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S&P 500 Posts First Weekly Gain Since March as Tech, Consumer Discretionary Lead Rise on Better-Than-Expected Earnings

4:50 PM ET 04/26/2024 - MT Newswires

The market benchmark ended Friday's session at 5,099.96. Despite the week's advance, the S&P 500 is down 2.9% for the month due to the index's three consecutive weeks of losses earlier in April. Just two trading sessions remain in the month.

The S&P 500 is still solidly in positive territory for 2024 with a year-to-date gain of 6.9% thanks to a Q1 rally.

This week's climb came as many companies including Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) reported quarterly results above analysts' expectations. Among the 164 S&P 500 components that released quarterly reports this week, nearly 81% had better-than-expected earnings while 57% had better-than-expected revenue, according to Bloomberg data.

All of the S&P 500's sectors rose this week, led by technology, which jumped 5.1%, and consumer discretionary, which climbed 3.5%. Other strong gainers included communication services, up 2.7%, and industrials, up 1.8%.

The technology sector's gainers included shares of Tyler Technologies (TYL), which rose 14% on the week as the provider of software and technology services for the public sector reported higher-than-expected Q1 results and forecast full-year earnings above analysts' mean estimates.

In consumer discretionary, shares of Hasbro (HAS) jumped 17% as the toy maker also posted better-than-expected Q1 results.

The gainers in communication services were led by Alphabet's shares, which jumped 12% as the Google parent not only reported stronger-than-expected Q1 results but even unveiled its first-ever quarterly dividend alongside a $70 billion stock buyback program.

The market next week will see earnings reports from more heavyweight companies including Amazon.com (AMZN), Eli Lilly (LLY), Coca-Cola (KO), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), McDonald's (MCD), Mastercard (MA), Qualcomm (QCOM0, Pfizer (PFE), Apple (AAPL), ConocoPhillips (COP) and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B).

Investors will be focused on April jobs numbers with monthly nonfarm payrolls and unemployment rates due on Friday. Other data expected next week include April consumer confidence, March construction spending and April auto sales.