Wall Street Eyes 4th Day Of Gains, Amazon Soars

(REUTERS) -- Stocks eyed a fourth day of gains on Friday, with Amazon the latest company to extend an earnings-driven rally that has wiped out much of the market's losses for April.

Amazon.com Inc.'s quarterly results beat Wall Street's most bullish expectation as North America Media revenue, which includes books, DVDs and music, rose 17 percent The stock jumped 14.5 percent to $224.48 in premarket trade.

With 254 companies in the S&P 500 reporting, more than 72 percent have topped estimates, according to Thomson Reuters data as of Thursday.

In a potential wild card for markets, the first estimate of U.S. first-quarter gross domestic product is expected to show the economy expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate, a Reuters poll found, versus 3.0 percent in the fourth quarter. Investors have become cautious after signs of a softening recovery.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 percent and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration of the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 12 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 8.25 points.

The S&P 500 is on track for its best week in a month, rising 1.6 percent so far this week and up for three straight days. The move has wiped out much of the index's losses for April and lifted the index well above its 50-day moving average.

European shares inched higher early Friday, helped by encouraging company earnings. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.3 percent.

Institutional investors pulled back from equity funds in the week to April 25, resulting in a modest net outflow for the sector overall, according to Thomson Reuters' Lipper data.

Procter & Gamble Co. posted lower quarterly profit early Friday as the world's largest household products maker took charges for a restructuring and absorbed higher commodity costs.

Gilead Sciences Inc. earnings fell short of estimates as sales of its flagship HIV drugs rose nearly 20 percent but expenses also moved higher.

Starbucks Corp. reported better-than-expected quarterly profit but global sales missed estimates due to weakness in Europe, sending its shares down 5 percent after hours.

Newmont Mining Corp., the world's No. 2 gold producer, said profit rose as gold prices outpaced higher labor and power costs.

Samsung Electronics posted a record $5.2 billion profit as it sold over 20,000 Galaxy smartphones an hour in January-March, outselling Apple's iPhone.

(Reporting by Ed Krudy; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)