US markets struggled closing out the week, the Dow Jones falling 0.5%, S&P 500 0.7% and the Nasdaq the hardest hit, down nearly 1.0%.
It was a flat result in what was an important week for earnings results, but another in a long line of record months.
Through April, the Dow managed to deliver another positive month, finishing 2.2% higher with the Nasdaq at 3.6% and the S&P 500 benefitting from the likes of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) to jump 4%.
Reflation trade ahead
The weakness on Friday came as comments from the Dallas Federal Reserve flagged concerns about inflation and suggests that the bond-buying program should be slowed sooner than expected.
The broad-based nature of the reflation trade is on full show with the S&P 500 achieving a rare record with 95% of its 500 constituents trading above their 200-day moving average.
Amazon stuns
Amazon once again stunned the bears, delivering a 44% increase in revenue in the first quarter to US$108.5 billion, with management suggesting the surge to online sales is set to continue.
Management project the next quarter to improve further, with sales between US$110 and $116 billion forecast.
Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing business, delivered 32% sales growth of its own whilst the group’s advertising network saw revenue nearly double, up 77%, albeit off a low base.
Despite beating expectations, Amazon shares finished the day broadly flat.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks closed out the week on Friday:
- Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) up 4.8%
- Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM) up 4.1%
- Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) down 1.5%
- Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY) down 4.8%
- ResMed (NYSE: RMD) down 9.6%
- Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) down 15.2%
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is tipped to edge lower at the open on Monday. For all the latest, check out Rask Media’s ASX morning report.