Dow Jones Down on Friday
Tech stocks were also the biggest gainers on the Nasdaq and the Dow. However, a drop in financial heavyweights such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase dragged the Dow lower. Online education platform Coursera slipped 14.2 per cent after its first-quarter results.
A surge for Intel following a blowout profit report is leading technology stocks higher Friday, while oil prices keep swinging in the wait for what’s next with the Iran war.Intel led the way and is potentially heading for its best day since 1987. It jumped 23.9 per cent after reporting much stronger results for the first three months of the year than analysts expected. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the next wave of artificial-intelligence technology is increasing the need for Intel’s chips and products, and the company’s forecast for profit in the spring topped analysts’ estimates.
Such strong profit reports have helped Wall Street rally to records, and the S&P 500 has leaped more than 12 per cent in a little under a month. Hopes have also built in financial markets that the United States and Iran can find a way to avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy because of their war.
On Wall Street, Procter & Gamble rose 3.9 per cent after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Shailesh Jejurikar said it saw broad-based growth across regions and products, which include Bounty paper towels and Tide detergent.
That helped offset a drop of 23.7 per cent for Charter Communications, whose profit for the latest quarter came in weaker than analysts expected. It lost 120,000 internet customers during the three months, more than some analysts expected.
Hartford Insurance Group fell 1.6 per cent after reporting profit growth for the latest quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations.