🪦 Four blowout quarters. Four stocks in the red. One $900B AI startup. Sure, fine.

I. startup valuation all shake up the tape. Starting with the macro backdrop: The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at three and a half to three and three-quarters percent, but the vote was the most divided since 1992 — eight in favor, four dissenters.

Jerome Powell wrapped up his final press conference as Fed Chair amid this split, with two-year Treasury yields jumping sharply, wiping out rate-cut expectations for next year. The market is clearly bracing for a less accommodative Fed going forward. Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions simmered as President Biden rejected Iran’s latest offer to ease hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, demanding immediate nuclear disarmament.

Oil prices spiked on the news, adding another layer of uncertainty. Now, onto the big earnings headlines that dominated after-hours trading. Four hyperscale cloud giants — Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta — all reported blowout quarters, beating revenue and earnings estimates handily.

But despite the stellar results, the stocks didn’t rally across the board, signaling that investors may have already priced in the good news and are now focused on rising costs and capital spending. Amazon led with its fastest cloud growth in nearly four years. S.

5 billion dollars and earnings per share of two dollars and seventy eight cents, well above estimates. The company guided quarter two revenue between 194 and 199 billion dollars, showing confidence in continued momentum. S..

Microsoft’s Azure cloud was the star, growing forty percent and pushing Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud revenue to nearly 35 billion dollars. 9 billion dollars revenue, beating expectations. Notably, Microsoft’s commercial backlog nearly doubled to 627 billion dollars, highlighting strong enterprise demand.

I. infrastructure. 7 billion dollar investment gain, and operating margins expanded to thirty six percent.

Alphabet’s aggressive capital expenditure spending doubled from quarter one but maintained solid cash flow. 3 billion dollars and posted a gap accounting earnings per share of ten dollars and forty four cents, boosted by an 8 billion dollar tax benefit. Ad impressions rose nineteen percent, and price per ad climbed twelve percent.

However, costs jumped thirty five percent, prompting Meta Platforms to raise full-year capital expenditure guidance by 10 billion dollars to a range of one hundred twenty five to one hundred forty five billion dollars. The stock fell seven percent after hours, reflecting investor concerns about rising expenses despite strong top-line growth. The takeaway?

I. infrastructure at a breakneck pace, spending more than ever before. The question now is whether the supply chain and demand can keep up with this massive investment surge.

On the fintech front, Robinhood and SoFi both reported earnings beats but saw their stocks slide sharply. Robinhood’s quarter one earnings per share missed estimates at thirty eight cents versus forty three cents expected, with revenue slightly below forecasts and crypto revenue plunging forty seven percent. The stock dropped thirteen percent.

SoFi’s quarter two adjusted profit margin guidance disappointed, sending shares down fifteen percent despite a modest full-year revenue beat. The message here: meeting expectations isn’t enough anymore — growth and margins need to impress. I.

startup behind the Claude language model, is seeking a new funding round valuing it at over nine hundred billion dollars — more than double its recent three hundred fifty billion dollar valuation. Google and Amazon have already committed billions, with performance-based incentives potentially pushing the total even higher. , though it raises questions about how much of this value is justified by current product roadmaps.

P. surged twenty five percent after crushing quarter one revenue and guidance. Generac jumped sixteen percent on a booming data center backlog.

Intel climbed twelve percent after extending a strong earnings run. Seagate rose eleven percent following a record quarter three beat and raised guidance. Visa gained eight percent on robust quarter two revenue growth — its best since 2022.

T-Mobile also climbed six percent after beating earnings and raising full-year guidance. On the downside, Teradyne fell nearly twenty percent after a record quarter one failed to convince investors amid cautious quarter two guidance. Looking ahead to tomorrow, keep an eye on key economic data including the March personal consumption expenditures Price Index, initial and continuing jobless claims, the Employment Cost Index for quarter one, and the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index for April.

Earnings-wise, Caterpillar, Eli Lilly, Mastercard, Royal Caribbean, and Merck are among the big names reporting before the open. Apple, Roku, Riot Platforms, I Bio, and Rivian headline a heavy slate of after-hours earnings. That wraps up today’s Daily Rip Market Recap.

I. valuations are reaching stratospheric heights. Stay tuned as we track how these forces shape the market going forward.

Thanks for listening — catch you tomorrow.