Wall Street ends higher as Amazon soothes AI jitters

Amazon surged over 15% after posting its biggest quarterly revenue growth in over four years. (EPA Images pic)NEW YORK: Wall Street ended higher on Friday, lifted by Amazon as the tech heavyweight's strong quarterly report bolstered investor confidence in AI-related stocks, while Apple dropped after its results disappointed investors.Amazon surged over 15% after posting its biggest quarterly revenue growth in over four years. Its results, along with a similar report from Microsoft on Wednesday, alleviated investor concerns about potential overspending on AI data centres.Worries that heavy investments in AI infrastructure may be taking too long to pay off rattled global markets this month and led to doubts about companies at the centre of Wall Street's rally in recent years."There were worries that Amazon's spending was just moonshot spending, that it's irresponsible spending, and (CEO) Andy Jassy just put those fears to bed," said Jake Dollarhide, CEO of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.The PHLX chip index edged up 0.07%, and it remains down over 20% from its June 22 record high close.Apple tumbled 7.4% after warning that supply constraints would hurt growth, adding to worries that recent iPhone price hikes would weaken consumer demand.Apple's slump kept the S&P 500 technology index down 0.54%, despite gains in other tech stocks.Microsoft rose 3%, adding to gains after surging over 15% on Thursday in its biggest one-day percentage gain since 2008 after it forecast stronger-than-expected cloud growth.Monolithic Power Systems rose over 8% after forecasting third-quarter revenue above estimates.The S&P 500 climbed 0.70% to end the session at 7,489.72 points.

Even as the S&P 500 rose, declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by a 1.3-to-one ratio.The Nasdaq gained 1% to 25,373.85 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.53% to 52,485.03 points.Volume on US exchanges was heavy, with 20.6 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 17.1 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.For the week, the S&P 500 rose 1.05% and the Nasdaq added 1.59%.The S&P 500 ended July about flat from June, while the Nasdaq fell 3.2%. Both indexes are up about 9% in 2026.Analysts on average expect S&P 500 aggregate second-quarter earnings to soar 48% from a year ago, with AI-related stocks accounting for much of that growth, according to LSEG I/B/E/S.Str…