US Stocks Swing Wildly Amid Inflation Worries
The US stock market experienced a wild day on Friday, with Wall Street's already turbulent July continuing to swing wildly. Amazon led the charge, surging 15.2% after reporting a significant jump in profits for its latest quarter, more than tripling from a year earlier thanks to strong growth in its cloud computing business.
However, not all stocks were winners, with Apple dropping 9.6% despite beating profit expectations. The company cited supply chain issues as the reason for its lower-than-expected forecast for the current quarter.
The tech sector's volatility was compounded by rising oil prices, which added to inflation concerns already weighing on the bond market. Brent crude rose 0.9% to $87.66 per barrel after earlier careening between $72 and $102 in July.
The increased costs of oil pushed up the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline to nearly $4.11 across the US, up from $3.85 just last month. The higher prices also put upward pressure on virtually every product that relies on shipping, air travel, or trucking before reaching consumers.
The bond market responded with further yield increases, with the 10-year Treasury yield jumping to 4.74% from 4.68% late Thursday and just 3.97% before the war with Iran sent oil prices skyrocketing.