Wall Street rises as big tech soars, inflation remains steady

Wall Street's major indexes climbed on Friday, buoyed by a surge in megacap growth stocks following robust quarterly results from Alphabet, which propelled its market value above $2 trillion. Additionally, in-line inflation data eased concerns about interest rate hikes.

Alphabet surged 10.8 per cent to a record high after announcing its first-ever dividend, a $70 billion stock buyback, and exceeding first-quarter estimates. The jump briefly pushed the Google-parent's market value over $2 trillion.

Microsoft also contributed to the upbeat sentiment, gaining 2 per cent after surpassing Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and profit, driven by increased adoption of AI across its cloud services.

Other growth stocks rallied in response to the positive results, with Amazon.com and Nvidia up 1.7 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively.

In economic news, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.3 per cent in March, in line with economists' estimates. Year-on-year, PCE inflation advanced 2.7 per cent, slightly above expectations. Excluding food and energy, the index increased 0.3 per cent last month and 2.8 per cent annually.

Steve Wyett, chief investment strategist at BOK Financial, noted that while the data didn't hurt confidence in the Fed's view on inflation, it didn't significantly boost confidence in reaching the 2 per cent target sustainably.

Following the data release, money markets priced in a higher chance of a rate cut in September, leading to a decline in the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note.

The upbeat earnings across various sectors this week propelled Wall Street's main indexes for weekly gains, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq set to end recent losing streaks.

At 9:43 am US time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.25 per cent, the S&P 500 rose 0.71 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite surged 1.33 per cent.

Communication services saw a significant jump, while energy led losses. Snap soared 24.4 per cent after beating first-quarter estimates, while Exxon Mobil dropped 2.8 per cent after missing analysts' expectations.

Intel declined 12.3 per cent after forecasting second-quarter revenue and profit below estimates due to weak demand for traditional data center and PC chips.

Overall, advancing issues outnumbered decliners, indicating positive market sentiment.

(With Reuters inputs)