money Market Recap: Friday, July 31
The markets closed in the green after Friday’s trading session with the stocks erasing loses from earlier in the day. The Nasdaq lead the way with positive results from the technology sector as the big tech companies reported stronger than expected earnings on Thursday. The Final Round panel discusses the latest.
Video Transcript
SEANA SMITH: Welcome back to "The Final Round" here on Yahoo Finance. I'm Seana Smith. We're less than a minute here from the closing bell, and stocks are racing losses here in the final hour of trading. We now have the Dow up just around 3/10 of a percent, a big reason for that is the rally that we are seeing in Apple today. That stock up just around 10%.
[BELL RINGING]
Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ all in the green. You saw a little bit of a rally here into the close, the final 30 minutes of trading. The NASDAQ the clear winner today, and that has been the story for most of the trading day. I mean, technology really the stand out here when you take a look at this sector performance.
A lot of that is because of the strong performance that we're seeing on those big tech names that reported after the bell yesterday. Apple, Amazon, and Facebook all up pretty substantially, so driving that rally in technology. And then outside of technology, we're also seeing some strength in the communication services sector and consumer discretionary. Those three sectors the only sectors here closing in the green today.
A couple of stats for the month of July from our colleague, Jared Blikre, Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P up for four months in a row. NASDAQ, S&P, and Gold closing at a record monthly close. The Dow at its highest monthly close in just around six months. But when you take a look at the broader market action today outside of technology, consumer discretionary, and the communication services sector was broadly a down day here for the markets.
Industrials, healthcare, and energy all under a pretty significant amount of pressure. Financials were also an underperformer. Although, off the lows of the day. You can see that action in the KBW Bank Index off just around less than 1% now. Well, I want to bring in my co-host for the next hour, Myles Udland, along with Rick Newman and Jared Blikre.
And Myles, when you take a look at the action today, I mean, it was interesting. We saw a little bit of buying here into the close.
MYLES UDLAND: A little bit, yeah. I mean, we could almost call it panic buying, which is sort of what we've seen in a couple different instances over the last few months. And I think just-- when you look at this market, today's action kind of says everything that you would need to know about, you know, well, why are stocks higher?
Well, stocks are higher because the big tech names that everyone is all fired up about, that have proven results that they are benefiting from everything happening in the economy right now, those names continue to drag us higher. I mean, Apple's stock is up 10% today. And on just a percentage-- I mean, it was, like, up 5% when we came on the air. And then it doubled that percentage gain in just the last hour or so.
Amazon shares well above 3,000 bucks a share. Multiple analysts on the Street today saying it's going to be a $4,000 stock, which would put its market cap at $2 trillion. Facebook shares at a record high today. Microsoft stock is up half of 1% and, kind of, goes unaffected by that report that it is looking at buying TikTok. I mean, it's all happening in the tech space right now.
Meanwhile, Caterpillar comes out with a messy quarter. Banks are down again. The reopening trades, you look at the airlines, the Russell, they're all under a lot of pressure right now. But tech continues to drive this market. And the action that we saw in just the last few days is sort of the entire pandemic rally all in one place.
SEANA SMITH: Yeah, it certainly has been. And I think investors are looking for reasons to continue betting on these stocks, and when you get results like we did last night after the bell, that gives you confidence that the businesses are strong at this point and also in a position here to really capitalize off some of the weakness that we're seeing in other areas and work at least in the short.
