Tech stocks power Wall Street recovery, S&P hits new high

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

REUTERS - Wall Street turned positive in afternoon trading on Friday, with the S&P 500 index hitting a record intraday high for the seventh time this month, as gains in Alphabet and Amazon more than made up for losses in energy shares.

The benchmark index rose as much as 0.36 percent, touching an all-time high of 2,177.09, and was on track for its fifth-straight month of gains.

Shares of Google's parent, Alphabet, rose 4.8 percent to $802.4, a day after the company posted strong quarterly revenue, while online retailer Amazon.com touched a record high after giving an upbeat forecast for the current quarter.

The stocks gave the biggest boost to both the S&P and the Nasdaq.

However, the Dow was dragged down by a 2 percent fall in Exxon, which reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit. The stock was the top percentage loser on the index.

"I think earnings in technology have been pretty good, and we expect to see much better performance out of the sector," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management.

"On a valuation basis, I think technology stocks pose a really good opportunity."

At 12:36 a.m. ET (1636 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 11.6 points, or 0.06 percent, at 18,444.75.

The S&P 500 was up 4.4 points, or 0.2 percent, at 2,174.46.

The Nasdaq Composite index was up 14.92 points, or 0.29 percent, at 5,169.90.

Seven of the 10 major S&P 500 indexes were higher, led by a 1.28 percent rise in the telecoms services index.

U.S. gross domestic product in the second quarter grew at a 1.2 percent rate, coming in below expectations of a rise of 2.6 percent.

Baidu dropped 5.2 percent to $157.13 after the Chinese Internet search engine posted its biggest quarterly profit decline since going public. The stock weighed the most on the Nasdaq.

Health insurer Cigna dropped 5 percent after reporting a lower-than-expected quarterly profit.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,926 to 990. On the Nasdaq, 1,534 issues rose and 1,184 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 37 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 85 new highs and 30 new lows.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)