U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday, led by gains from Amazon whose upbeat quarterly results buoyed the Nasdaq.
All three major indexes ended the week and the month with solid advances.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 40.75 points, or 0.09 percent, to 47,562.87. The S and P 500 added 17.86 points, or 0.26 percent, to 6,840.20. The Nasdaq Composite gained 143.81 points, or 0.61 percent, to 23,724.96, recovering from earlier fluctuations.
Six of the S and P 500's 11 primary sectors finished lower, with materials and utilities down 0.86 percent and 0.77 percent, respectively. Consumer discretionary and energy led the gainers, climbing 4.08 percent and 0.64 percent, respectively.
Amazon shares surged 9.58 percent after the e-commerce giant reported a 20 percent year-on-year increase in revenue from its cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS), topping Wall Street expectations. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AWS is "growing at a pace we haven't seen since 2022," with "strong demand" from AI and core infrastructure services.
"AI adoption is picking up, which makes the business investments in growing computing power and functionality of Gemini worthwhile. This will be a key metric going forward as we now have more than 600 billion U.S. dollars in CAPEX spending committed for next year," Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, told CNBC.
For October, which is historically a volatile month for equities, the S and P 500 rose 2.3 percent, and the Nasdaq jumped 4.7 percent, while the Dow advanced 2.5 percent. The Dow also notched its sixth consecutive monthly gain, marking its longest winning streak since 2018.
Federal Reserve officials delivered their first public remarks since this week's policy meeting, which brought an interest rate cut and exposed divisions within the central bank. Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid said he would have preferred to hold rates steady, calling inflation "too high." Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan, a nonvoting member this year, also said she would have preferred no change.
Following their comments, traders scaled back expectations for another rate cut in December, with market pricing showing just over 60 percent odds, down from more than 90 percent a week earlier.
U.S. stocks close higher to end October trading
