NEW YORK, July 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. equities gained for the week as Wall Street pored through the mixed pictures of corporate earnings and economic data.
In the week ending July 26, the Dow rose 0.14 percent, the S&P 500 climbed 1.65 percent and the Nasdaq advanced 2.26 percent.
A wave of companies reported quarterly earnings results during the week, including big names Google-parent Alphabet, Facebook, Tesla and Boeing.
Alphabet late Thursday posted 38.94 billion U.S. dollars in revenue for the second quarter of 2019 with a growth rate of 19 percent year on year, exceeding market expectations. The growth was mainly driven by a sharp increase in advertising business and cloud services, according to the company.
Alphabet shares surged during Friday's session, with the Class A and Class C up 9.62 percent and 10.45 percent, respectively, at the close.
U.S. social media giant Facebook on Wednesday reported better-than-expected financial results for the second quarter of 2019 as its quarterly revenue grew to 16.9 billion dollars, up 28 percent year over year. The stock was up 0.7 percent for the week.
Starbucks and Twitter were also among the companies that delivered strong earnings. Shares of both companies registered solid weekly gains.
However, Boeing Company posted a larger-than-expected loss for the second quarter of 2019 as a result of the global grounding of 737 MAX airplanes. Shares of the U.S. aircraft manufacturer reported an 8.58-percent weekly decline.
Tesla stock plunged more than 11 percent for the week. The U.S. electric vehicle maker posted a massive second-quarter loss, despite a record delivery of e-vehicles to customers.
So far, more than 40 percent of S&P 500 companies have reported quarterly earnings. Of those companies, 76.4 percent have posted a stronger-than-expected profit, according to data from FactSet.
Meanwhile, Wall Street is cautiously awaiting the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting, which is set to be held next week.
On the economic front, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a 2.1-percent annual rate in the second quarter, decelerating from the 3.1 percent expansion in the previous quarter, data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed. The reading was better than the 1.8 percent consensus.
U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, registered 206,000 in the week ending July 20, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised level, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch estimated new claims would total a seasonally adjusted 218,000.
U.S. total existing-home sales dropped 1.7 percent in June, indicating a softening U.S. housing market, the National Association of Realtors reported on Tuesday. Sales as a whole were down 2.2 percent from a year ago.
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