Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 Index Soar To Record Closes As Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) And Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Surge

U.S. stocks closed sharply higher Friday, with the Nasdaq composite and Standard & Poor's 500 index soaring to record highs. Driven by a surge in technology stocks led by e-commerce company Amazon.com Inc. and software giant Microsoft Corporation, the Nasdaq closed at an all-time high for the second straight session.

The index hasn't seen such heights since the dot-com bubble in 2000. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 rallied to an intraday high of 2,120.49 on Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) climbed 21.45 points, or 0.12 percent, to close at 18,080.14. The S&P 500 (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) added 4.76 points, or 0.23 percent, to end at 2,117.69. The Nasdaq composite (INDEXSP:.INX) gained 36.02 points, or 0.71 percent, to finish at 5,092.08.

On Thursday, the Nasdaq broke its all-time closing record, which was previously set more than 15 years ago during the infamous dot-com bubble in 2000. The next record milestone the Nasdaq could cross is an intraday high of 5,132.52.

Shares of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) soared more than 14 percent to hit an all-time intraday high of $452.65 Friday after the e-commerce giant revealed sales figures for its cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services, for the first time, saying it generated revenue of $1.57 billion in the first quarter, up from $1.05 billion during the same period last year. The stock closed up 14.24 percent Friday to $445.52.

Meanwhile, shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) surged more than 10.5 percent to close at $47.94 after the world’s largest software company reported quarterly earnings that topped Wall Street estimates, driven by strong growth in hardware and cloud computing.

The Nasdaq received an additional boost as Starbucks Corporation’s (NASDAQ:SBUX) stock price rallied nearly 5 percent to an all-time high of $52.09 after the coffeeshop chain posted record second-quarter revenues and strong same-store sales.

Economists are looking ahead to next week’s economic calendar, which includes the U.S. Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Commerce Department will release the U.S. first-quarter gross domestic product Wednesday.