Google's Surge Leads the S&P 500 Higher

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

Google reported earnings last night that crushed analyst expectations, and the stock is now up more than 13%, pulling much of the stock market up with it. As of 1:30 p.m. EDT the S&P 500 is up 0.54% to 1,743. The largest ETF tracking the S&P 500, the SPDR S&P 500 , is up 0.57%.

Analysts had expected Google to report a strong quarter, but even their high estimates were surpassed by Google's results. Analysts expected earnings of $10.34 per share, and Google's actual EPS was $10.74 -- a 19% year-over-year rise. Net revenue -- revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs -- was expected to be $11.7 billion, and Google's actual net revenue rose 5% year over year to $11.92 billion.

Google's great results have led the stock to an all-time high of $1,008, driven by a 26% year-over-year increase in paid clicks, which was more than enough to offset an 8% year-over-year decline in cost-per-click ad prices.

Fellow search giant Baidu is up 6.9% on Google's results, an analyst upgrade, and the better-than-expected Chinese Q3 GDP figure that was released last night. China reported that Q3 GDP rose 2.2% quarter over quarter and 7.8% year over year. It should be noted that China reports GDP differently from most countries. In the U.S., GDP is reported quarterly on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. China reports its quarterly GDP on a seasonally adjusted basis, but the data is not annualized. Annualizing the quarterly GDP figures can give a varying view of Chinese GDP from the year-over-year figures, which are just that and are not seasonally adjusted.

The tech sector as a whole is up 1%, with Apple and Cisco among the other big movers in the S&P 500.

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The article Google's Surge Leads the S&P 500 Higher originally appeared on Fool.com.

Dan Dzombak can be found on Twitter @DanDzombak or on his Facebook page, DanDzombak. He has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Baidu and Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Baidu and Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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