H2 outlook: Wall Street to defy gravity

(Video Transcript)

Amazon and Apple earnings

During this earnings season, both Amazon and Apple have announced positive quarterly earnings, adding to the positive performance of other big companies like Alphabet (formerly Google), Meta, and chipmakers like Intel.

This means that the stock prices of these companies have been steadily increasing since the beginning of the year, which is a good sign for the market. But it's not just these specific stocks that are doing well – it's happening across the board.

Other chip makers, like Intel and Lam Research, have also seen their stock prices go up. This is partly because they have strong outlooks for earnings, but it's also because people are getting really excited about artificial intelligence technology. This positive feeling has even spread to the blue chip Dow Index, which has had its longest winning streak in almost 40 years.

S&P 500

Different sectors, like healthcare and energy, which were not doing so well earlier in the year, have also contributed to this strong performance. Even though overall earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are expected to decline this year, investors may not be too worried about that.

Instead, they might be more interested in the Federal Reserve and the fact that it's almost done raising interest rates. If this is the case, then there could be even more potential for the market to keep going up.

So in a nutshell, big companies like Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and Intel have reported good earnings, which has led to an overall increase in stock prices. The Dow Index has been doing really well, thanks to sectors that were previously struggling.

Even though earnings for S&P 500 companies aren't great, investors are focused on the Federal Reserve and how it's almost done raising interest rates. This suggests that the market could continue to be strong in the second half of the year.