.
- Major tech stocks like Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla saw modest gains.
- Chip stocks Nvidia and Micron also advanced.
Nasdaq futures led gains on Friday, with Amazon's shares jumping 12% after the Big Tech company joined peers in delivering strong cloud revenue growth, alleviating concerns about AI returns that had driven this month's volatility. Limiting some optimism, Apple warned that supply constraints would hurt growth, prompting investors to look beyond near-term shortages to gauge the hit from an expected iPhone price hike as its shares dropped 7.3% in premarket trading.
This week was described by some analysts as 'make-or-break' for the tech sector, which had been rattled by investors taking profits in July following a strong end to the second quarter, as they awaited signs that investments made by AI leaders at the expense of free cash flow were paying off. Amazon reported its biggest revenue growth in over four years for the previous quarter on Thursday, joining similar reports from Microsoft and Alphabet earlier this month, prompting investors to look past the big drop in cash flows that the companies also logged.
"It is no longer enough to beat overall estimates; companies must also reassure investors about the drivers of future growth," said John Plassard, head of investment strategy at Cité Gestion. "Ultimately, Amazon confirms that the momentum in artificial intelligence continues to support the hyperscalers, while Apple reminds us that its main challenge now remains accelerating its AI strategy while sustainably reviving its growth in China."
Shares of Microsoft dipped 0.8% after logging its biggest one-day gain on record for a company in the previous session, while Alphabet added 2.3%, Meta advanced 2% and Tesla rose 1.6%. Chip stocks Nvidia climbed 1.5% and Micron gained 3.5%.
At 5:37 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 259 points, or 0.49%, and S&P 500 E-minis were up 34.5 points, or 0.46%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 316 points, or 1.12%.
All three of Wall Street's main indexes are on track for weekly gains, aided by the strong rebound late this week, but are on track for monthly losses reflecting the sharp selloff AI-linked stocks witnessed through July. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index is still down over 20% in July, which would mark its biggest monthly fall since the housing bubble burst in late 2008. Investors instead took notice of other sectors, as the S&P 500 equally weighted index is on track for its fourth-straight month of gains.
"This momentum crash was tremendous and the positioning has been rinsed," said Laurent Clavel, global head of multi-asset, AXA Investment Managers at BNP Paribas Asset Management. "Going into August, if anything, we are going back into it slowly. We're buying this weakness and we're re-buying this AI narrative."
The week also brought uncertainty in terms of interest rates after the Federal Reserve left interest rates on hold. Chairman Kevin Warsh's commentary and a broadly benign inflation report on Thursday left investors pricing in a 36.8% chance that interest rates could be left unchanged in September, up from about 20% last week.
The University of Michigan's July consumer sentiment survey is due at 10 a.m. ET. GoDaddy lost 12.4% after the domain registrar narrowed its annual revenue forecast.