Amazon, Apple add $196B in value on resilient results

Amazon.com and Apple added about $196 billion in market value on Friday after they joined technology peers Alphabet and Microsoft in assuaging investor concerns by reporting higher revenue even as consumers curb their spending amid rising inflation.

Amazon shares jumped

10%, their biggest move since February, while Apple advanced 3.3%. The gains helped power a 1.8% rally by the Nasdaq 100 Index, locking in its best monthly performance sine April 2020. Amazon’s

27% surge in July was its biggest October 2009, while Apple’s 19% move was the best in nearly two years.

Amazon expanded both its e-commerce and cloud-computing businesses, with Bloomberg Intelligence analysts noting that the company’s performance proves that “it is better positioned to weather inflationary pressures and benefits from a more-affluent customer contrary to Walmart.”

Meanwhile, Apple beat analysts’ revenue expectations thanks in part to higher iPhone sales at a time when smartphone shipments are falling globally. To be sure, Apple reported an 11% decline in net income, however, the overall results were better than feared.

“Apple appears to be seeing no meaningful impact on its iPhone business in the current macro environment,” Piper Sandler analyst Harsh Kumar wrote in a research note. Amazon also is the latest company to discuss its belt-tightening efforts. During its quarterly earnings call Thursday, the ecommerce giant said it’s been adding jobs at the slowest rate since 2019. After relying on attrition to winnow its staff, Amazon now has about 100,000 fewer employees than in the previous quarter. Here’s a look at the companies tapping the brakes.

Alphabet also has been decelerating its recruiting efforts. CEO Sundar Pichai told employees this month that although the business added 10,000 Googlers in the second quarter, it will be slowing the pace of hiring for the rest of the year and prioritizing engineering and technical talent. “Like all companies, we’re not immune to economic headwinds,” he said. The hiring pause is part of that slowdown, Google said, “to enable teams to prioritize their roles and hiring plans for the rest of the year.” It had nearly 164,000 employees at the end of March.