The Amazon logo is seen at its newly inaugurated office in Bengaluru, India, Feb 23, 2026. (Photo: REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh)
01 Aug 2026 05:43AM
NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks charged higher Friday (Jul 31) behind strong earnings from Amazon that offset the drag from higher US Treasury yields.Shares of Amazon surged 15.3 per cent as the tech giant posted more than US$62 billion in quarterly profits behind a 20 per cent revenue increase in results that blew past analyst expectations.Amazon's surge added to confidence about artificial intelligence investments amid questions about the payoff, a day after Microsoft also wowed investors with strong results."The earnings picture continues to surprise very much to the upside, especially with Amazon's results, and so I think investors are ignoring the prospect of higher interest rates down the road," said CFRA Research's Sam Stovall.All three major indices finished solidly higher, led by the tech-rich Nasdaq, which gained 1.0 per cent.That came despite a 7.4-per cent fall in Apple due to disappointment over the company's outlook.Markets continued to keep an eye on US Treasury yields, which remained elevated amid concerns that persistent inflation will compel the Federal Reserve to lift interest rates.Investors have been monitoring the bond market since a divided Fed kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday. The three dissenting policy makers from Wednesday's Fed meeting said Friday that rate hikes were needed immediately to avoid entrenched inflation."Inflation has been too high for too long," said Cleveland Fed president Beth Hammack. "The longer that high inflation persists, the more challenging and costly it can be to bring it back down."
