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Trending: Tech stocks beat the record-breaking S&P 500 in July

Last updated: 20:41 29 Jul 2016 BST, First published: 15:41 29 Jul 2016 BST

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Friday was a good session, and month, for tech stocks, as after hours the previous day a slew of household companies announced buoyant second quarter earnings.

The S&P Information Technology Sector Index has beaten the S&P 500 index on a 12-month basis, 10% versus 6%, and that feat came in a period that saw almost daily record highs scaled in July by the market bellwether ticker.

Although year-to-date its been beck-and-neck between the two tickers, the front month of July has proven that tech stocks are a force to be reckoned with. This month, the tech sector gained 7.75% versus S&P 500 index’s 3.52% advance.

One of those contributory stocks was Google owner Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) which intraday managed to hit a record high of $803.94.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares gained on Friday after reporting adjusted quarterly profit of $1.78 per share, well above estimates of $1.11 a share. The online retail giant's revenue also beat estimates, driven by an increase in Prime subscriptions and growth for its cloud services business. Amazon shares were up 0.9% at $759.48.

They say imitation is the best form of flattery. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which two days back announced good results and a buoyant outlook for the iPhone maker, said on Friday it will unveil a redesigned version of its app store in the next few weeks, according to a Bloomberg report. The new version takes a page from Amazon by using a customer's buying history to recommend new purchases. Apple shares were down 0.2% at $104.16.

Meanwhile, Alphabet, which generates 99% of its revenue from search engine combine Google, beat estimates by 38 cents a share, with adjusted quarterly earnings of $8.42 per share. Revenue also exceeded Street forecasts. The Google parent saw an increase in users and in its mobile advertising business. Shares were up 3.8% at $795.20.

But when it comes to turning advantage from advertising, the prize goes to Facebook (NASDAQ:FB). On Thursday the company reported market-moving results.

As Jasper Lawler, a market analyst at CMC Markets saliently put it: “Facebook has cracked the mobile advertising model and advertisers are flocking to the social network to take advantage.”

“Advertising revenue rose by 63% year over year in the second quarter with 84% of it coming from mobile. Even if tepid global growth reduces advertising spend, online ad spending will likely increase and poor results from Twitter and Yahoo suggest Facebook, along with Alphabet, is claiming the bulk of it,” he added.

However, if there was a fly in the ointment on Friday it was that the social network may owe up to $5bn in additional taxes, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. Facebook said the Internal Revenue Service is looking into the tax implications of the transfer of assets overseas. Facebook shares were down 0.7% at $124.17.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC), the storage solutions provider most famous for making robust external hard disks for computers, reported earnings and came in eight cents a share above estimates, with adjusted quarterly profit of 79 cents per share. The disk drive maker's revenue also exceeded forecasts. The recent purchase of SanDisk helped increase sales, although it also contributed additional costs during the just-concluded fiscal year. Western Digital shares were down 11.8% at $47.37.

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