Top Midday Stories: Fed's Favorite Inflation Gauge Rises 0.3% in June; Microsoft, Meta Report Solid Earnings

MT Newswires Live
31 Jul

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were both up over 0.6% in late-morning trading Thursday, as tech stocks rallied on the back of solid earnings reports from Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META).

The personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, index rose by 0.3%, matching expectations of a survey conducted by Bloomberg as of 7:25 a.m. ET and lifting the year-over-year rate to 2.6% from 2.4%. The core PCE index, which excludes food and gas prices and is the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, rose by 0.3%, also matching expectations and keeping the year-over-year rate at 2.8%.

In company news, Microsoft reported fiscal Q4 earnings late Wednesday of $3.65 per diluted share, up from $2.95 a year earlier and above the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of $3.38. Fiscal Q4 revenue was $76.44 billion, up from $64.73 billion a year ago and above the FactSet consensus of $73.86 billion.

Separately, investigators at the UK's Competition and Markets Authority said Thursday they have closed their probe into the supply of public cloud infrastructure services and recommended commencing strategic market status investigations into Microsoft and Amazon.com's (AMZN) Amazon Web Services. Microsoft shares were up 4.6% around midday, lifting the company's market capitalization over $4 trillion. Amazon shares were up 0.8%.

Meta Platforms reported Q2 earnings late Wednesday of $7.14 per diluted share, up from $5.16 a year earlier and above the FactSet consensus estimate of $5.88. Second-quarter revenue was $47.52 billion, up from $39.07 billion a year ago and above the FactSet consensus of $44.81 billion. For Q3, the tech giant said it expects revenue of between $47.5 billion and $50.5 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expect $46.24 billion. Meta shares were up 11.4%.

The Cyberspace Administration of China said Thursday it was concerned over potential security risks associated with Nvidia's (NVDA) H20 artificial intelligence chips, according to media reports. Nvidia shares were down 0.3%.

Carvana (CVNA) reported Q2 earnings late Wednesday of $1.28 per diluted share, up from $0.14 a year earlier and above the FactSet consensus estimate of $1.17. Second-quarter revenue was $4.84 billion, up from $3.41 billion a year ago and above the FactSet analyst consensus of $4.58 billion. Carvana shares were up 17.5%.

Align Technology (ALGN) reported Q2 adjusted earnings late Wednesday of $2.49 per diluted share, up from $2.41 a year earlier but below the FactSet consensus of $2.57. Second-quarter revenue was $1.01 billion, down from $1.03 billion a year ago and below the FactSet estimate of $1.06 billion. The company said it expects Q3 revenue to be between $965 million and $985 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect $1.04 billion.

Align also said it plans to take a series of actions to streamline its operations to include global workforce reduction. Such actions are expected to result in one-time charges of $150 million to $170 million in H2, the company said. Align shares were down 33.9%.

Shake Shack (SHAK) reported Q2 adjusted earnings Thursday of $0.44 per diluted share, up from $0.27 a year earlier and above the FactSet consensus estimate of $0.38. Second-quarter revenue was $356.5 million, up from $316.5 million a year ago and above the FactSet analyst expectation of $354.1 million. Shares of Shake Shack were down 15.9%.

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