These stocks are set for big moves Friday

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A barrage of tech-sector profit reports is pointing to a strong open on Friday, as some of the biggest and hottest U.S. stocks blew past the market's earnings forecasts.

After Thursday's closing bell, companies that opened their books to investor scrutiny included tech giants Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. Added to the high-tech earnings slate were e-commerce names Amazon.com Inc. and Expedia Inc., Chinese internet search provider Baidu Inc., biotech powerhouse Gilead Sciences Inc. and other large-cap stocks Cerner Corp. and Western Digital Corp.

Those names alone represent more than $2-trillion (U.S.) combined in tech-related market value.

And with the recent runaway gains posted by the richly priced technology sector attracting so much investor attention, Thursday's wave of tech earnings will offer some relief to tech bulls.

Amazon.com posted the biggest beat of them all, fuelling huge gains in share price in after-hours trading and setting the stock up for an open well in excess of $1,000 a share. The company's third-quarter revenue soared by 34 per cent over last year to $43.5-billion, while adjusted earnings per share of 52 cents dwarfed the consensus estimate of 4 cents.

Alphabet and Microsoft also handily beat the Street, with postmarket gains immediately seen for each. The Google parent's quarterly revenue leapt by 24 per cent over the prior year in part based on growth in mobile advertising, while Microsoft's stock was poised to open at a new all-time high after strength in its cloud-computing business impressed investors.

In the domestic market, meanwhile, some Canadian gold producers got earnings season off to a mixed start. Gold miners are some of the earliest companies to report quarterly performance and, so far, only Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. has clearly come in ahead of the market's expectations.

Late Thursday, Yamana Gold Inc. edged out both revenue and profit forecasts, while Eldorado Gold Corp. missed both on revenue and slightly on earnings. Base-metals mining companies Capstone Mining Corp., First Quantum Minerals Ltd., Nevsun Resources Ltd. and Taseko Mines Ltd. were also on the postmarket earnings docket.

Friday's premarket earnings announcements, meanwhile, will partly shift the focus to the energy sector. Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Imperial Oil Ltd. are all due to report before the opening bell and investors will be looking for continued signs of recovery.

Since crude-oil prices bottomed out in June after hitting a renewed downslide in the first half of the year, West Texas intermediate has rallied back strongly. But energy stocks have not come close to keeping pace.