Big Tech's Mixed Week

Big Tech had the starring role in earnings this week. It began on Tuesday, with Alphabet and Microsoft reporting results. Yesterday was Meta, and then this evening was Amazon and Apple. In the end, it was a draw, with two clear "wins" (Microsoft and Meta), two losses (Alphabet and Amazon), and one mixed result (Apple). 

Meta cleared a low bar and managed to once again increase its Facebook user base. That was enough for investors, for now. Microsoft continued to fire on all cylinders, including strong growth from its cloud, while Alphabet was tripped up by a slowdown in advertising growth, particularly for its YouTube segment. 

Tonight, Apple beat numbers nearly across the board for its latest quarter, but the stock turned lower as executives hosted an earnings call and sounded a cautionary note about what's to come. Here's how Apple's CFO Luca Maestri described the current quarter: 

Supply constraints caused by COVID-related disruptions and industry-wide silicon shortages are impacting our ability to meet customer demand for our products. We expect these constraints to be in the range of $4 billion to $8 billion, which is substantially larger than what we experienced during the March quarter. The COVID-related disruptions are also having some impact on customer demand in China.

The stock was down about 2% in late trading. 

We're only a few hours removed from its report, but Amazon could turn out to be the biggest loser in Big Tech's earnings parade. The e-commerce giant managed to just about match expectations for its first quarter, but its outlook for the June quarter came in well short. 

“The pandemic and subsequent war in Ukraine have brought unusual growth and challenges,” Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy said in the company's earnings statement. "Today, as we’re no longer chasing physical or staffing capacity, our teams are squarely focused on improving productivity and cost efficiencies throughout our fulfillment network."

Shares were down almost 10% in the after-hours trading session on Thursday. 

Barron's Eric Savitz has details on Amazon's and Apple's numbers here and here.