Stocks higher after latest earnings, dollar climbs

Global stocks were poised for their third straight week of gains and seventh consecutive monthly advance on Friday as earnings from megacaps Amazon and Apple eased concerns about lofty valuations, while the dollar climbed after comments from some Federal Reserve officials.

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Amazon surged more than 10% after reporting cloud revenue rose at the fastest clip in nearly three years, helping the company forecast quarterly sales above estimates.

Apple shares, however, eased 0.3% to $270.52 after reaching an intraday record of $277.32 after it reported quarterly earnings and forecast holiday quarter iPhone sales and overall revenue that surpass Wall Street expectations thanks to strong demand for its iPhone 17 models.

The results cap off a run of earnings this week from several megacap companies, included in the so-called "Magnificent Seven" group of stocks, that made clear the massive build of infrastructure surrounding artificial intelligence shows no signs of abating.

"It was a doozy of a week of earnings, to say the least, so I think that the big takeaways are that the Al narrative is alive and well, there's strong demand for cloud computing and not enough capacity," said Jake Seltz, portfolio manager for the Empiric LT Equity team at Allspring in Minneapolis.