Stocks fell Friday after a record-setting session a day earlier, with stocks taking a pause after strong earnings results and more encouraging economic data helped fuel the latest leg higher in risk assets. Still, however, the three major indexes posted strong gains for the month of April.
The S&P 500 dropped about 0.7%, after the index closed at an all-time high of more than 4,200 on Thursday. The index’s monthly gain came out to 5.2%, or its best since its nearly 11% rise in November 2020. The Dow and Nasdaq each also retreated during Friday’s session. However, the Dow was still up more than 2.5% in April, while the Nasdaq gained more than 5%.
Shares Amazon (AMZN) bucked the trend and jumped to a record high after reporting first-quarter results and current-quarter guidance that exceeded expectations, with online shopping still booming even as more in-person businesses reopen. Shares of Twitter (TWTR), on the other hand, sank after its current-quarter revenue guidance fell short of estimates, disappointing investors who had hoped to see a stronger pick-up in the company’s ad sales to match trends seen at peer social media companies like Snap (SNAP) and Facebook (FB). Overall, companies comprising about two-thirds of the S&P 500 market capitalization have so far reported results, and 84% of these have topped estimates, according to data from Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Golub.
