Wall Street stocks end higher on Amazon boost

STORY: Wall Street's main indexes closed higher on Friday, with the Dow ticking up marginally, the S&P 500 gaining about a quarter percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbing six-tenths of a percent.The market got a boost from shares of Amazon, which gained 9.5% to hit an all-time high after the retail behemoth forecast quarterly sales above estimates and said its cloud revenue rose at the fastest clip in nearly three years.Amazon's stellar results came just days after it announced 14,000 AI-related job cuts, which Nancy Tengler, CEO of Laffer Tengler Investments, believes will make the business more nimble."I think what you're seeing is a company (Amazon) that is delivering, they are rationalizing the business because they over-hired during COVID. And so now what they're trying to do is become quicker, faster, reduce layers in corporate management. And indeed, that is what they are doing. And they're gonna grow the retail business with the same number of employees, but they're going to double it in five years. So that's pretty impressive. And as a shareholder, I kind of loved everything, and I think you continue to hold it. If you don't own it, I actually even think you buy it here."In other stock moves, Warner Bros Discovery rose more than 3.5% following a Reuters report that Netflix was actively exploring a bid for the company's studio and streaming business.Shares of Netflix rose more than 2.5%, as the company also unveiled plans for a 10-for-1 stock split.And shares of Western Digital rallied more than 8.5% to an all-time high after forecasting quarterly earnings above Wall Street estimates.