Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving and why.
Alphabet is under pressure after missing search revenue estimates, and the number that's really catching Wall Street's eye is a negative free cash flow of nine point one billion dollars. That's a significant burn for a company expected to be funding its AI buildout from operations, and it's raising hard questions about the economics of the infrastructure race.
Microsoft tells a very different story. The software giant posted soaring quarterly profit as its cloud division accelerated, giving investors the clearest evidence yet that AI spending can convert to actual earnings. Azure growth was the headline driver, and it's done real work in quieting the skeptics who worried the build-out was all cost and no return.
The Federal Reserve held rates steady, while oil pushed above one hundred fifteen dollars a barrel. That combination puts policymakers in a familiar bind — energy-driven inflation complicating the path to any eventual easing. With AI-themed equities still surging, risk appetite looks intact, but the macro ceiling is tightening.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
