Fed Cut Sets Stage For MSTR And AAPL Earnings Report: Meta, Google, Microsoft Already In Focus
This is turning out to be a very important week for the US stock market. The largest Bitcoin Treasury Company, Strategy (MSTR) and the world’s most valuable brand, Apple (AAPL) are set to report their earnings today, following in the footsteps of Meta, Google and Microsoft, who released their earnings yesterday.
Strategy, led by Michael Saylor has largely benefitted from rising adoption in both retail and institutions as digital gold. Before Strategy discloses its earnings report today, option pricing suggests that traders are anticipating a 4.98% swing in either direction after the earnings release. This suggests that investors are only expecting a modest market response.
Strategy recently raised $43.4 million by selling preferred stock and used that money to buy 390 more BTC. Each coin cost around $111,000, bringing the company’s total stash to over 640,000 BTC, worth around $47.4 billion. On average, Strategy paid around $74,000 per coin.
Citi analyst Peter Christiansen gave the stock a “Buy” rating and set a price target of $485, suggesting the stock could rise about 64% from current levels.
Citi analysts expect the stock to trade at a 25-35% premium above its net asset value, based on a projected 9.6% BTC yield in 2026. Christiansen said that the premium reflects investors’ belief in the company’s ability to grow BTC per share.
Wall Street analysts are mostly bullish. Out of 15 ratings recently, 14 are Buys and 1 is a Sell. The average price target is $540,32, implying an 82.77% upside from where the stock is currently trading.
EXPLORE: Top 20 Crypto to Buy in 2025
The Bank of America has become more optimistic about AAPL’s performance before its Q4 earnings call. In an investor note, analyst Wamsi Mohan highlighted a stronger than expected demand for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, which prompted him to raise AAPL price target to $320 from $250, a 19% increase form its current price.
Mohan now expects Apple to report a high, single-digit, year-over-year growth for the current quarter. This marks a shift from his earlier prediction in August where he warned investors to temper their expectations around the iPhone 17 sales.
Beyond hardware though, Mohan sees AI as the major growth driver for Apple’s future product roadmap. He said, “We consider the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Apple’s revenues, enhancing potential new product offerings (AI augmented eye-wear, in-house AI robots/smart home), while potentially being disruptive in other cases (AI impact on traditional search revenues).”
In the meantime, AAPL has rebounded from its April low of $174, caused due to uncertainty around US President Trump’s trade policies. Since then, it has surged by 56% to date.
EXPLORE: Next 1000X Crypto – Here’s 10+ Crypto Tokens That Can Hit 1000x This Year
Alphabet has had a strong quarter. It’s revenue jumped 16% YoY to $102.35 billion, well above what analysts expected. This growth has come from advertisement demands, cloud business expansion and favorable currency shifts. The company earned $2.87 per share, up by 35% compared to last year.
Its ad business bought in $74.18 billion. Additionally, its cloud division grew by 34% to $15.16 billion, beating market forecasts. CEO Sundar Pichai said. “We’re making good progress and seeing strong adoption of our AI offerings.”
On the other hand, Microsoft reported a strong cloud growth, with Azure revenue going up by 39%, beating Google Cloud’s 33.5%. Still, its stock fell by 3% while Google’s rose by 7% due to investor concern regarding a 72% jump in capital spending, even though Google’s rose by 83.4%.
Its third quarter revenue rose by 18% to $77.67 billion, beating expectations. Earnings per share came in at $3.72, up by 13% YoY. Its operating income reached $37.96 billion, a 24% increase. Capital expenditures totaled $34.9 billion, up 74.5%, exceeding analyst forecasts.
Meanwhile, Meta posted $51 billion in quarterly revenue, up 26% year-over-year and above expectations. Net income fell 83% to $2.7 billion due to a one-time $15.93 billion tax charge, which didn’t impact cash flow. Management expects tax rates to normalize to 12–15% in Q4.
Also, Ad performance has remained strong. Impressions are up 14% and pricing is up by 10%, driving a 25% increase in ad revenue. Daily active users hit 3.54 billion, with Instagram surpassing 3 billion monthly users and Threads reaching 150 million daily users.
However, Meta is also spending a lot more money, which has some investors worried. Total expenses jumped 32% to $30.7 billion, cutting into profits. The company spent $19.37 billion on infrastructure and technology in Q3 alone, and plans to spend up to $72 billion this year, with over $90 billion expected in 2026.
The Federal Reserve’s (FED) decision to cut interest rates by 0.25% has come amid cooling inflation and rising labor market concerns. September CPI data showed a softer than expected price increase, which gave Fed the green light to ease policy without reigniting inflation.
For tech stocks, lower interests rates reduce borrowing costs and increase the present value of future earnings, which is good for growth oriented companies. Case in point, the NASDAQ rose nearly 3.2% in response as investors rolled back into high-growth assets including AI, cloud etc.
For crypto, rate cuts have historically boosted liquidity and weakened the dollar, both of support the case for Bitcoin and altcoins. Previous easing in 2019 and 2020 led to major rallies in digital assets. Bitcoin bulls are betting for a continued Fed easing through 2026 to maintain the momentum.
For now, the environment favors tech and crypto.
EXPLORE: 20+ Next Crypto to Explode in 2025
Read original story Fed Cut Sets Stage For MSTR And AAPL Earnings Report: Meta, Google, Microsoft Already In Focus by Arijit Mukherjee at 99bitcoins.com