Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Surge After Strong Earnings Reports From Microsoft, Meta as Investors Await Inflation Data

Qualcomm Stock Slips as Some Revenue Growth Disappoints

33 minutes ago

Qualcomm (QCOM) shares fell Thursday, a day after the company reported results for its fiscal third quarter.

The chipmaker reported revenue of $10.37 billion, up 10% from the same time a year ago, while adjusted earnings per share also rose nearly 20% to $2.77. Revenue was roughly in line with what analysts had expected, and adjusted EPS topped the analyst consensus compiled by Visible Alpha by 7 cents.

CEO Cristiano Amon highlighted Qualcomm’s growing automotive and “internet of things” revenue with partnerships like making parts for Meta Platforms’ (META) smart glasses, each growing over 20% in the quarter. Qualcomm’s “QCT” revenue, the combined sales from its auto, IoT, and smartphone chip segments, came in at about $8.99 billion, just below what analysts were expecting.

Qualcomm projected fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $10.3 billion to $11.1 billion, with adjusted EPS from $2.75 to $2.95. The midpoint of each range, at $10.7 billion and $2.85, was about in line with what analysts currently project.

Qualcomm has looked to widen its sources of revenue as the company is set to lose Apple (AAPL) as a customer in the coming years, as Apple shifts to making the modems it previously bought from Qualcomm. The chipmaker has also made recent acquisitions to aid its push into the growing world of data center revenue.

“With the loss of Apple revenues over the next couple of years, we forecast overall revenue growth for the company to be constrained and in the single digit percentages for FY26 and FY27,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note following the earnings report, maintaining their “overweight” rating and $200 price target.

Qualcomm shares were down 6% in intraday trading, putting them into negative territory for the year.

–Aaron McDade

Microsoft Briefly Joins Nvidia in the $4 Trillion Club

1 hr 23 min ago

The $4 trillion club could be a party of two by the end of the day.

Microsoft (MSFT) on Thursday became the second company in history to reach a $4 trillion market value as tech stock prices continued to climb on booming AI demand.

Microsoft’s stock popped 7% at the open, putting its market capitalization at $4.09 trillion, after the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter results blew past expectations on strong growth in all of its businesses, but especially in its cloud computing and AI services. 

Microsoft’s entry into the $4 trillion club comes just weeks after Nvidia (NVDA) became the first company to reach the milestone. Its market cap briefly crossed $4 trillion in intraday trading on July 9, but it wasn’t until July 10 that it closed above the threshold. 

Microsoft was already America’s second most valuable company, worth nearly $2 trillion, when the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 sparked an AI frenzy in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street. But surging demand for AI and cloud computing has turbocharged Microsoft’s growth in the last three years. The company on Wednesday reported 2025 fiscal-year revenue of close to $282 billion, up from $198 billion in the fiscal year before ChatGPT, and net income of $102 billion, up from $73 billion.

With about 7.4 billion shares outstanding, Microsoft stock will need to close at or above $538.13 to stay in the $4 trillion club. Shares were up 4.4% at about $536 in recent trading.

–Colin Laidley

What Analysts Think of Apple Stock Ahead of Earnings

2 hr 18 min ago

Apple (AAPL) is scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter results after the closing bell Thursday, with analysts largely bullish on the iPhone maker’s stock despite lingering tariff concerns.

Of the 12 analysts covering Apple stock tracked by Visible Alpha, nine have a “buy” or equivalent rating, alongside two “hold” ratings and one “sell.” Their consensus price target is near $233.

Apple shares were down slightly this morning at around $209.

Goldman Sachs, which has a $251 target on Apple stock, said “[s]ervices revenue growth should be resilient” and that new AI features, like live translation across Messages, Phone, and FaceTime expected this fall, will lift demand for iPhone upgrades.

The Street expects Apple’s June quarter revenue to have grown 4% year-over-year to $89.54 billion, including $40.45 billion in iPhone sales (2% growth) and $26.81 billion in services revenue (11% growth). Apple is projected to report earnings per share of $1.44, up from $1.40 a year ago.

That said, Apple needs to “get past key overhangs,” Morgan Stanley analysts said last week.

 The bank cautioned that the Trump administration could soon subject Apple to Section 232 tariffs, which are tied to national security concerns and have held up better in court than country-specific duties.

Morgan Stanley maintained a buy rating and $235 price target, putting it slightly above the analyst consensus. HSBC, meanwhile, kept a hold rating and $220 target, pointing to the same regulatory uncertainty in a recent note to clients.

