A late session rebound saw US equity markets end the week and month on a positive note, with big technology names driving the gains - Dow up +115-points or +0.44% The broader S&P500 gained +0.77%, with Information Technology (up +2.50%) the clear outperformer following strong quarterly results from the big technology quartet after the closing bell of Thursday’s (30 July) session. Energy (down -0.69%) was the worst performing primary sector. The technology-centric NASDAQ +1.49%. Apple Inc outperformed the broader market, jumping +10.47% to a record closing high (US$425) and logging a fresh 52-week high after announcing better-than-expected fiscal third quarter earnings and a four-for-one stock split after the closing bell of the previous session. The latest gain saw Apple usurp Saudi Aramco as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company with a market capitalisation of US$1.84 trillion Microsoft Corp rose +0.54% following multiple media reports that it is in talks to buy TikTok because President Donald Trump is set to order the dance app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest its ownership of TikTok’s U.S. operations.
