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* Apple, Facebook at all-time highs after strong results
* Dow overwhelmed by Chevron and Exxon losses
* Indices: S&P up 0.15%, Nasdaq adds 0.86%, Dow off 0.13% (Updates to open)
By Medha Singh and Devik Jain
July 31 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and Dow abandoned earnings on Friday as concerns about the economic damage from the COVID-19 pandemic replaced the early euphoria of impressive quarterly earnings reports from Apple, Amazon.com and Facebook.
Apple Inc increased 6.4% as it generated year-over-year revenue gains in all categories and across geographies.
Amazon.com Inc rose 4.4% after posting the biggest gain in its 26-year history, while Facebook Inc gained 7.7% reporting better-than-expected revenue.
Google’s parent Alphabet Inc, on the other hand, fell 4.2% as quarterly sales fell for the first time in its 16 years as a public company.
Investors betting on more US government stimulus, before a $ 600-a-week additional federal unemployment benefit expires on Friday, have also been disappointed when the Senate was suspended over the weekend and will return on Monday.
“There is a bit of a balance between the positive and the negative, a deluge of pretty strong tech gains and then the fight in Congress to try to pass the COVID-19 stimulus package,” said Dan Eye, chief asset allocation officer and capital research at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
An increase in the share price of tech titans, which account for almost a fifth of the value of the S&P 500, as well as an aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus, have brought the Nasdaq, which has a lot of technology, to record levels and has put the S&P 500 on course for its fourth consecutive monthly gain.
The benchmark index is now approximately 4% below its all-time high in February, but faltering macroeconomic data and growing COVID-19 cases are causing investors to be cautious again.
Thursday’s numbers confirmed the biggest contraction in US GDP since the Great Depression, while rising weekly jobless claims suggested that a nascent recovery in the labor market was stagnating.
“We have seen many positives already and that is reflected in the price (but) we do not believe the market has priced a mattress for unexpected downside events,” Eye said.
At 10:01 am ET, the S&P 500 rose 4.72 points, or 0.15%, to 3,250.94, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 91.00 points, or 0.86%, to 10,678.81. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 32.94 points, or 0.13%, to 26,280.71.
The second-quarter earnings season has passed half the way with approximately 82.4% of companies reporting that they exceeded significantly low estimates, according to data from Refinitiv IBES.
Energy stocks fell most among the top 11 S&P sectors after Chevron Corp reported a loss of $ 8.3 billion in asset writedowns and ExxonMobil Corp posted a second consecutive quarterly loss.
Caterpillar Inc reversed pre-market earnings and fell 3.2% after the heavy equipment maker pointed to more pain due to an uncertain economic outlook.
The decrease in emissions exceeded that of the overtakers 1.52 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange and 1.56 to 1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P Index recorded 25 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 79 new highs and six new lows. (Report by Medha Singh and Devik Jain in Bangalore; Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Shounak Dasgupta edition)
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