LIVE MARKETS-Nasdaq rallies as Amazon, Nvidia offer Halloween treats

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NASDAQ RALLIES AS AMAZON, NVIDIA OFFER HALLOWEEN TREATS

Wall indexes opened the Halloween session without too much evidence of spooked investors and Nasdaq was out front, rising close to 1%, with hefty boosts from Amazon.com AMZN.O and Nvidia NVDA.O on encouraging earnings and AI news.

Nasdaq's biggest lift came from Amazon whose shares jumped 11% after it reported cloud revenue that rose at the fastest clip in nearly three years, driving a quarterly sales forecast above estimates.

Nvidia was its second biggest contributor with a gain of 1% after comments from its CEO and hopes for a deal with South Korea's Samsung Electronics 005930.KS.

While shares in Apple AAPL.O had risen in late trade on Thursday, the stock turned lower in morning trading after Chief Executive Tim Cook gave forecasts for holiday quarter iPhone sales and overall revenue above Wall Street expectations, powered by orders for iPhone 17 models that the company is racing to fulfill amid continuing supply constraints.

Among the S&P 500's 11 major industry sectors consumer discretionary .SPLRCD was the strongest, up 4.6% with most support from Amazon and materials .SPLRCM was the biggest loser, down ~1%, with the biggest drag from the U.S. shares of Linde PLC LIN.O after its downbeat Q4 forecast.

Here is your morning snapshot:

(Sinéad Carew)

EARLIER ON LIVE/ MARKETS:

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