Nasdaq hits 15-year high, propelled by tech triumvirate

By Noel Randewich

(Reuters) - The Nasdaq Composite hit a 15-year intraday high on Friday afternoon, propelled by strong results from tech behemoths Google, Amazon and Microsoft.

The S&P 500 also hit a record intraday high for a second straight day.

Amazon surged 15 percent to a lifetime high after its revenue beat estimates.

Google gained 3.6 percent after reporting higher quarterly results while Microsoft jumped 9.4 percent after it topped estimates.

The S&P hit a high of 2,120.92. The Nasdaq rose as high as 5,100.371, the highest since its intraday record of 5,132.52 in March 2000.

"The difference today contrasting with back then is, you have a lot of mature companies like Microsoft, EMC and Intel that can be looked at as almost blue chip companies that pay relatively high dividends," said James Abate, chief investment officer of Centre Funds in New York, comparing the fresh Nasdaq highs with those in 2000, right before the Internet bubble burst.

 

"The froth really is in social media companies and when you compare it back then, the froth was pretty much everywhere."

At 2:29 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 30.29 points, or 0.17 percent, to 18,088.98, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 6.29 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,119.22 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 40.44 points, or 0.8 percent, to 5,096.50.

While markets are at record highs, March-quarter earnings of S&P 500 companies are expected to dip 1.3 percent, with revenues dropping 3.5 percent as the dollar hurts U.S. multinationals and low oil prices affect energy companies, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Xerox slumped as much as 14 percent to a 52-week low of $11.32 after it cut its 2015 profit forecast, blaming the strong dollar.

"This is a case of the equity market looking a little bit forward to oil being less of a drag going forward, and that earnings in the second half will be better than they are now," said Anthony Valeri, an investment strategist for LPL Financial in San Diego.

Shares of Time Warner Cable jumped 5.1 percent after Bloomberg reported Charter Communications Inc's advisers are in early talks to buy the company. Comcast earlier abandoned its proposed $45 billion merger with Time Warner.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,532 to 1,426, for a 1.07-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,456 issues fell and 1,246 advanced for a 1.17-to-1 ratio favouring decliners.

The S&P 500 was posting 17 new 52-week highs and 1 new low; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 88 new highs and 19 new lows.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich, additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Nick Zieminski)