Microsoft, Alphabet, Chinese sovereign debt, Deutsche Bank - what's moving markets
Investing.com — Results from Microsoft and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) receive differing reactions as quarterly earnings season continues with Meta Platforms and IBM due. Beijing has decided to issue a substantial amount of sovereign debt to support the struggling Chinese economy, while results from Deutsche Bank come in ahead of expectations.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) took the honors at the start of the reporting quarter for the tech giants, the companies that have accounted for the bulk of the S&P 500's 10% year-to-date gain.
The software giant beat expectations, after the close Tuesday, with its fiscal first-quarter results, as its investment in artificial intelligence bolstered growth in its cloud business Azure.
Microsoft has emerged as an AI frontrunner, largely due to its substantial investment into startup OpenAI, the maker of the popular generative AI chatbot ChatGPT.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), by contrast, disappointed, as the Google-parent's cloud business crawled to its slowest growth in at least 11 quarters.
Companies have curbed spending on cloud-related services, including expensive AI tools, slowing revenue growth at Google's cloud unit to 22.5% in the third quarter, from 28% in the prior three-month period.
Microsoft’s stock rose almost 4% premarket, while Alphabet's stock fell almost 6%.
The tech deluge continues Wednesday, with numbers due from Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) later in the day.
The Facebook and Instagram parent is expected to report earnings per share of $3.64 on revenue of $33.6 billion, and analysts will be listening for updates on its efficiency efforts and advertising business.
U.S. stock futures edged largely lower Wednesday, as investors digested quarterly results from tech giants Microsoft
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