GDP, PCE and Apple Earnings Drive Markets 30/04/2026

HOT stories for today

Market wrap:

• U.S. stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average posting a fifth straight loss as rising oil prices and renewed U.S.-Iran tensions kept investors cautious. The Dow fell 280.12 points, or 0.57%, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.04%. The Nasdaq Composite managed a slight 0.04% gain, helped by relative resilience in technology shares. Oil climbed as headlines around Iran worsened. The Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump told aides to prepare for an extended blockade, while Axios said Trump rejected Iran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, keeping pressure on energy markets. 
• The Federal Reserve left rates unchanged at 3.5% to 3.75%, as expected, though the 8-4 vote marked the largest number of dissents since 1992. The meeting is likely Jerome Powell’s final one as chair before Kevin Warsh is expected to take over next month. Big Tech earnings added another layer of volatility. Meta fell after results, Microsoft was little changed despite beating estimates, while Alphabet and Amazon also reported after the close. Thursday brings a packed calendar, with first-quarter GDP, PCE inflation, and jobless claims due, alongside earnings from Caterpillar, Merck, Eli Lilly, and Bristol-Myers Squibb before the open. Apple reports after the close.

Alphabet Stands Out as Big Tech Earnings Land

• Alphabet was the clear winner from Big Tech’s earnings wave, with shares rising 7% after Google Cloud posted a major acceleration in growth and gave investors a stronger reason to back the company’s AI spending plans. Google Cloud revenue jumped 63% from a year earlier, driven by enterprise AI demand, while backlog nearly doubled to $462 billion. Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said Alphabet is differentiated because it offers first-party tools across the full AI stack, from chips to frontier models. 
• That helped investors look past Alphabet’s higher capital-spending plans. The company raised its full-year capex outlook to between $180 billion and $190 billion and signaled spending could rise further in 2027. The reaction contrasted with other megacap tech names. Amazon gained after AWS grew 28%, Microsoft was little changed despite Azure's 39% growth, while Meta fell as investors questioned whether its own AI spending would generate the same level of returns. The message from the market was clear: AI spending is being rewarded when investors can see direct cloud demand, backlog growth and a path to monetization.

Stocks on the move:

• Microsoft (MSFT): Shares were little changed after the Magnificent Seven company beat fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue expectations. Azure and other cloud services revenue rose 40%.
• Amazon (AMZN): Shares gained 4% after first-quarter results topped estimates. The company reported earnings of $2.78 per share on revenue of $181.52 billion, above LSEG expectations of $1.64 per share and $177.3 billion. Guidance was in line, while capital expenditures came in at $44.2 billion, slightly above StreetAccount’s $43.39 billion forecast.
• Meta Platforms (META): Shares fell 6% after user growth missed expectations and first-quarter capital expenditures came in at $19.84 billion, below StreetAccount’s $27.57 billion forecast. Meta raised its full-year capex outlook to $125 billion to $145 billion and also reported a first-quarter revenue beat.
• Qualcomm (QCOM): Shares surged 13% after CEO Cristiano Amon said the chipmaker will begin shipping data center chips to “a large hyperscaler” this calendar year. Adjusted second-quarter earnings were $2.65 per share, above the LSEG consensus of $2.56.
• Carvana (CVNA): Shares jumped more than 8% after the online used-car retailer said it expects sequential growth in retail units sold and adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter, which would mark records for both metrics. First-quarter retail unit sales totaled 187,393, above the StreetAccount estimate of 182,394.

Watchlist: GOOGL, META, MSFT, AMZN, USO, CVNA, F, TDOC, QCOM

Key Economic Events Today:

EST time

08:30 am: USD PCE Price Index
08:30 am: USD Advanced GDP
08:30 am: USD Unemployment Claims
09:45 am: USD Chicago PMI


Earnings

BMC (Before Market Open): Eli Lilly (LLY), Mastercard (MA), Caterpillar (CAT), Merck Company (MRK)

AMC (After Market Close): Apple (AAPL), Amgen (AMGN), Sandisk Corp. (SNDK), Western Digital (WDC)


The TEFS Analyst team wishes you a successful day!