Amazon's AI Surge Drives US Stocks to July Close

US stocks ended July on a high note after a wild month of fluctuations. The S&P 500 climbed 0.7% to finish the week, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 276 points or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1%. Amazon led the gains with a 15.3% leap, more than tripling its quarterly profit thanks to growth in its cloud computing business.

The tech giant's forecast for investments this year also increased, suggesting that its massive AI investments are starting to pay off. This follows Microsoft's similar jump on Thursday after reporting strong profits from its own AI efforts.

However, not all stocks were winners. Apple dropped 7.4% despite beating profit expectations, with executives citing a supply crunch in components driven by the AI boom as a reason for lower revenue growth in the current quarter.