By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500 and Nasdaq climbed to fresh intraday record highs Friday after cutting losses as a Facebook-led climb in communication services offset a slump in Apple and Amazon following quarterly results that fell short of estimates.
The S&P 500 rose 0.1% and had climbed to a record of 4,604.3 earlier in the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1%, or 50 points, while the Nasdaq was up 0.03% having hit an all-high earlier of 15,472.7.
It what was a disappointing end to the wave of big tech results seen this week, Amazon and Apple both reported quarterly results that fell short on the bottom line.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell more than 3% and was dethroned by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) as the most valuable company by market cap after the tech giant’s quarterly revenue missed Wall Street estimates. Apple also warned that the ongoing chip shortage would continue to weigh on sales.
The results led to a slew of price cuts from Wall Street analysts, but Wedbush insisted the slide in Apple is a buying opportunity.
“While the bears will hang their hats on this supply chain issue and a valuation that has re-rated … [we] view any sell off as a buying opportunity given our robust view of Cupertino's product cycle demand story into 2022,” Wedbush said in a note.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), meanwhile, fell more than 4% amid concerns about rising costs after the e-commerce giant forecast a $4 billion rise in costs to meet demand in the fourth quarter amid labor and materials shortages.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) jumped 3% to provide the sector with some reprieve as its rebranding announcement a day earlier was well received on Wall Street following its underwhelming quarterly report earlier this week.
Facebook said Thursday it would change its name to the "Meta" as part of its strategic move to build out and capitalize on the metaverse, where real-world experiences are replicated in the online world, often using virtual reality headsets.
Industrials also supported the broader market intraday rebound, led by 6% surge in WW Grainger (NYSE:GWW) after the industrial materials supplier reported better-than-expected third-quarter results underpinned by strong demand.
Elsewhere on the earnings front, Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) slipped more than 5% after its third-quarter revenue missed analysts estimates amid weaker China demand following a flare up in Covid-19 infections.
Energy struggled to turn positive even as oil majors Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) traded higher following quarterly earnings that beat estimates amid surging in oil prices.