Alphabet’s share, which announced its first dividend, had risen by almost ten percent.
Wall Street’s main stock indices were on a solid rise on Thursday, after about an hour of trading on the New York stock exchanges.
The S&P 500 general index, which broadly describes the US stock market, was up 1.1 percent from around five on Friday early evening. At the same time, the technology-focused Nasdaq had risen by about two percent and the Dow Jones index by half a percent.
Google’s parent company Alphabetin the stock rose already on Thursday in Wall Street’s after-market trading, when the company reported earnings per share and turnover that were better than analysts’ expectations.
Earnings per share were $1.89, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51. Revenue was $80.54 billion, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.59 billion.
Alphabet also announced that it will pay the first dividend in its stock market history. The technology company pays a dividend of $0.20 per share.
The company’s A share was up about 9.5 percent after 5:00 a.m. on Friday.
Microsoft’s the share had risen by 2.6 percent after 5:00 p.m. on Friday, when the company reported results that beat forecasts after the stock exchanges closed on Thursday.
Microsoft’s earnings per share were $2.94, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.82. Revenue was $61.86 billion, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.80 billion.
Semiconductor manufacturer Intel’s the share was down about 10.5 percent after five, when the company’s guidance clearly fell short of analysts’ expectations. The semiconductor maker posted earnings per share of $0.54, compared to analysts’ forecasts of $0.45.
From oil companies Exxon Mobilin the stock was down 3.6 percent on Wall Street and Chevronin share 0.8 percent, when investors were disappointed with the companies’ results.
Macro data about as expected
Macro data was also received from the United States on Friday.
The March reading of private consumption, the engine of the economy, published in the United States showed a 0.8 percent increase from the previous month. In the economist forecast collected by Bloomberg, a growth of 0.6 percent was expected.
On Friday, the price index describing the price development of consumer goods (PCE), i.e. the deflator index, was also announced. The PCE deflator measures the change in prices and describes inflation. The March figure for the US PCE deflator reported year-on-year inflation of 2.7 percent. The forecast collected by Bloomberg expected a reading of 2.6 percent. The previous reading was 2.5 percent.
The final reading for April was obtained from the Michigan index, which describes US consumer confidence. April’s reading was 77.2, while the preliminary reading was 77.9. In March, the score was 79.4.