[New York Close] Stock Market Smiles Thanks to 'Daegangju' Apple... Nasdaq Up 2.25%

Apple Q1 Earnings Exceed Expectations
Positive Impact on Stock Market
International Oil Prices Also Achieve Sharp Rebound

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The U.S. New York stock market smiled for the first time in a while on news of Apple's improved earnings.

On the 5th (local time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 33,674.38, up 546.64 points (1.65%).

The S&P 500 index rose 75.03 points (1.85%) to 4,136.25, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index surged 269.01 points (2.25%) to close at 12,235.41.

With this, the major indices of the New York stock market ended a four-day losing streak.

After the market closed the previous day, Apple’s Q1 earnings report exceeded market expectations, bringing a positive breeze to the stock market.

Thanks to strong iPhone sales, Apple’s revenue and net profit for the last quarter both surpassed Wall Street consensus. Apple’s shareholder-friendly measures, such as increasing dividends and expanding share buybacks, also had a positive impact on the stock price.

As a result, Apple closed at $173.57 per share, up 4.7% on the New York stock exchange. This is the highest increase since November last year and the highest closing price in nine months. The surge of Apple, the largest market cap company, is analyzed as the main driving force behind the rise of the overall index that day.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In April, U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 253,000, greatly exceeding market expectations of 180,000, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, tying the lowest level in 54 years, which also acted as a positive factor.

Due to improvements in the labor market and other factors, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose nearly 0.1 percentage points from the previous day. International oil prices also rebounded sharply, but safe-haven gold hesitated.

On that day at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), June delivery West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil surged 4.1% ($2.78) to close at $71.34 per barrel, recovering the $70 level, and at the London ICE Futures Exchange, July Brent crude rose 3.9% ($2.80) to close at $75.30 per barrel.

Oil prices recorded their first increase in five trading days but were down more than 7% for the week amid economic outlook uncertainties.

Meanwhile, June delivery gold, which hit its highest price since August 2020 the previous day, closed at $2,024.80 per ounce on the New York Commodity Exchange, down 1.5% ($30.90).