Wall Street surges as Amazon rallies on strong earnings, chip stocks jump on optimism about AI returns

US stocks surged on Friday, led by a strong rally in Amazon after the e-commerce giant reported robust cloud revenue growth, while semiconductor stocks advanced as investors remained optimistic about the long-term returns from artificial intelligence investments.

At 9:47 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 82.26 points, or 0.16%, to 52,290.32, the S&P 500 gained 10.05 points, or 0.12%, to 7,446.54 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 86.20 points, or 0.34%, to 25,208.37.

At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 27.0 points, or 0.05%, to 52,235.03. The S&P 500 rose 24.5 points, or 0.33%, to 7,462.13, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 218.5 points, or 0.87%, to 25,340.711.

Oil prices also moved higher, with ongoing uncertainty over when crude exports from the Middle East could normalize amid the conflict involving Iran supporting energy markets. Brent crude futures gained 2.1% to trade at $88.68 a barrel.

In the bond market, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 4.72%, up from 4.68% in the previous session, reflecting continued movement in fixed-income markets.

Key Stock Movers

Amazon shares jumped 13.8% after the company posted quarterly earnings that comfortably exceeded Wall Street expectations, driven by strong performance in its cloud computing business.

AI-linked semiconductor stocks also recorded solid gains. Micron Technology advanced 5.9%, while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) rose 6% as investor enthusiasm for AI-related demand remained strong.

Monolithic Power Systems surged 11.1% after the chipmaker projected third-quarter revenue above analysts' estimates, reinforcing optimism about continued strength in the semiconductor sector.

Microsoft gained 1.8% after recording its biggest-ever single-day increase in market value during the previous trading session. Alphabet and Meta Platforms also rose more than 2% each.

In contrast, Apple shares fell 9.1% despite reporting quarterly profit that exceeded analysts' forecasts, as investors reacted cautiously to other aspects of the company's outlook.

Meanwhile, domain registration and web services provider GoDaddy tumbled 24.4% after lowering its full-year revenue guidance, making it one of the session's biggest decliners.

Bullion

Gold prices slid on Friday as the US dollar rebounded from a more than one-month low.

At 09:59 a.m. EDT (1359 GMT), spot gold was down 1.8% at $4,027.75 per ounce. US gold futures for August delivery dropped 1.9% to $4,025.10.

"Although gold is on the cusp of ending a 4-month losing streak, the precious metal has struggled to carve a bigger gap above the psychological $4,000 level," said Han Tan, chief market analyst at Bybit, according to Reuters.

Among other metals, spot silver fell 2.9% to $57.29 per ounce. Platinum slid 2.5% to $1,618.97, and palladium dropped 3.4% to $1,260.