Alphabet and Tesla lead the rise as US stocks welcome the "Tech Dividend Week"

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, as the global trade situation continues to evolve, investors are assessing the instability factors, while the strong performance of tech giants is injecting momentum into the market. The U.S. stock market closed higher on Friday, continuing its strong rebound trend for the week.

The S&P 500 index rose 0.74% on Friday, closing at 5,525.21 points; the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index saw a more significant increase, rising 1.26% to close at 17,282.94 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged behind, only slightly up 0.05%, gaining 20 points to close at 40,113.50 points.

In the tech sector, Alphabet (GOOG.US, GOOGL.US), the parent company of Google, saw its stock price rise 1.5% after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter earnings. Tesla (TSLA.US) surged 9.8%, while Nvidia (NVDA.US) and Meta rose 4.3% and 2.7%, respectively, contributing to the significant rise of the Nasdaq.

This week, all three major indices recorded gains, with the S&P 500 up 4.6% and the Nasdaq soaring 6.7%, marking the second week of gains in three weeks. Although the Dow performed relatively poorly, it still recorded a weekly gain of 2.5%. With this week's strong rebound, the Nasdaq has turned to a slight increase in April; however, the S&P 500 is still down about 1.5% for the month, and the Dow has fallen 4.5% since April.

Recent market volatility has been primarily influenced by the trade tensions triggered by U.S. President Trump’s announcement of tariff policies on April 2. Conflicting information regarding whether the U.S. and China are engaged in trade negotiations has further exacerbated market uncertainty.

Time magazine published Trump's latest statement on Friday, in which he stated that if the U.S. imposes high tariffs of 20% to 50% on foreign goods within a year, he would consider it a "complete victory." However, he also revealed that multiple trade agreements are expected to be announced in the next three to four weeks.

Nevertheless, Trump emphasized during an interview on Air Force One that he would not lift the tariffs unless China "makes concessions."

Despite the mixed information, Jay Hatfield, founder and chief investment officer of InfraCap, believes that the worst of the "tariff panic" in the market has passed.

"The confusion about whether the U.S. and China are truly negotiating has indeed caused the market to lose some momentum," Hatfield said in an interview, "but we believe the market has passed the peak of 'tariff anxiety,' and the subsequent trend may lean towards the positive."

Hatfield also pointed out that the key drivers for the market in the coming week will be the earnings performance of major cloud service providers like Microsoft and Amazon, with investors closely watching whether they can continue the strong performance of tech giants