Apple leads Wall Street toward more records as oil prices pull back
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is rising toward more records Friday after Apple, Estee Lauder and other big companies became the latest to deliver fatter profits for the start of the year than analysts expected. Easing oil prices also helped to steady the relatively few stock markets open worldwide on the May Day holiday.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% and was building on its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 288 points, or 0.6%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was adding 1.1% to its own record.
Apple led the way and rallied 5.4% after the iPhone seller reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Because it’s one of Wall Street’s biggest stocks in terms of overall size, it was by far the strongest force lifting the S&P 500.
Estee Lauder climbed 6.2% after reporting better earnings than expected, thanks in part to strength in China, and raising some of its financial forecasts. Sandisk rose 4.1% after the maker of storage for computers blew past analysts’ expectations for profit thanks in part to voracious demand from data centers.
Colgate-Palmolive added 3.7% after likewise delivering bigger results than expected, though CEO Noel Wallace said it expects “volatile macroeconomic conditions and slower category growth to continue in 2026.”
The main uncertainty for the global economy is where oil prices will go because of the Iran war. Brent’s price spurted higher early this week on worries that the war will keep the Strait of Hormuz closed for a long time. That would in turn keep oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide.
But such moves have been quick to reverse throughout the war as hopes rise and fall. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2.2% to $107.96 Friday, trimming its gain for the week to roughly 9%. Brent was selling for roughly $70 per barrel before the war began.
That rise since February helped two of the country’s biggest oil-and-gas companies report stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But stock prices nevertheless fell for both Exxon Mobil, 1.2%, and Chevron, 1.3%, as oil prices regressed and each reported drops in net income from a year earlier.
The falling oil prices also helped Treasury yields to ease in the bond market. So did a report in the morning that said that growth for U.S. manufacturing was a touch softer last month than economists expected. That could give the Federal Reserve more leeway in the future to resume its cuts to interest rates at some point.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.35% from 4.40% late Thursday.
Many overseas markets were closed. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.4%, and London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2%.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.