Investors will be also watching for any progress on—or increased investment in—Apple Intelligence, which has been dogged by Siri delays and a lack of availability in China.

However, while Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL) raised its projected capital expenditures to $85 billion from $75 billion last week, Morgan Stanley said it doesn’t expect a similar move from Apple.

–Andrew Kessel

Meta Stock Pops as Results Blow Past Expectations

2 hr 37 min ago

Meta (META) shares jumped in early trading Thursday after the company’s second-quarter results handily topped analysts’ estimates.

The Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp owner’s shares were up 12% at a record high. The stock has now gained 33% since the start of the year.

Meta’s quarterly revenue grew 22% year-over-year to $47.52 billion, ahead of the analyst consensus from Visible Alpha. Its net income rose to $18.34 billion, or $7.14 per share, from $13.47 billion, or $5.16 per share a year earlier, also surpassing estimates. 

Advertising revenue, which makes up the bulk of Meta’s revenue, climbed 21% to $46.56 billion, exceeding expectations.

“On advertising, the strong performance this quarter is largely thanks to AI unlocking greater efficiency and gains across our ad system,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors during the company’s earnings call.

The CEO said that the company has also started to see signs of its AI systems improving themselves. “The improvement is slow for now, but undeniable, and developing superintelligence, which we define as AI that surpasses human intelligence in every way, we think is now in sight,” Zuckerberg said.

Looking ahead, Meta said it expects third-quarter revenue in the range of $47.5 billion to $50.5 billion, higher than the $46.29 billion analysts called for.

Meta said it now expects $66 billion to $72 billion in capital expenditures this year, raising the lower end of its projected range by $2 billion. The company said its capex is also likely to grow in 2026 as Meta continues “aggressively pursuing opportunities” to advance its AI development efforts.

“Infrastructure will be the single largest contributor to 2026 expense growth,” CFO Susan Li said, with employee compensation representing the second-largest driver as Meta grows its overall headcount and splurges on incentives to attract top AI talent.

Zuckerberg told investors he wants to have “the absolute best and most elite, talent-dense team” at the company. The CEO has reportedly been personally involved in a hiring spree with hefty compensation packages to build out Meta’s “Superintelligence” unit, with some of Meta’s recent hires including former Github CEO Nat Friedman and ex-Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang.

–Andrew Kessel

Microsoft Stock Jumps as Cloud, AI Growth Boost Earnings

3 hr 11 min ago

Microsoft (MSFT) shares soared in premarket trading after the company reported quarterly earnings that topped analysts’ expectations on strong growth in its Intelligent Cloud segment,

The stock was up 9% in recently, putting Microsoft on pace to join Nvidia as the only companies ever to have a market capitalization of $4 trillion Through Wednesday’s close, Microsoft stock was up about 22% for 2025.

The tech titan posted fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $76.44 billion, up 18% year-over-year and above analyst estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Net income rose to $27.23 billion, or $3.65 per share, from $22.04 billion, or $2.95 per share a year earlier, also beating projections.

Revenue from Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud segment, which includes Microsoft Azure, grew 26% to $29.89 billion, topping the analyst consensus from Visible Alpha.

“Cloud and AI is the driving force of business transformation across every industry and sector,” CEO Satya Nadella said in a release late Wednesday. “We’re innovating across the tech stack to help customers adapt and grow in this new era, and this year, Azure surpassed $75 billion in revenue, up 34 percent, driven by growth across all workloads.”

That marked the first quarter Microsoft reported the scale of its Azure business in dollars.

CFO Amy Hood said Microsoft expects double-digit revenue growth in fiscal 2026, though Hood warned the company would continue to be “capacity constrained” in the near term as it builds out its AI infrastructure.2

“I talked in January and said I thought we’d be in better supply/demand shape by June, and now I’m saying, ‘I hope I’m in better shape by December,'” Hood said.

Hood said Microsoft expects to spend $30 billion in capital expenditures in its fiscal first quarter, up from $20 billion a year earlier, as the company works to bring more data center capacity online to keep up with demand.

If Microsoft continued to spend at the same pace, that would add up to $120 billion for the full year, up from $88.2 billion in fiscal 2025, though Hood suggested the pace of Microsoft’s capex growth would “moderate” compared to fiscal 2025, with a higher growth rate in the first half than second half of fiscal 2026.

–Andrew Kessel

Futures Point to Sharply Higher Open for Major Indexes

4 hr 16 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.2%.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.9%.

Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 1.2%.