Amazon helps US stocks shrug off poor GDP data

Amazon's strong analyst-beating quarter helped Wall Street markets shrug off disappointing data on US economic growth Friday. Despite official figures showing the economy grew at only a 2.2 percent in the January-March period, slower than forecast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to close up 23.69 points, or 0.18 percent, at 13,228.31. The S&P 500-stock index advanced 3.40 (0.24 percent) to 1,403.38, while the tech-laden Nasdaq rose surged 18.59 (0.61 percent) to 3,069.20. "Mostly positive reports in corporate earnings are outshining disappointing economic news. Preliminary readings for first-quarter US GDP came in at 2.2 percent, worse than the expected 2.5 percent reading," said analysts at Wells Fargo Advisors. Online retailing king Amazon pulled the markets higher, rising 15.8 percent to $226.85, after its first quarter results showed net sales of $13.2 billion, up 34 percent and well beyond what analysts had expected. Ford shares dropped 2.3 percent after it came in with a 46 percent fall in net income from the year-earlier quarter despite surging US sales. Ford blamed the expiration of certain tax benefits and falls in earnings in all its overseas markets. Procter and Gamble shares lost 3.6 percent after it posted a 16 percent fall in earnings in the quarter to March 30, worse than expected; the company cited a "difficult economic and competitive environment." Cisco led the Dow blue chips higher with a 1.9 percent gain, and McDonalds rose 1.6 percent. The bond market rallied . The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.93 percent from 1.96 percent Thursday and that on the 30-year Treasury dipped to 3.12 percent from 3.14 percent. Yields and prices move in opposite directions.