This morning shares of Amazon (AMZN) burst higher out of the box, gaining 5.98% as of noon New York time. The catalyst, it appears, was a new target price from Goldman Sachs of $3800 a share, up from the previous target of $3000. The shares had closed at $2961.97 on Friday, July 17.
That big move in Amazon was enough to move the Standard & Poor’s 500 higher by 0.33% and the NASDAQ Composite up 1.41%. The Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) ETF was up 1.46% sat noon.
But the Amazon move wasn’t done. At the close shares were up 7.93% on the day.
And that was enough to put booster rockets on other tech shares. Microsoft (MSFT) up “only” 2.52% at noon ended the day ahead 4.30%. Adobe Systems (ADBE) up 4.67% at noon finished higher by 5.28%. ASML (ASML) higher by 0.86% at noon, closed up 2.06%. Apple (AAPL) its a gain of 0.95% at noon, expanded its climb to 2.11% at the close.
That was more than enough to push the NASDAQ higher by 2.51% at the close and even to move the Dow Jones Industrial Average from a loss of 0.27% at noon to a scant 0.03% gain at the close.
Part of the reason that Amazon was able to push so much higher is that the company is set to report earnings after the close on Thursday. So we’re seeing big enthusiasm before that event on expectations that the company will blow past expectations on a big “coronavirus e-shopping bump.”
It’s important to note that the enthusiasm for Amazon, while sufficient to help push technology stocks higher, didn’t have a comparable positive effect on “re-opening dependent” consumer stocks. American Airlines (AAL) still finished down 3.69% on day. Carnival (CCL) was off 3.24% at the close. Disney (DIS) sagged by 0.72%. MGM Resorts International (MGM) was lower by 2.86%. Six Flags (SIX) closed down 1.56%.
Financial stocks were in the red at the close too with the Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) ETF down 0.46%. Wells Fargo (WFC), the weakest of the bank stocks lately, closed down 1.58%.
