Stock futures were mostly higher Thursday as investors tried to make sense of Big Tech earnings, the latest move on interest rates from the Federal Reserve, and a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping that appeared to go pretty much as expected.
These stocks were poised to make moves Thursday:
Microsoft fell 2.9% in the premarket session. The software company and the second-most valuable U.S. corporation, which finished Wednesday with a market cap of $4.025 trillion, reported fiscal first-quarter adjusted earnings of $4.13 a share, better than Wall Street consensus of $3.67. Revenue was $77.7 billion, ahead of analysts' expectations of $75.4 billion, while Azure revenue rose by 40%, higher than forecasts of 38% growth.
Shares of Alphabet jumped 8.2% after the parent company of search giant Google reported a jump of 16% in third-quarter revenue on growth in its digital-advertising and cloud-computing businesses. Revenue was a record $102.3 billion, better than Wall Street expectations, and net income rose 33% from a year earlier to nearly $35 billion. Alphabet raised its estimates for capital expenditures this year, largely for AI investments, to a range of $91 billion to $93 billion, up from $52.5 billion in 2024.
Meta Platforms missed analysts' third-quarter earnings expectations and the stock declined 7.3% in premarket trading. Meta said the earnings miss included a one-time tax charge of $15.93 billion from the implementation of the Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Excluding the charge, earnings would have been $7.25 a share, better than forecasts of $6.72. The owner of Facebook and Instagram reported a revenue increase in the period of 26% from a year earlier to $51.24 billion. Meta said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of between $56 billion and $59 billion, about what analysts expected.
Nvidia rose 0.2% after the chip maker and most valuable company in the U.S. finished up 3% on Wednesday at $207.04, a record high, and closed the session with a market capitalization of $5.03 trillion. Nvidia, the first company on record to reach a market value of $5 trillion, has been lifted this week by comments from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who said demand for the company's artificial-intelligence chips has been "exceptionally strong."
Apple, which closed Wednesday with a market cap of $4.002 trillion, rose 0.7% ahead of the release of the iPhone maker's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings after the closing bell Thursday, while Amazon.com slipped 0.3% with the world's largest online retailer scheduled to report third-quarter numbers.
ServiceNow reported third-quarter earnings and revenue that beat analysts' expectations and raised its full-year subscription guidance. Shares of the digital-workflow software company, which announced it would be splitting its stock 5-for-1, rose 3.1% ahead of Thursday's opening bell.
FMC Corp. sank 26% after the ag sciences company reduced its quarterly dividend by 86% to 8 cents a share from 58 cents. FMC said it cut its dividend to "further prioritize debt reduction."
Starbucks shares slid 0.5% after the coffeehouse chain reported fiscal fourth quarter earnings that fell short of expectations, although the company's same-store sales finally turned positive.
Carvana, the car dealer best known for its auto vending machines, beat third-quarter earnings expectations on record revenue of $5.65 billion and number of cars sold in the period. It was Carvana's third-consecutive quarter of revenue growth, with the number of cars sold reaching 155,941, up 44% from a year earlier and better than analysts' forecasts. Carvana said it expects sales trends to continue into the end of the year, forecasting retail units sold above 150,000 in the fourth quarter. The stock, however, tumbled 7.2%.
Chipotle Mexican Grill posted third-quarter earnings and revenue in line with analysts' estimates, but the burrito chain tumbled 18% after lowering its same-store sales outlook for the full year.
Shares in eBay were down 9.9% after the online marketplace topped Wall Street's earnings and revenue estimates, but issued a weaker-than-expected profit forecast for the fourth quarter.