Good Evening. Here is today’s recap on the in’s and out’s of the major market and economic events.
Despite a significant recovery from losses in midday trading, U.S. equities ended the day lower as investors await signs from the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting meeting on how swiftly the central bank will tighten monetary conditions.
The Dow Jones made another tremendous comeback, rebounding nearly 800 points to close at 34,297.67, barely 0.19% below its flatline. The S&P 500 rose from its session lows but ended the day in negative territory, down 1.22%, while the Nasdaq finished the day 2.28% down.
EARNINGS
After the closing bell on Tuesday, Microsoft (MSFT) released fiscal Q2 earnings that beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines.
Revenue was $51.7 billion, up 46% from the $50.9 billion projected by Bloomberg consensus projections. Cloud services revenue was up 46%. In addition, the software behemoth reported earnings per share of $2.48, compared to $2.31 projected.
However, Microsoft’s solid second-quarter sales and profit were overshadowed by concerns that the company’s Azure cloud-computing services have reached a saturation point. Azure sales increased by 46%, disappointing analysts and investors who had expected increases of up to 50% or more per quarter. In post-market trading, shares plummeted by 3.15%.