Alphabet’s recent announcement of its first dividend caused a nearly ten percent increase in value for its A share on Wall Street. After trading on the New York stock exchanges for an hour, the main stock indices including the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones were all showing positive gains. The S&P 500 general index saw a rise of 1.1 percent while the technology-focused Nasdaq had risen by about two percent and the Dow Jones index by half a percent.
Google’s parent company experienced similar success after reporting better-than-expected earnings per share and revenue during after-market trading on Thursday. Alphabet announced that it would pay out its first dividend in history, with a dividend of $0.20 per share resulting in a 9.5 percent increase for its A share.
Microsoft also reported results that exceeded analysts’ expectations, causing its share to rise by 2.6 percent. However, semiconductor manufacturer Intel saw a decrease of about 10.5 percent due to disappointing guidance from the company’s CEO Pat Gelsinger who stated that Intel will not be able to compete with AMD’s new Zen 4 processors at this time due to their superior performance and lower power consumption making it difficult for Intel to keep up with its competitors in this segment.
In other sectors, oil companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron experienced decreases in their stock values as investors were disappointed with their results, despite positive macroeconomic data released from the United States showing positive trends in private consumption and inflation levels on Friday which contributed to overall growth and optimism in the market.