Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 Close at New Highs

By Corrie Driebusch 

Technology stocks rose Friday following strong corporate results, pushing both the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 into record territory.

Trading during the week was slower than usual, even as stocks climbed to new highs in an ascent driven by better-than-expected earnings.

On Thursday, the Nasdaq Composite advanced to a record close for the first time in 15 years. On Friday, the index extended those gains, rising 36.02 points, or 0.7%, to 5092.08, following strong quarterly results from companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc.

"Tech is the whole story today on the upside," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities. "That's where the excitement is."

"The Nasdaq has been outperforming this earnings season as it's clearly less impacted by energy prices and the strong dollar," Mr. Hogan said.

The Nasdaq's gains this year have outpaced advances in the Dow industrials and S&P 500. The Nasdaq has rallied 7.5% in 2015, while the Dow has added 1.4% and the S&P has advanced 2.9%. Over the last 12 months, the Nasdaq has surged 23%, more than twice the Dow's 9.6% gain.

The S&P 500 on Friday climbed 4.76 points, or 0.2%, to 2117.69, hitting a fresh intraday high and closing at a record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 21.45 points, or 0.1%, to 18080.14.

The CBOE Volatility Index closed at its lowest level of the year, down 1.5% to 12.29. The average for the VIX, which tends to fall as stocks rise, in 2015 is 16.01.

The gains on Friday were driven primarily by a number of solid corporate earnings reports.

Microsoft Corp. said late Thursday sales in the third quarter ended March 31 rose nearly 6.5% from a year earlier, boosted in part by the inclusion of sales from Nokia Corp.'s mobile-phone business. Sales beat Wall Street's expectations even as a strong U.S. dollar weighed. Shares rose 10%, adding about 30 points to the Dow.

Google said its revenue took a hit from the rising dollar in the first quarter, as the company generated more than 55% of its revenue outside the U.S. But shares rose 3.3% as better expense control boosted profit margins.

Amazon.com swung to a first-quarter loss despite rapidly rising sales, as it continued to spend heavily to fund a variety of projects. Shares of the e-commerce giant rallied 14% as it reported a surprise profit from its cloud-computing business.

The share gains by the trio of established technology companies did not surprise Michael Tiedemann of Tiedemann Wealth Management, which manages $9.5 billion.

"Big, older tech looks attractive," said Mr. Tiedemann. He said while he likes "the Apples, the Googles, the Microsofts" of the tech sector, he is more wary of social media and "disruptive technology" companies whose valuations may be higher.

Overall, first-quarter earnings are coming in above lowered expectations. Of the 201 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, nearly three-quarters have reported earnings above the mean estimate, according to FactSet. Still, earnings growth is widely expected to decline, with analysts currently predicting a decrease of 2.8%, FactSet said.

"There was clearly a lot of downward managing of expectations going into the season, but the beats are broader than usual," said Stephen Freedman, head of cross-asset strategy at UBS Wealth Management Americas. He said he likes consumer discretionary as well as technology companies, and expects earnings to drive more stock-market gains through the rest of 2015.

"We don't think it's going to be spectacular from here, but we're looking for high single-digit returns for the year," he said.

In other corporate news, Starbucks Corp. said its profit and sales rose in its latest quarter, with results roughly in line with analyst expectations. Shares rose 4.9%.

Comcast Corp. on Friday ended its plans to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. , as increasing pressure from regulators prompted the end of the $45.2 billion deal. Shares of Comcast rose 0.7% and shares of Time Warner Cable gained 4.4%.

In commodity markets, crude-oil futures fell 1% to $57.15 a barrel. Gold futures slipped 1.6% to $1175.20 an ounce. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.917% from 1.945% on Thursday. Yields rise as prices fall.

European stocks rose, with Germany's DAX adding 0.7% and France's CAC 40 gaining 0.4%.

Saumya Vaishampayan contributed to this article.

Write to Corrie Driebusch at [e-mail]

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