Another round of largely upbeat corporate earnings lifted the benchmark US equity indices, with the S&P500 touching a fresh record intra-day high (3,027.39) - Dow gained +153-points or +0.57% to move within 1.5% of its record all time closing high of 27,359.16. The broader S&P500 +0.41% (to 3,022.55), briefly pushing above its record close set on 26 July of 3,025.86. The NASDAQ +0.70%. The US Defense Department announced last Friday night AEST that it had awarded its US$10B Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud computing contract to Microsoft Inc's Azure, a surprise outcome given most analysts expected Amazon.com Inc and Amazon Web Services division to be awarded the contract. Microsoft Inc gained +3% in after hours trading, while Amazon.com fell -0.77%. Amazon.com Inc shed 1% in regular trading after the tech giant reported a 26% fall in profit late Thursday (24 October) as it invested heavily to speed up shipping times.
