Thursday was a solid day for the stock market, with the S&P 500 index (^GSPC 1.23%) reaching all-time highs and other indexes coming in closely behind. Investors have never been more confident in the power of an economic recovery for 2021, and they're hoping that despite big market gains already in the past year, there's room for still more movement higher among major market benchmarks.
If anything can send the market to new records on Friday, it'll be earnings reports from a couple of stocks with exposure to technology. Amazon.com (AMZN 3.48%) is a household name worldwide, but investors won't necessarily be as familiar with Australia's Atlassian (TEAM -9.19%). Nevertheless, both showed signs of strength and could help build even more positive momentum on Wall Street to finish the week.
How the market did on Thursday
The day was a volatile one, with markets initially climbing on positive economic news. By midday, investors had given back just about all of their daily gains, but more optimism as the afternoon went on ended up pulling the S&P, Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 2.22%), and Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.53%) all higher.
|
Index |
Percentage Change |
Point Change |
|---|---|---|
|
Dow |
+0.71% |
+240 |
|
S&P 500 |
+0.68% |
+28 |
|
Nasdaq Composite |
+0.22% |
+32 |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Amazon's after-hours ascent
Shares of Amazon didn't do much during Thursday's regular session. But in the after-hours market, the FAANG stock climbed almost 4% as of 5 p.m. EDT following the e-commerce and cloud computing company's quarterly financial report.
Amazon's numbers were outstanding. Revenue soared 44% to $108.5 billion, with service sales leading the way higher with a 52% year-over-year gain. Net income more than tripled to $8.1 billion, and that produced earnings of $15.79 per share. All of the numbers were well above what most of those following Amazon had expected.
Image source: Getty Images.
The thriving e-commerce business makes complete sense given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but the success of Amazon Web Services was also noteworthy. Segment revenue there rose 32%, with operating income getting a 35% boost.
Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos celebrated the 10th anniversary of Prime Video and the 15th anniversary of Amazon Web Services, and he foresees plenty of upside for them in the future. Amazon has a host of growth opportunities lined up ahead of it, and shareholders have to like what they're seeing from the colossus as it looks forward.
Atlassian wins one for the team
Elsewhere, shares of Atlassian reversed a 3% drop during the regular session by rising almost 7% after hours. The workplace collaboration software platform provider continued to build positive momentum as it released its fiscal third-quarter financial results.
Atlassian continued to see the benefit of high demand for its services in its quarterly numbers. Third-quarter revenue jumped 38% from the year-ago period, with subscription-based sales soaring at an even faster 43% rate. Atlassian contained costs well, leading to the company reversing its year-earlier loss with earnings of $0.63 per share.
In particular, cloud migration is playing a huge role in Atlassian's success. The company pointed to data analytics provider Splunk (SPLK) as just one example of many companies moving to the cloud in order to get more value from Atlassian offerings like Jira and Confluence. Moreover, by working closely with clients, Atlassian is developing the products and services that resonate most with users.
Atlassian has flown under the radar of many investors, but it's rapidly becoming a massive player in the global cloud services industry. It might never catch up to Amazon, but there's a lot to like in what Atlassian has done so far.
