US markets higher; Microsoft topped US$300/share; Foot Locker rallied on Q2 results

The US markets rallied on Friday to close higher but each of the key indices posted a loss for the week as investor confidence was dampened by increasing delta COVID-19 infections and eased growth in China.

The Dow Jones rose 0.65% to finish the trading day up 39 points to close at 35,120 points.

The tech heavy NASDAQ rose 1.2% to finish the trading day up 173 points to close at 14,715 points with Facebook and Apple gaining 1.2% and 1.02% respectively.

One bitcoin is worth US$49,362 going into the Asian trading day.

The Australian dollar is stronger against the major currencies and is buying 71.4 US cents.

Tech giant Microsoft traded at an all-time high US$304.36/share on Friday after announcing it would restructure its commercial pricing for Microsoft 365. The price of Office 365 hasn?t substantially changed since it was launched a decade ago, so the increase from US$5 to US$6/user, and the price of Microsoft 365 Business Premium increasing from US$20 to US$22, has impressed investors.

Shares in sportswear and footwear retailer Foot Locker soared more than 7% on Friday after the company released strong second-quarter results. For the period, Foot Locker reported a 9.5% increase in revenue YoY to US$2.3bn, adjusted net income increase of 211% to US$233m and EPS of US$2.21/share, well above Wall St expectations of US$1.01/share.

And random questions like ?does sugar go with spaghetti? and quizzes including

?First three words you see are your reality? have been identified as Facebook?s most-seen posts.