US open: Stocks trade lower despite disappointing guidance from Amazon

dl exchange place wall st street pl new york city nyc ny nyse stock exchange dow jones sp nasdaq finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america — Exchange PlaceSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks were in the green early on Friday despite disappointing guidance from tech giant Amazon overnight.

As of 1530 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.66% at 32,564.98, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.19% to 3,852.57 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.04% firmer at 10,905.29.

The Dow opened 531.70 points higher on Friday, extending gains recorded in the previous session.

In terms of earnings, e-commerce and web services conglomerate Amazon warned of holiday disappointment in its earnings release, with quarterly profit falling despite growing revenue, while Apple joined the march of disappointments after coming in short of forecasts on sales of its flagship iPhone range.

Elsewhere, shares in chipmaker Intel rocketed after the company posted a beat on quarterly earnings and laid out plans for billions of dollars worth of cost cuts, while oil producer ExxonMobil posted record quarterly profits of nearly $20.0bn as the group benefited from elevated oil and natural gas prices, and Chevron smashed third-quarter estimates on the back of higher oil and gas prices.

Outside of earnings, Elon Musk revealed he plans to assume the role of interim chief executive officer at Twitter after completing his $44.0bn takeover of the social media giant.

On the macro front, personal incomes and spending in the US grew more quickly than expected last month but price pressures were a touch lower than anticipated. According to the Department of Labor, personal incomes increased at a month-on-month pace of 0.4% (consensus: 0.3%). Personal consumption expenditures, meanwhile, jumped by 0.6%, and August's rise was marked up by two-tenths of a percentage point to show a gain of 0.6%.

On another note, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index printed at 59.9 in October, up from a preliminary print of 59.8, while the current conditions subindex was revised higher to 65.6 from 65.3, and the gauge for expectations was confirmed at 56.2

Finally, US pending home sales dropped 10% in September, according to the National Association of Realtors, much worse than the 4% decline predicted by economists.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Intel Corp. (INTC) $28.25 7.56%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $153.38 5.92%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $37.72 4.25%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $272.24 2.69%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $217.40 2.48%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $138.08 2.46%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $134.81 2.22%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $272.75 2.07%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $229.98 1.42%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $174.68 1.38%