Apple surges to add $178 billion in market value as 4th-quarter earnings help drive a turnaround in the stock market

• Apple soared 8% on Friday following the release of its better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings report.
• The iPhone maker added $178 billion in market value on Friday and helped drive a strong rebound in the stock market.
• "Apple saves the market from big tech meltdown," Louis Navellier said in a Friday note.

Apple stock soared more than 8% on Friday after it reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings results.

The surge added $178 billion to Apple's market capitalization and helped drive an impressive rebound in the broader stock market, with the Dow Jones, Nasdaq 100, and S&P 500 all surging more than 2% in afternoon trades.

The boost was much needed given that all other mega-cap tech companies disappointed investors considerably this week following their respective earnings reports. Meta plunged more than 20%, Amazon fell about 10%, while Alphabet and Microsoft saw mid-single digit declines.

Here were the key numbers from Apple's Q3 earnings report:

Revenue: $90.15 billion, versus analyst estimates of $88.64 billion
Earnings per share: $1.29, versus analyst estimates of $1.26
iPhone revenue: $42.63 billion, versus analyst estimates of $42.67 billion

The big disappointment in Apple's earnings results were services revenues generated from subscriptions like Apple TV+ and Apple Music, with the business generating revenue of $19.19 billion in the quarter compared to estimates of $19.97 billion.

Additionally, Apple CEO Tim Cook warned investors that its upcoming holiday quarter should see decelerated growth as it deals with tough comparables from the year-ago quarter.

But Wall Street remains upbeat on Apple, especially after a week of disappointing results from its mega-cap tech peers.

"Apple beat top and bottom, deliver results that gave investors confidence that the world has not changed completely for tech," investment manager Louis Navellier said in a Friday note.

And Wedbush analyst Dan Ives thinks Apple can shake off the weakness in its services division during the upcoming quarters, especially if the US dollar halts its ongoing surge.

"Services was a bit weak on currency, App Store softness, and the overall macro but should reaccelerate (ex currency) into the December/March quarters which is key for this core revenue stream that should approach $90 billion in annual revenue by 2024," Ives said.

"Given the perfect storm of currency/macro this quarter, we would characterize Apple's results and commentary around the December quarter as net bullish around underlying demand and help throw out the noise that iPhone 14 upgrades are slowing in this cycle. The Pro mix which we view as roughly 80% is an uplift for average selling prices and [a] key positive dynamic heading into FY23," Ives said.

Ives reiterated an "Outperform" rating on Apple and lowered his price target to $200 from $220 to reflect a lower valuation multiple.