MSFT

Jimmy Lee, The Wealth Consulting Group CEO, joins Yahoo Finance's Kristin Myers to break down the latest market action as earnings season continues.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded around breakeven in today's stock market, while the S&P 500 edged up from earlier highs of the day.

Billionaire financier Leon Black will step down as CEO of Apollo Global Management after a company review unearthed more than $150 million in payments to Jeffrey Epstein. But Black is hardly the only major business figure who knew Epstein.

The Dow Jones rallied early as it emerged that President Joe Biden could be open to slicing his coronavirus stimulus package. Microsoft stock and GE stock flashed buy signals.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 125 points Tuesday with Microsoft earnings due late. The GameStop short squeeze continued as shares soared 32%.

Microsoft will report its Q2 earnings after the bell on Tuesday, and investors will zero in the company's continued cloud growth.

In the current session, Microsoft Inc. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is trading at $232.63, after a 1.35% gain. Over the past month, the stock increased by 3.78%, and in the past year, by 38.44%. With performance like this, long-term shareholders optimistic but others are more likely to look into the price-to-earnings ratio to see if the stock might be overvalued. Assuming that all other factors are held constant, this could present itself as an opportunity for shareholders trying to capitalize on the higher share price. The stock is currently under from its 52 week high by 0.10%. The P/E ratio is used by long-term shareholders to assess the company's market performance against aggregate market data, historical earnings, and the industry at large. A lower P/E indicates that shareholders do not expect the stock to perform better in the future, and that the company is probably undervalued. It shows that shareholders are less than willing to pay a high share price, because they do not expect the company to exhibit growth, in terms of future earnings. View more earnings on MSFT Most often, an industry will prevail in a particular phase of a business cycle, than other industries. Microsoft Inc. has a lower P/E than the aggregate P/E of 265.18 of the Software industry. Ideally, one might believe that the stock might perform worse than its peers, but it's also probable that the stock is undervalued. Price to earnings ratio is not always a great indicator of the company's performance. Depending on the earnings makeup of a company, investors can become unable to attain key insights from trailing earnings. See more from BenzingaClick here for options trades from BenzingaA Look Into Microsoft's DebtEarnings Scheduled For January 26, 2021© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Microsoft, Advanced Micro Devices, Apple and Facebook

