Wall Street opened in green on Friday, fueled by solid economic data. In the third quarter, the economy grew at a 3% annual rate despite the impact of natural disasters like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The figure is above expectations of a 2.7% growth rate but below the 3.1% growth rate in the past quarter.
Shares of Amazon.com Inc.(AMZN, Financial) gained more than 10% in Friday premarket trading on the back of the company reporting financial results for its third quarter on Thursday. EPS of 52 cents beats expectations by 49 cents and revenue of $43.74 billion beat estimates of $42.147 billion and increased 34% year over year. Operating income, however, decreased 40% to $347 million, compared with $575 million in the prior-year quarter.
The company now expects net sales to be between $56 billion and $60.5 billion. The guidance anticipates a favorable impact of $1.2 billion from foreign exchange rates.
Gainers
- Align Technology Inc. (ALGN, Financial)
- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
- Leggett & Platt Inc. (LEG, Financial)
- ResMed Inc. (RMD)
- Stryker Corp. ”‹(SYK, Financial)
- Intel Corp. (INTC)
Losers
- Expedia Inc. (EXPE, Financial)
- Mattel Inc. (MAT)
- Cerner Corp. ”‹(CERN, Financial)
- Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD)
- Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT, Financial)
- Macy's Inc. (M)
Global markets
The main European stock markets traded mostly higher. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.31%, France's CAC 40 inched up 0.83% and Germany's DAX climbed 0.68%, but Spain's IBEX 35 was lower, falling 1.49%.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 1.24%, China's Shanghai Composite increased 0.27%, India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.03% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.84%.
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
