US stock market: A powerful rally in megacap tech stocks showed no signs of slowing, fueled by solid September-quarter earnings, propelling the US stock market indices to historic winning streaks.
Amazon and Apple Inc. posted blowout earnings for the quarter, defying the warnings of a tech bubble and powering the Nasdaq 100 higher for the seventh straight month — its longest winning run in eight years. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 also notched its longest monthly streak since 2021 as it rose for the sixth month in a row.
The Nasdaq 100 index closed Friday’s trade 0.48% higher at 25,858.13. It added 4.26% for the month. The S&P 500 index added 0.26% to 6,840.20, taking its monthly gain to 1.92%.
Tech earnings boost US markets
Amazon shares surged 9.58% on Friday, and 9.8% in October, after its cloud unit AWS posted a 20% growth in revenue — the strongest in almost three years. Overall, Amazon’s third-quarter revenue of $180.2 billion, beating Wall Street estimates of $177.9 billion.
Apple projected a jump in sales over the holiday season after releasing new iPhones, boosting investor confidence that its flagship product will continue to drive revenue. However, the stock faced some profit-taking and ended flat on Friday. However, for the month, it has gained over 5%.
Netflix was another stock that hogged the limelight in trade, gaining nearly 3% on Friday following its 10:1 stock split announcement and speculations of inclusion in the Dow Jones index. While the stock is down 3.7% for the month, it has seen a 25% rally in 2025 so far.
| Top gainers from Nasdaq 100 index | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Daily | 1 Month |
| AMD | 0.5 | 50.9 |
| Micron | -0.11 | 21.78 |
| Intuitive Surgical | 0.8 | 20.6 |
| Warner Bros Discovery | 3.84 | 16.68 |
| Shopify Inc | 0.14 | 14.91 |
| Alphabet A | -0.1 | 14.45 |
| Alphabet C | -0.03 | 14.36 |
| Atlassian Corp Plc | 5.45 | 12.16 |
| Arm | 2.64 | 11.62 |
| Amazon.com | 9.58 | 9.81 |
| Broadcom | -1.82 | 9.3 |
| CrowdStrike Holdings | 0.8 | 9.3 |
| Cognizant A | 0.96 | 8.78 |
| Marvell | 5.84 | 8.75 |
| Regeneron Pharma | -0.34 | 8.63 |
| Gilead | 1.14 | 8.35 |
| Zscaler | 2.83 | 7.66 |
| Datadog | 3.65 | 7.42 |
| Intel | -0.42 | 7.21 |
| NVIDIA | -0.2 | 7.2 |
| Palantir | 3.04 | 7.17 |
| Qualcomm | 2.05 | 7.14 |
| Lam Research | -2.2 | 7.12 |
| Cisco | 0.27 | 7.03 |
| KLA Corp | -0.47 | 6.1 |
| American Electric Power | -1.34 | 5.99 |
| Keurig Dr Pepper | -1.88 | 5.52 |
| Constellation Energy | -1.43 | 5.47 |
| Palo Alto Networks | 0.9 | 5.23 |
| Apple | -0.38 | 5.15 |
| Tesla | 3.74 | 4.72 |
| Applied Materials | 0.24 | 4.25 |
| Airbnb | 0.16 | 4.16 |
| Vertex | 1.35 | 4.09 |
Tesla shares jumped 3.7% in the last trading session and 4.72% for the month.
Among monthly gainers, chip and semiconductor stocks like AMD and Micron emerged as top gainers, with a 51% and 22% jump, respectively.
Alphabet stock also emerged among the leading winners as it clocked a 15% rise this month amid better-than-expected earnings. The company posted quarterly revenue of $102.35 billion, marking the first time it surpassed this milestone.
Meta and Microsoft fared poorly, with the former shedding 11% and the latter remaining flat during the month.
Volatile month for US stock market
Despite several hurdles, stock market bulls managed to secure a historic winning streak, reflecting renewed investor confidence in US corporate earnings, driven largely by tech companies.
From geopolitical and trade risks to the threat of a US government shutdown and elevated valuations, traders had plenty to digest in October. Yet, optimism about earnings continued to outweigh concerns.
Fed officials’ comments signalling no rate cut in the December meeting remain an overhang for the US stock and world markets.
If history is any guide, November kicks off the best six months of the year for US equities, as per a Bloomberg report. However, elevated valuations and a strong rally in 2025 are a concern. US equity benchmark trades at 23 times forward earnings, well above its average of the past two decades, the report added.
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