Apple rally fuels tech share turnaround, lifting US stocks

NEW YORK — Tech shares were back on their front foot on Friday following solid Apple results, boosting the Nasdaq nearly three per cent and adding to weekly gains.

Apple, the biggest company in terms of market value, soared nearly 8 per cent after reporting higher profits despite lower-than-expected iPhone sales. 

Apple's surge helped offset a comparable drop in Amazon shares on a disappointing holiday-quarter forecast and added to buying momentum on Wall Street following a mixed day in global bourses and a drop in oil prices.

"The stock market showed impressive resilience today," observed Briefing.com after the Dow's sixth straight positive session.

The gains by Apple helped prompt an advance by large tech companies like Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet that were punished earlier in the week in a pullback that investors feared could mark a major negative turning point for tech giants.

Art Hogan, analyst at B. Riley Financial, said tech shares benefited Friday from an "oversold rebound", adding that semiconductor shares were lifted by Facebook parent Meta's plan to boost investment in the metaverse.

Stocks have also been boosted in recent sessions by hopes the Federal Reserve will soon moderate its policies to counter inflation.

Markets largely shrugged off a mixed US economic data that showed inflation lingering but also a jump in household spending. 

In Europe, Germany's economy unexpectedly grew in the third quarter, but slowing growth in France and Spain added to fears that high inflation and an energy crisis will tip the region into recession.

"Today's positive growth data is a welcome surprise. However, it does not mean that the German economy will be able to prevent a recession," said ING economist Carsten Brzeski.

Elsewhere, the yen was down against the dollar after Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the country would spend $260 billion on a stimulus package to cushion the weak economy.

The yen has plunged to 32-year lows versus the dollar in recent weeks as Japan's central bank refuses to hike interest rates despite sky-high inflation, fuelled by soaring energy prices.

"The Japanese yen is once again the worst performer today after the Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged," said market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.