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US stock market report – Amazon stuns, Twitter crunched

US markets struggled closing out the week, the Dow Jones falling 0.5%, S&P 500 0.7% and the Nasdaq the hardest hit, down nearly 1.0%.

It was a flat result in what was an important week for earnings results, but another in a long line of record months.

Through April, the Dow managed to deliver another positive month, finishing 2.2% higher with the Nasdaq at 3.6% and the S&P 500 benefitting from the likes of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) to jump 4%.

Reflation trade ahead

The weakness on Friday came as comments from the Dallas Federal Reserve flagged concerns about inflation and suggests that the bond-buying program should be slowed sooner than expected.

The broad-based nature of the reflation trade is on full show with the S&P 500 achieving a rare record with 95% of its 500 constituents trading above their 200-day moving average.

Amazon stuns

Amazon once again stunned the bears, delivering a 44% increase in revenue in the first quarter to US$108.5 billion, with management suggesting the surge to online sales is set to continue.

Management project the next quarter to improve further, with sales between US$110 and $116 billion forecast.

Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing business, delivered 32% sales growth of its own whilst the group’s advertising network saw revenue nearly double, up 77%, albeit off a low base.

Despite beating expectations, Amazon shares finished the day broadly flat.

US stock market movers

Here’s how other popular US stocks closed out the week on Friday:

Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is tipped to edge lower at the open on Monday. For all the latest, check out Rask Media’s ASX morning report.

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At the time of publishing, the author of this article does not have a financial or commercial interest in any of the companies mentioned.

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Wattle Partners is a financial advice firm, servicing clients around Australia, specialising in retirement planning (pre and post retirement). 

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