S&P 500 posts best week since November, Nasdaq surges 2% Friday as Alphabet soars: Live updates

USD/JPY

— Hakyung Kim, Gina Francolla

Fri, Apr 26 202412:51 PM EDT

Stocks making the biggest moves midday

Alphabet — The Google parent company rallied 10%. Alphabet posted first-quarter results that topped estimates and authorized its first-ever dividend, as well as a $70 billion buyback.

Exxon Mobil — The energy stock fell more than 2% after Exxon Mobil posted first-quarter adjusted earnings that missed analysts' forecasts.

ResMed — Shares soared 17% after fiscal third-quarter results topped analysts' estimates. The medical device company posted $2.13 in earnings per share, excluding items, on $1.20 billion in revenue.

Read the full list of stocks on the move here.

— Hakyung Kim

Fri, Apr 26 202412:26 PM EDT

Alphabet, Microsoft propel Nasdaq Composite toward best day since February

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.1% Friday morning, as Alphabet and Microsoft popped on strong earnings results.

With this latest jump, the Nasdaq is now tracking for its best day since Feb. 22. On that day, it rose 2.96%. The index is also on pace for a 4.3% gain on the week.

Alphabet's 10% jump on Friday is powered by solid beats on the top and bottom lines for the first quarter. The Google parent's board also approved a cash dividend of 20 cents a share, payable on June 17, and a share repurchase of $70 billion.

Microsoft added 2.5% after it surpassed analysts' expectations for earnings per share and revenue in the fiscal third quarter.

— Darla Mercado

Fri, Apr 26 202411:48 AM EDT

New York Stock Exchange advancers lead decliners 3-1

Market breadth recovered in early Friday trading, with roughly three stocks advancing for every decline at the New York Stock Exchange. Overall, 1,883 NYSE-listed names were higher, while 591 pulled back.

— Fred Imbert

Fri, Apr 26 202410:59 AM EDT

Copper poised for best month since early 2021

Copper rods used to machine parts are stacked on a shelf at Makerite Manufacturing in Roscoe, Illinois.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

Copper's April rally has put it on track to see its best month in more than three years.

So far this month, copper has climbed more than 14%. If that holds, April would mark the best monthly performance since February 2021, when copper surged more than 15%.

— Alex Harring, Gina Francolla

Fri, Apr 26 202410:25 AM EDT

Consumer sentiment little changed in April

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index fell just 2.2 points to 77.2 in April, also coming in slightly below a Dow Jones estimate of 77.9.

"Since January, sentiment has remained remarkably stable within a very narrow 2.5 index point range, well under the 4.8 points necessary for a statistically significant difference in readings," Surveys of Consumers director Joanne Hsu wrote.

That said, "consumers continue to express uncertainty about the future trajectory of the economy pending the outcomes of the upcoming election, but at this time there is no evidence that global geopolitical factors are on the forefront of consumers' minds."

Year-ahead inflation expectations ticked higher to 3.2% from 2.9%, while long-run expectations also rose to 3% from 2.8%.

— Fred Imbert

Fri, Apr 26 20249:53 AM EDT

Alphabet heads for best day since July 2015

Alphabet shares jumped nearly 11% on Friday and headed for their best day in nearly nine years.

The search giant surged after topping first-quarter earnings and revenue expectations and announcing its first-ever dividend and a $70 million buyback. The company also said revenue grew 15% from a year ago, which marks the fastest growth rate since 2022.

The moves bring Alphabet shares to their best daily performance since a 16% pop on July 17, 2015. Shares have rallied 23% this year.

— Samantha Subin

Fri, Apr 26 20249:31 AM EDT

S&P 500, Nasdaq opens higher

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on April 25, 2024.

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Fri, Apr 26 20249:14 AM EDT

Stocks making the biggest moves premarket

People walk past a Microsoft Experience Center on Fifth Avenue in New York City on April 3, 2024.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

• Microsoft — Shares gained 4% after the tech giant reported fiscal third-quarter results that topped expectations as its Azure business continued to show momentum.
• Alphabet — The tech behemoth surged more than 11%. Alphabet posted first-quarter results that topped estimates and issued its first-ever dividend, as well as a $70 billion buyback. Earnings of $1.89 per share topped the $1.51 in earnings per share anticipated by analysts polled by LSEG. Revenue of $80.54 billion topped expectations of $78.59 billion.
• Snap — The social media stock surged 22% after Snap's first-quarter results exceeded expectations. Revenue rose 21% to $1.19 billion, spurred by improvements in the company's advertising platform.

Read the full list here.

— Sarah Min

Fri, Apr 26 20248:40 AM EDT

PCE rises 2.8% in March

The personal consumption expenditures price index rose more than expected in March, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The inflation measure increased 2.8% from a year ago, excluding food and energy. That came in ahead of the 2.7% estimate from Dow Jones.

