Wall Street Close: Stocks rebound anticipating strong earnings

US stocks ended higher on Thursday, with the technology heavyweights rallying before the earnings results and on significantly improved US economic data to distract investors from surging coronavirus cases.

The bulls stepped in to clean up the mess left behind following a 3% slide on the prior session.

Volatility has been present for a number of sessions in the lead up to the US presidential election on the 3rd of November and amid the growing fears of another COVID slowdown.

Anticipating further positive earning results, stocks rallied as investors anticipated strong results from a line-up of the biggest names in the US corporate universe - Apple Inc AAPL, Amazon.com Inc AMZN, Google parent Alphabet Inc GOOG and Facebook Inc FB that arrived after the bell on Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 139.16 points, or 0.52%, to 26,659.11. The S&P 500 added 39.08 points, or 1.19%, to 3,310.11 and the Nasdaq Composite put on 180.73 points, or 1.64%, to 11,185.59.

Earnings 

Facebook Q3 20 earnings results: $2.71 (estimate: $1.91).
Revenue: $21.47b (estimate: $19.84b).
Ad revenue: $21.22b (estimate: $19.55b).
Monthly active users 1.82b, +12 y/y (estimate: 1.78b).

Amazon Q3 20 earnings results: $12.37 (estimate: $7.55).

Revenue: $96.1b (estimate: $92.71b).

Apple Q4 20 earnings results: $0.73 (estimate: $0.70).
Revenue: $64.7b (estimate: $63.47b) .
China revenue falls 29% in Q4.

Twitter Q3 20 earnings results: $0.19 (estimate: $0.05).
Revenue: $936.2m (estimate: $780.5m).
Daily active users +20% (estimate: +33.6%).

US data beats expectations

Meanwhile, from the data front, Q3 GDP beat expectations slightly, rising by 33.1% in SAAR terms versus 32% expected.

''The growth numbers look impressive, and will in most countries that experienced such massive COVID-related activity disruptions in Q2,'' analysts at ANZ Bank explained.

''However, even with the rebound, US output remains 3.5% below its pre-COVID levels. The path towards recovery is much less clear from here, especially as the number of virus cases grows and there are near-term impediments to a fiscal deal.''

In other data, US initial jobless claims also beat expectations, falling to 751k vs. 770k expected.

''Other data showed that claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (which covers self-employed and part-time workers) rose for a second straight week. Overall, it continues to be the case that the pace of the labour market recovery has slowed,'' the analysts at ANZ said.

S&P 500 levels