By Callum Keown
Tech stocks launched a solid rebound early Friday as Alphabet and Microsoft earnings brought renewed optimism to the sector.
Futures on the Nasdaq 100 jumped 1% ahead of the open after the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6% Thursday, snapping a three-day winning streak.
Google owner Alphabet was leading the way as the stock surged 11.8% in premarket trading. The company beat earnings expectations in the first quarter, launched its first ever dividend, and announced plans to expand its stock buyback program by $70 billion.
Microsoft also gave investors reason to cheer as it beat earnings estimates, driven by the strong performance of its Azure cloud-computing business amid growth in demand for AI workloads. The stock climbed 4.4% early Friday.
Cloud-computing strength was a feature of companies' earnings, which gave support to other cloud-dependent names. Datadog jumped 5%, Snowflake rose 3.5% and MongoDB was 4.1% higher.
The knock-on effects of Big Tech earnings didn't stop there. Google's results provided signs of strong demand for online advertising, helping Snap soar 26% and Pinterest climb 4.1% in premarket trading.
Other Big Tech names were moving higher, too. Amazon rose 2.9%, Nvidia was up 1.9% and Meta Platforms pointed 1.3% higher after slumping 10.5% Thursday after its own earnings disappointed investors.
The chip sector and other companies exposed to AI were hardly going to miss out, either, particularly given the role played by the technology in Thursday's earnings reports.
Advanced Micro Devices was up 1.6%, AI server maker Super Micro Computer rose 2.2% and Palantir Technologies was up 1.4%.
But Intel stock declined 7.7% after its own earnings late Thursday as the chip maker's June-quarter guidance fell short of expectations.
Shares of video-streaming company Roku were also down 3.6% despite a narrower-than-expected loss in the first quarter and a 14% jump in the number of households using its streaming platform. The stock is down 31.5% in 2024 through Thursday's close.
Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 26, 2024 08:04 ET (12:04 GMT)
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