US stock market today: Nasdaq outperformed the other major Wall Street indexes on Friday as a 13.7% rally in Amazon shares lifted technology stocks. Amazon joined other Big Tech firms in reporting robust cloud business growth, easing investor concerns over returns from heavy artificial intelligence spending.At 9:47 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 82.26 points, or 0.16%, at 52,290.32. The S&P 500 gained 10.05 points, or 0.12%, to 7,446.54, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 86.20 points, or 0.34%, to 25,208.37.The S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector led the market, rising 5.2%, driven largely by Amazon’s sharp gains, according to a Reuters report.Tech stocks in focusMarket participants had viewed this week as a crucial test for the technology sector. After a strong finish to the second quarter, AI-linked stocks came under pressure in July as investors locked in profits and waited for evidence that substantial AI investments were beginning to translate into meaningful returns despite weaker free cash flow.Amazon on Thursday reported its strongest quarterly revenue growth in more than four years, following similar results from Microsoft and Alphabet earlier this month. The performance encouraged investors to focus on the companies’ accelerating growth rather than the sharp decline in free cash flow reported alongside the earnings.“Amazon showed us, without a shadow of a doubt, that the web-services or AI side of the business is driving growth for the company,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York according to Reuters.“Investors are able to look past the free-cash-flow decline because it is one component. If growth continues, it will make up for that shortfall.”However, gains were tempered by Apple, whose shares fell 9.8% in early trade after the company cautioned that supply constraints would weigh on growth. Investors looked beyond the near-term shortages to assess the impact of an anticipated increase in iPhone prices.Microsoft shares rose 1.8% after recording their biggest single-day gain on record in the previous session. Alphabet and Meta each advanced more than 2%, while among semiconductor stocks, Nvidia climbed 1.3% and Micron added 1.6%.Despite the late-week rebound putting all three major Wall Street indexes on course for weekly gains, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq remained on track to end July in negative territory after AI-related stocks experienced a steep selloff during the month.The week also introduced fresh uncertainty over the interest-rate outlook after the Federal Reserve kept its benchmark rate unchanged. Comments from Chair Kevin Warsh, along with a broadly benign inflation report released on Thursday, prompted traders to raise the probability of rates remaining unchanged in September to 35%, compared with about 18% a week earlier, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
