Some disappointing quarterly earnings releases (notably from Amazon down -2.48% and Starbucks -9.2%) capped the performance of US equity markets last Friday - Dow added +34-points or +0.15% to again notch record intra-day and closing highs, while the broader S&P500 slipped -0.13% (with Consumer Staples leading 7 sectors lower). The NASDAQ dipped -0.12%, with Amazon.com Inc falling -2.48% (off lows that saw the stock down as much as -4.3%) after releasing a much weaker-than-expected second quarter result after the market close last Thursday (earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.40c versus consensus expectations of US$1.42). In Washington, the US senate blocked the Republican Administration's latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act (or Obamacare) after 3 Republican senators - Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John McCain of Arizona - defected to deliver a 51-49 vote against. It was mixed weekly performance for the benchmark indices, with the Dow rising +250-points or +1.16% while both the S&P500 (-0.02%) and Nasdaq (-0.20%) ended with modest losses.
