Amazon Soars as Apple Sinks Amid Ongoing Oil Price Uncertainty

The US stock market finished July with gains on Friday after a wild month of trading. The S&P 500 rose 0.7% to close at 7,489.72, while the Dow Jones added 276 points or 0.5% to reach 52,485.03. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1% after briefly losing all of its early 1.3% jump.

Amazon led the market with a 15.3% leap after reporting stronger-than-expected profits for the latest quarter. Its cloud computing business saw accelerated growth, which analysts say could be a signal that Amazon's huge AI investments are paying off.

The reaction was similar to Microsoft's stock surge the day before, when its shares soared to their best day in nearly 18 years on signals that its AI investments may also be yielding higher profits. Apple dropped 7.4% despite reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected, with its forecast for revenue growth in the current quarter falling short of expectations.

Oil prices continued to rise due to uncertainty surrounding the war with Iran, pushing the price for a barrel of Brent crude up 1.2% to settle at $87.93. This has worsened worries about inflation staying high, sending yields in the bond market even higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.71% from 4.68% late Thursday.