A surge for Intel following a blowout profit report is leading technology stocks higher Friday, while oil prices keep swinging in the wait for what’s next with the Iran war.
The S&P 500 added 0.5 per cent and rose above its all-time high set on Wednesday, even though the majority of stocks within the index fell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 197 points, or 0.4 per cent, as of 11:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.1 per cent higher.
Intel led the way and is potentially heading for its best day since 1987. It jumped 23.9 per cent after reporting much stronger results for the first three months of the year than analysts expected. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the next wave of artificial-intelligence technology is increasing the need for Intel’s chips and products, and the company’s forecast for profit in the spring topped analysts’ estimates.
Such strong profit reports have helped Wall Street rally to records, and the S&P 500 has leaped more than 12 per cent in a little under a month. Hopes have also built in financial markets that the United States and Iran can find a way to avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy because of their war.
A ceasefire is tenuously in place between the two, but tensions between them are still keeping oil tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.
Oil prices climbed this week on worries about the strait, but a potentially encouraging signal came Friday after Iran’s top diplomat said he was heading to Pakistan. That’s where officials have been trying to get the United States and Iran to convene for a second round of ceasefire negotiations.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude to be delivered in June yo-yoed between roughly US$103 and $107 in the morning and most recently was up 0.6 per cent at $105.71. The price for a barrel of Brent oil delivered in July, which is where more of the trading is happening in the market, added 0.2 per cent to $99.59.
On Wall Street, Procter & Gamble rose 3.9 per cent after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Shailesh Jejurikar said it saw broad-based growth across regions and products, which include Bounty paper towels and Tide detergent.
That helped offset a drop of 23.7 per cent for Charter Communications, whose profit for the latest quarter came in weaker than analysts expected. It lost 120,000 internet customers during the three months, more than some analysts expected.
Hartford Insurance Group fell 1.6 per cent after reporting profit growth for the latest quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after a report said sentiment among U.S. consumers remains sour. A survey by the University of Michigan found weaker sentiment in April across political party, income, age, and education, though it improved a bit after the ceasefire in the war with Iran was announced earlier in the month.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped to 4.31 per cent from 4.34 per cent late Thursday.
Investors are also betting again on the possibility that the Federal Reserve could resume its cuts to interest rates later this year. The path appeared to clear Friday for President Donald Trump’s nominee to chair the Fed, Kevin Warsh, after the U.S. Justice Department ended its probe into the Fed’s current chair, Jerome Powell.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, has said he would oppose Warsh until the investigation was resolved, effectively blocking his confirmation. Warsh is the choice of Trump, who has been arguing loudly for lower interest rates.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose one per cent, and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.7 per cent for two of the world’s bigger moves.
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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Stan Choe, The Associated Press
