Stocks – S&P Nears New High; Nasdaq 100 Hits a Record

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Investing.com – Stocks surged higher Friday as investors embraced the prospect of more technology growth and shrugged off cautious fourth-quarter guidance from Amazon.com (NASDAQ:).

The , ended up 0.41% on the day at 3,022.55. The index briefly breached its July 26 closing high and came within a point of breaking its intraday high of 3,027.98.

The , meanwhile, soared to a new intraday high of 8,032.35 and closed up 0.78% to a new closing high of 8,029.22. The old closing high was 8,021.35, also set on July 26.

The day’s catalyst was that chip giant Intel (NASDAQ:) said it sees more growth ahead, especially in sales of server chips. Intel jumped 8.1% and added 17.4 points to the Nasdaq 100..

Gains for Apple (NASDAQ:), Charter Communications (NASDAQ:), Microsoft (NASDAQ:), Tesla (NASDAQ:) and graphics-chip maker Nvidia (NASDAQ:) also contributed to the Nasdaq-100’s new highs. These stocks and Intel together contributed more than 48 points to the index’s gain of 62 points.

The finished up 0.57% and ended the day off 1.53% below its all-time high in July. While Intel was the biggest percentage gainer, the Dow was also pushed higher by new highs for Apple (NASDAQ:) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:). Caterpillar (NYSE:) also moved up 4.4% and added nearly 40 points to the Dow’s 152-point gain.

The rose 0.7% on the day and is 1.2% below its peak.

Amazon fell 1.09%, or more than 19 points, to $1,761.33 after reporting weaker than expected third-quarter results late Thursday. It was the company’s first profit decline in two years The company also offering softer-than-expected fourth-quarter guidance. The share decline reduced the Nasdaq’s gain by 8.1 points.

The decline wasn’t as large as might have been expected, but Amazon (NASDAQ:) has aggressive plans for fourth-quarter promotions. And it has a history of offering soft guidance that’s blown away when earnings are announced.

The market’s gains were dominated by tech stocks but still quite broad except for interest-rate sensitive stocks, like utilities and real estate investment vehicles. The sectors were the weakest among the 11 S&P 500 sectors as rates moved higher with stocks. The move to 1.803% from Thursday’s 1.766%.

Home builders, however, gained, with new highs for DR Horton (NYSE:), Lennar (NYSE:), PulteGroup (NYSE:)and KB Home (NYSE:).

Boeing (NYSE:) fell 1.4% as the 737 MAX issue continued to weigh on the company .

While earnings were the biggest driver’s in the stock market’s performance, there was some early fuel provided by the Trump Administration, which said the negotiations of a text for the first phase of what is hoped to be a comprehensive trade agreement were going well.

Gold was flat on the day at about $1,505 an ounce. crude and crude moved higher.

Medical-equipment maker ResMed (NYSE:), flooring company Mohawk Industries Inc (NYSE:) and Intel (NASDAQ:) were the top S&P 500 performers.

Real-estate-investment-trust Ventas (NYSE:); Edison International (NYSE:), parent of Southern (NYSE:) California Edison and chemical maker Albemarle (NYSE:) were the weakest S&P 500 performers.