Including food and energy, the price gauge rose 2.7%, ahead of the 2.6% estimate. Both measures increased 0.3% and were in line with expectations on a monthly basis.

— Samantha Subin

Fri, Apr 26 20248:11 AM EDT

Chevron falls on disappointing revenue

The Chevron logo is seen at a gas station in Los Angeles.

Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Chevron shares declined nearly 1% after the oil giant posted revenue that fell short of Wall Street's expectations.

The company posted adjusted earnings of $2.93 per share, topping the $2.87 expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Revenue came in at $48.72 billion and fell from a year ago. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected revenue to come in at $50.66 billion.

The decline in profits came amid lower sales margins due in part to lower natural gas prices and sales margins.

— Spencer Kimball, Samantha Subin

Fri, Apr 26 20247:44 AM EDT

Exxon Mobil falls on earnings miss

Shares of Exxon Mobil fell about 1% after posting disappointing first-quarter earnings.

Earnings came in at $2.06, falling short of the $2.20 expected by analysts polled by LSEG as refining margins and natural gas prices declined. The figure also declined 28% from a year ago.

The oil company topped revenue expectations, posting $83.08 billion versus the $78.35 billion expected by Wall Street.

— Samantha Subin

Fri, Apr 26 202412:06 AM EDT

Yen hits new low after Bank of Japan keeps policy rate unchanged

The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo.

Bloomberg | Getty Images

The Bank of Japan held its benchmark policy rate unchanged at 0% to 0.1%, as expected.

The BOJ also said it will continue to conduct bond purchases in line with the March decision, but no comment was made on the yen.

The Japanese yen weakened beyond 156 against the U.S. dollar following the decision, touching fresh 34-year lows. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index extended gains to rise 0.7%.

Investors now await a press conference by BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda later in the day.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

Thu, Apr 25 20249:56 PM EDT

Hon Hai shares jump 4% to highest level in more than two weeks

Employees work on the assembly line at Hon Hai Group's Foxconn plant in Shenzhen, China.

Qilai Shen | Corbis Historical | Getty Images

Shares of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry jumped as much as 4.3% in early trading, hitting a more than two-week high.

U.S. software company Cerence said it will supply Hon Hai EV subsidiary Foxtron with a voice-powered artificial intelligence assistant. Cerence said the system features bilingual recognition of Taiwanese Mandarin and English.

"We're proud to partner with Foxtron to bring the power of voice interaction to drivers in Taiwan for the first time," said Christian Mentz, chief revenue officer at Cerence.

Shares of Hon Hai have surged nearly 50% so far this year.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

Thu, Apr 25 20248:14 PM EDT

Tokyo inflation slows in April, core inflation sharply lower than expected

Inflation in Japan's capital city of Tokyo slowed to 1.8% in April, down from the 2.6% gain in March.

Core inflation in the city, which strips out prices of fresh food, came in at 1.6%, down from 2.4% in March and missing expectations of 2.2% from economists polled by Reuters.

Tokyo's inflation figures are widely considered to be a leading indicator of nationwide trends.

— Lim Hui Jie

Thu, Apr 25 20246:22 PM EDT

Fed's preferred inflation gauge for March will be out Friday

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington on March 20, 2024.

Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters

The personal consumption expenditures price index will be due Friday morning, giving the Federal Reserve a detailed glimpse into the latest inflation metrics.

For March, economists polled by Dow Jones anticipate headline PCE grew 0.3% from the prior month and 2.6% from 12 months earlier. They expect that core prices, which exclude food and energy costs, grew 0.3% on a monthly basis and 2.7% year over year.

The first-quarter gross domestic product report issued Thursday revealed that PCE for the period rose 3.4%, well above the 1.8% increase in the fourth quarter. The result incited a sell-off for stocks as investors fretted over signs of stagflation — a scenario in which the economy's growth slows but inflation rises.

— Darla Mercado

Thu, Apr 25 20246:04 PM EDT

After-hours movers

Check out the companies making moves after the bell: 

Snap — Shares soared more than 27% in after-hours trading after the social media firm reported first-quarter results that beat analysts' estimates.

Intel — The tech stock slid 8% in extended trading after the company missed expectations for first-quarter sales and gave a weak forecast for the current quarter.

DexCom — The manufacturer of glucose monitoring systems fell 8%, even as the company posted beats on the top and bottom lines.

Gilead Sciences — The biotech stock jumped almost 3% after a better-than-feared quarterly report. Gilead posted a loss of $1.32 per share, narrower than the loss of $1.49 per share expected by analysts polled by LSEG.

— Yun Li