Amazon, Microsoft, Intel dispel doubts about technology growth

Amazon transcended the noise around Trump's tweets, reporting higher first-quarter profit on Thursday and forecasting more of the same in the current period

Big technology stocks took a beating over the past several weeks on concerns that the industry’s growth surge was under threat.

But results this week from Amazon.com, Facebook, Microsoft and Intel — among the most valuable companies in the world — went a long way toward proving the naysayers wrong. 

Solid sales and profit growth and bullish forecasts reminded the market how reliant the global economy remains on the tech sector, for everything from retail and advertising sales to software and computing power accessed via the internet, and the companies’ stocks gained as fears that had built up for weeks began to