WALL STREET REBOUNDS ON GOOD TECH RESULTS

US stocks closed higher on Thursday (Friday, October 30, 2020 in Manila), with the technology heavyweights rallying ahead of major earnings reports and upbeat domestic economic data calming investor jitters about surging coronavirus cases, Herbert Lash reported for Reuters. 

The rebound came after a more than 3% slide a day earlier in Wall Street’s main indexes, underscoring heightened market volatility ahead of the presidential election next week and growing fears of another COVID slowdown. 

Stocks rallied as investors anticipated strong results from a line-up of the biggest names in the US corporate universe - Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc. - due after market close. 

Tech companies have seen demand surge for their products and services from people stuck at home during the pandemic. Better-than-expected earnings from Pinterest Inc. which forecast a rebound in ad spending, helped spur the rally. Shares of the image-sharing company soared more than 26.9%. Amazon’s third-quarter revenue beat Wall Street estimates as the pandemic pushed more people to shop online for groceries and other essential items on its platform. Net sales rose to $96.15 billion from $69.98 billion a year earlier. Alphabet reported revenue rose to $46.17 billion from $40.5 billion a year earlier as the company returned to sales growth in the third quarter as businesses initially hobbled by COVID resumed advertising. Alphabet rose 7.9% after the bell but Amazon shares fell.