By Johann M Cherian and Ragini Mathur
July 31 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes traded between small gains and losses on Friday, as uncertainty over the path for interest rates and a slide in Apple's shares offset a 13.7% jump in Amazon.
Amazon.com reported its biggest revenue growth in over four years for the previous quarter, joining similar reports from Microsoft and Alphabet earlier this month, prompting investors to look past the companies' big spending plans that rattled markets through
this month.
Apple, on the other hand, slid 9.2% after warning that supply constraints would hurt growth, adding to worries about the hit from iPhone price hikes.
This week was what some analysts called 'make-or-break' for the tech sector that had been beaten down as traders took some profits through July following a strong end to the second quarter, as they awaited signs that investments made by AI leaders at the expense of free cash flow were paying off.
"The whole argument here was, are these investments going to be accretive and when will that show? And it seems like it's beginning to show immediately," said Chris Ballard, managing director at Check Capital Management, while speaking about Alphabet and Amazon.
"We're very happy to see that and it justifies further investment into what they're doing."
Shares of Microsoft were up 1.5% after logging their biggest one-day gain on record for a company in the previous session, while Alphabet jumped 5% and Meta gained 1.5%. Among chip stocks, Nvidia climbed 0.8% and Monolithic Power Systems gained 11.1% after forecasting third-quarter revenue above estimates.
At 11:43 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 99.24 points, or 0.19%, to 52,306.20, the S&P 500 lost 1.49 points, or 0.02%, to 7,436.14 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 15.65 points, or 0.06%, to 25,106.53.
The S&P 500's consumer discretionary sector led the gains, up 5%, helped by Amazon's surge, while tech lost over 1.6%.
TOUGH MONTH FOR STOCKS
All three of Wall Street's main indexes are on track for weekly gains, aided by the strong rebound late this week. But the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were on track for monthly losses, reflecting the sharp selloff AI-linked stocks witnessed through July.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index was flat on Friday and is down 20% in July, which would mark its biggest monthly fall since 2008. Investors instead took notice of other sectors, as the S&P 500 equally weighted index is on track for its fourth straight month of gains.
"This momentum crash was tremendous and the positioning has been rinsed," said Laurent Clavel, global head of multi-asset at AXA Investment Managers, BNP Paribas Asset Management.
"Going into August, if anything, we are going back into it slowly. We're buying this weakness and we're re-buying this AI narrative," Clavel said.
The week also brought uncertainty in terms of interest rates after the Federal Reserve left its benchmark rate on hold. Chairman Kevin Warsh's commentary offered little on the outlook for interest rates; however, at least three officials voiced the need to hike interest rates on Friday.
The yield on the 2-year Treasury note, a reflection of short-term interest rates, spiked 7 basis points to 4.29%, while investors priced in a 67% chance that rates could rise by at least 25 basis points in September, CME's FedWatch tool showed.
Domain registrar GoDaddy lost 20% after narrowing its annual revenue forecast.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.58-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.89-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 35 new highs and 86 new lows.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Ragini Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
