Yahoo Finance Week in Tech: It’s all about earnings and Apple

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It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Yahoo Finance’s Week in Tech. I’m Dan Howley, and this week is all about earnings. Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), AMD (AMD), Apple (AAPL), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), and Intel (INTC) are each updating investors on their financial performance over the past few months, and AI is top of mind across the board.

Alphabet and AMD reported their results Tuesday, and while both performed well — Alphabet beat Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines, and AMD met expectations on revenue and beat on earnings per share — shares of the companies are heading in opposite directions, with Alphabet shares headed higher and AMD shares sliding.

Beyond the earnings rush, there was one other big story this week: Apple’s cavalcade of product announcements. The company not only released its initial batch of Apple Intelligence features through software updates for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, it also unveiled a line of new Mac laptops and desktops, as well as two new high-powered chips.

It’s been a heck of a week so far, and we’ve still got two days to go.

Earnings take center stage

Big Tech’s earnings season feels like it’s been compressed into a single week, which is both a blessing and a curse for yours truly. Sure, it gets all of the work out of the way in one shot, but it also means my keyboard is getting a heck of a workout.

FILE PHOTO: AMD CEO Lisa Su makes the opening speech at COMPUTEX forum in Taipei, Taiwan June 3, 2024. REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo
AMD CEO Lisa Su makes the opening speech at COMPUTEX forum in Taipei, Taiwan June 3, 2024. (REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo) · REUTERS / Reuters

Google parent Alphabet and AMD both provided solid results on Tuesday, but investors weren’t happy with AMD’s guidance for the current quarter, sending shares sliding more than 9% in early trading Wednesday. Alphabet shares, meanwhile, climbed more than 6% on the strength of its AI and cloud business growth.

AMD said that it expects to see Q4 revenue of between $7.2 billion and $7.8 billion, which was just shy of expectations of $7.55 billion. That’s not exactly the kind of beat and raise Wall Street has come to expect from AI chip names. Still, even at the low end of guidance, AMD’s Q4 revenue would jump $1 billion versus the $6.2 billion it brought in during the same period last year.

Despite disappointment among traders, CEO Lisa Su said there’s an “insatiable demand for more computers” among customers.

Alphabet, on the other hand, is on a roll, thanks to growth in its advertising and cloud services revenue. Ad sales beat expectations, jumping from $59.6 billion a year ago to $65.8 billion in its most recent quarter, while cloud revenue increased a whopping 35%.

Both businesses benefit from Google’s AI investments, with AI for Alphabet’s cloud platform helping to draw enterprise customers and improving advertising services. But Alphabet has plenty of competition, including Microsoft, which reports after the bell on Wednesday, and Amazon on Thursday. There’s still plenty of earnings news ahead, so stay tuned.