By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq clinched closing records Friday, as health care and tech stocks combined to coax bullish bets and restore market sentiment following a slide in Apple and Amazon.
The S&P 500 rose 0.20%, ending the day at a record close of 4,605. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.25%, or 89 points, while the Nasdaq was up 0.33% to close at record of 15,498.
Health care stocks were supported by a late flurry of intraday bullish bets, with DXCM, CERN, ABBV leading to the. upside, with latter up more than 3% after the Federal Reserve approved its Vuity eye drops to treat age-related farsightedness.
Sentiment on health care stocks were also supported by a rise in vaccine stocks after the FDA cleared the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11.
Amazon and Apple both reported quarterly results that fell short on the bottom line, marking a disappointing end to the wave of big tech results seen this week.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) recovered some losses to end the day down just 1.8% after missing Wall Street estimates. Apple also warned that the ongoing chip shortage would continue to weigh on sales.
The results led to a slew of price cuts from Wall Street analysts, but Wedbush insisted the slide in Apple is a buying opportunity.
“While the bears will hang their hats on this supply chain issue and a valuation that has re-rated … [we] view any sell off as a buying opportunity given our robust view of Cupertino's product cycle demand story into 2022,” Wedbush said in a note.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), meanwhile, fell about 2% amid concerns about rising costs after the e-commerce giant forecast a $4 billion rise in costs to meet demand in the fourth quarter amid labor and materials shortages.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) jumped 2% as its rebranding announcement a day earlier was well received on Wall Street following its underwhelming quarterly report earlier this week.
Facebook said Thursday it would change its name to the "Meta" as part of its strategic move to build out and capitalize on the metaverse, where real-world experiences are replicated in the online world, often using virtual reality headsets.
Elsewhere on the earnings front, Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) slipped 6% after its third-quarter revenue missed analysts estimates amid weaker China demand following a flare up in Covid-19 infections.
Energy was one of the biggest decliners as oil majors Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) gave up gains despite reporting quarterly earnings that beat estimates amid surging in oil prices.