Markets Up Today and for the Week; Q1 from GOOGL, INTC, SKX

Market Performance - Markets closed higher for the third consecutive session, with the Dow up 486 points (+1.23%), S&P 500 up 108 points (+2.03%), Nasdaq up 457 points (+2.74%), and Russell 2000 up 38 points (+2.00%) [1] - The indexes have increased between +2% to nearly +5% this week, despite initial concerns regarding Jerome Powell's position as Fed Chair [1] Key Stocks - The "Magnificent 7" stocks, including NVIDIA (NVDA), Amazon (AMZN), Tesla (TSLA), and Microsoft (MSFT), all rose over +3% during the session, although they remain down year-to-date, with Microsoft down -8% and Tesla down -35% [2] Economic Reports - Existing Home Sales for March were reported at 4.02 million units, below the anticipated 4.13 million and February's 4.27 million, indicating a continued housing market challenge [3] - Durable Goods Orders for March increased by +9.2%, significantly surpassing the estimated +1.6%, suggesting businesses may be pulling forward orders ahead of tariff announcements [4] - Initial Jobless Claims remained stable at 222K, reflecting a relatively calm labor market despite recent layoffs [4] Q1 Earnings Reports - Alphabet (GOOGL) reported Q1 earnings of $2.81 per share, exceeding the expected $2.02, with revenues of $76.50 billion compared to the $75.53 billion consensus [5] - Alphabet's cloud revenues reached $12.26 billion, up from $9.57 billion year-over-year, and YouTube ad revenue grew by 90 basis points to +8.93% [6] - GOOGL's shares rose +5% in after-market trading following a +2.5% increase prior to the earnings release, although it remains down roughly -10% year-to-date [6] Other Company Earnings - Intel (INTC) reported Q1 earnings of +$0.13 per share, surpassing the expected $0.01, with revenues of $12.7 billion, slightly above the $12.3 billion estimate [7] - Despite outperforming expectations, Intel's shares fell -5% in late trading due to a pullback in next-quarter guidance [7] - Skechers (SKX) reported Q1 earnings of $1.34 per share, beating the expected $1.18, but revenues of $2.41 billion fell short of the $2.44 billion projection, leading to an -8% decline in shares [8]