Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving the tape.
Alphabet's Google Cloud division is turning heads on Wall Street after posting eighty-two percent revenue growth, and the momentum may not be slowing down. The company's contracted cloud backlog has climbed to five hundred fourteen billion dollars, signaling that enterprise demand for AI-driven infrastructure remains extraordinarily strong heading into the back half of the year.
Shifting to the launch economy, Rocket Lab reports second-quarter earnings after the bell Monday, and Wall Street is looking for two hundred thirty-two million dollars in revenue alongside sixty percent growth. The company has been positioning itself as a serious competitor in the small satellite launch market, and this print will tell us whether that ambition is meeting reality in the numbers.
And over at Darden Restaurants, insider selling is drawing attention. Multiple executives moved shares within a single week, with one transaction alone totaling roughly nine hundred twenty thousand dollars at two hundred ten dollars and change per share. Cluster selling at this scale doesn't automatically signal trouble, but it's the kind of activity that warrants a closer look at valuation and forward guidance.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