Trying to keep up with all the earnings news? It’s a challenge, but a welcome one for many investors anxious to see how Q4 turned out for the major companies. The day begins with a fresh batch of earnings data but nothing new on the vaccine front. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) had really nice earnings and so did Raytheon Technologies Corp (NYSE: RTX). Meanwhile, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ: TXN) and Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) wait in the wings for after the close. There’s so much to look at today it’s hard to keep track of everything. Some investors might have been hoping for a vaccine update from JNJ as part of its earnings today. Instead, the company promised results, “soon.” With a lot of people worried about new virus variants and slower than expected ramp-up of vaccinations, any positive news on JNJ’s vaccine would probably be welcomed. Looks like we’ll have to wait a bit longer. We won’t have to wait much longer for the latest Fed observations. They start their meeting today and Chairman Jerome Powell takes the podium tomorrow afternoon. There’s not much drama here. It would be shocking if the Fed said anything other than what it’s been saying about keeping things dovish so the economy can recover. It is the Fed, so you have to pay attention, and of course consider listening for anything they say about possible inflation. Otherwise, it’s probably going to be like sitting through the same movie you just watched. Yesterday, “risk-off” trading dominated. Bonds and volatility rose amid virus worries. Today, bonds stepped back just a bit, crude is holding steady, and markets in Europe rose overnight amid strong earnings over there. That, combined with the morning’s solid set of U.S. earnings reports, might explain the light pre-market gains for some of the major indices. Toilet Paper And Canned Stew On the first day of the biggest earnings week of the year, what rallied? Companies that make toilet paper, household cleaners, and canned beef stew. Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE: KMB), Clorox Co (NYSE: CLX), and Hormel Foods Corp (NYSE: HRL) partied like it was 2020 on Monday. At the same time, big-Tech got some bids ahead of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) reporting later today and Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), and Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) going tomorrow. Basically, the market behaved like everyone would be staying home a while longer, with investors once again embracing the stocks that rocked when lockdowns first hit. Meanwhile, the airlines that had found some buyers last week got sent back to the hangar, with American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ: AAL), Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL), and United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: UAL) suffering sharp losses. At the same time, bonds also received some new love, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield down to 1.03% by the end of the day after it touched 1.19% earlier this month. Right now, yields might remind you of a turtle that stuck its head out from under its shell, sniffed the air, and then decided it was safer inside. The yield is at its lowest level since Jan. 6. All this could mean there’s trepidation about the pandemic, especially with Europe facing more trouble and new strains in the U.K. and South Africa. Carnival Corp (NYE:CCL) pushed back cruises. Also, the Biden administration’s decision yesterday to suspend travel to the U.S. from some countries helped reinforce that we’re far from being out of the woods. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) climbed above 24 for a while yesterday after dropping below 22 at times last week, a possible sign of investors fearing more choppiness in the coming days. The “risk-off” mood might have gained strength by having 20% of the S&P 500 reporting this week and slow progress on vaccinations here. The market’s had an incredible run and many analysts worry things have gotten a little bit priced for perfection. There’s also concern that the Biden administration’s stimulus package might be pushed back on the calendar or trimmed, as it continues to face resistance in Congress. This could have been a factor pressing on some of the cyclical sectors yesterday like Financials and Energy, research firm Briefing.com noted. What Goes Up... Gamestop’s Wild Session Also, when you observe action like we saw in GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) yesterday, you start to scratch your head a little. The stock more than doubled at one point and trading had to be halted several times for volatility. Like it or not, this is the type of stuff that makes veteran investors think back to the crazy days of 1999 and 2000. GME is up another 14% in pre-market trading. It’s not too hard to find analysts who believe GME is trading far beyond its fundamentals, and there was talk that Monday’s move might have reflected a “short squeeze.” Sometimes a short squeeze is followed by more buying, which was apparently the case last year with TSLA. It can also indicate lots of people with deep pockets not necessarily investing in a stock, but trading it. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you’re a long-term investor it’s probably not a great idea to get too deeply involved in these moves. This is not normal activity, and you also have to be careful that when the music stops, so to speak—or when these buyers stop and it becomes like a game of musical chairs—that you’re not the one stuck without a chair and nowhere to turn to sell. The momentum that caused GME to go up can also be the momentum that causes it to go down, very quickly. Caution is the watchword, for GME and many other stocks that have been making new highs. Earnings could be the time when companies need to offer proof that their high prices are justified by the fundamentals. Looking ahead to this afternoon’s fundamentals, MSFT earnings could go a long way toward starting to tell the broader Tech story. Analysts expect the company’s commercial cloud segment to again be the main driver, with focus as always on Azure, MSFT’s main cloud platform. Azure sales grew 48% in the prior quarter, outrunning Wall Street’s estimates. We’ll see what sort of encore MSFT reports today. Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) is a big company reporting after the close that almost gets lost in the shuffle with so many behemoths on the calendar this week. Investors can listen to the SBUX call to get a sense of how the company’s been dealing with various state lockdowns and reopenings. They might also get word on whether its huge international business, especially in China, has started to reflect the bigger economic growth seen there recently. Tomorrow morning get ready for some more big names, including Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) and Boeing Co (NYSE: BA). Boeing’s earnings will be the first for the company since the 737 MAX began flying again. Tomorrow afternoon is the big showdown as TSLA, AAPL, and FB all come to the table after the close. Also, tomorrow brings the close of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting and the latest economic observations from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. If you’re bored Wednesday afternoon, you can’t blame it on the market. One thing Monday’s quick early reversal from the opening rally might remind people of is how important it is to look at the warning signs when they flash. Bonds and volatility were both higher along with stocks at the start of yesterday’s session. When you see that combination, it often means stocks are on a leash. Consider keeping an eye on 25 for the VIX and 1% for the 10-year Treasury yield. Penetration above that on VIX or below that on yield could be another warning sign to bullish stock market investors. CHART OF THE DAY: BONDS SPOIL BANKS’ PARTY. The bond market has been climbing recently, taking the 10-year Treasury yield (TNX—candlestick) down to nearly three-week lows. Falling yields can take the starch out of the Financial sector (IXM—purple line), and that’s what apparently happened over the last few days. Data Sources: S&P Dow Jones Indices, CME Group. Chart source: The thinkorswim® platform from TD Ameritrade. For illustrative purposes only. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Not a Bad Problem: Some companies have trouble generating cash flow. Others (very few) have the opposite problem: Too much cash. Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), which reports tomorrow, is part of that small crowd. The total cash trove stood at roughly $192 billion at the end of the company’s fiscal Q4. AAPL returned nearly $22 billion to shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends. Investors can expect to continue to see more of that ahead, according to Loup Ventures, which estimates an additional $73 billion will be returned in coming years. “The challenge is that the company is generating so much net income that the road to net cash neutral is long and slow,” Loup Ventures wrote. “Apple has generated $57.4 billion in net income over the past four quarters and returned $90.2 billion in capital in a most tumultuous of years. “At this pace, it will take the company two to three years to be net cash neutral,” the report added. “In the end, Apple has a good problem when it comes to cash—a gravy train of cash returning to investors, which is not fully appreciated.” Stay tuned. Inflation on Doorstep? Did you hear that knock on the front door? One thing that could eventually show up is a little inflation, especially if there’s another big stimulus. As more money hits the system, at some point one would expect a bit of inflation. Maybe it will be more likely in the second half of the year if we get back to normal and people return to their offices and have other opportunities to spend. A lot of the country is still on lockdown and that means there’s only so much spending people can do. If you’re wondering about sector impact from possible inflation, it’s often thought that Consumer Staples and Utilities tend to do better in an inflationary environment. We’ll get a look this Friday at Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) prices for December. This report, which the Fed closely watches, showed a tepid 1.1% year-over-year rise in November. Home Renovations: If new spending is driving prices higher and causing the recent manufacturing boom showing up in recent statistics, some of it might be happening in the home furnishings and appliances market. People stuck at home tend to spend on their homes, or at least it seems to be the case. It will be interesting to see if this theory gets more backing when Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) reports this week and Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD) comes out later in the earnings season. Don’t forget Wayfair Inc (NYSE: W), the online furniture retailer whose stock has kind of leveled off recently after that big surge in mid-2020. The company recently raised wages, not a bad sign at all. However, rising wages across more industries could also increase inflation concerns. So far, wage growth has been good but not great. Investors get an update on that early next month when the next payrolls data roll out. TD Ameritrade® commentary for educational purposes only. Member SIPC. Photo by M. B. M. on Unsplash See more from BenzingaClick here for options trades from BenzingaRevenue And Regulatory Risk: Facebook Prepares To Open The Books On Q4Tesla Shares Near Record Territory Ahead Of Q4 Earnings Report© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Micron, Match Group, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day

(Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron warned some of the tech industry’s biggest players they need to get on board with European Union efforts to moderate online content and constrain their market power.During a call with Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet Inc. on Monday, Macron told the executives any unfair practices will be seen as an attack on European democracy, according to an account of the conversation from one of the president’s aides. Spokespeople for the companies in Paris did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.France has been a key mover in shaping EU efforts to prevent the spread of hate speech and disinformation online and at curbing the power of tech giants. The European Commission in December proposed two sets of rules, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, which are being reviewed by the European Parliament and the member states before they become law.Under the Digital Services Act, very large platforms like Microsoft and Google could face fines as high as 6% of global revenue if they don’t comply with orders to remove illegal content. They will need to carry out assessments identifying systemic risks, including how their services may be manipulated by inauthentic accounts and could impact elections. The Digital Markets Act will ban powerful companies deemed “gatekeepers” from favoring their own products or else face billion-dollar fines. In extreme cases, they could even be ordered to break up their European businesses.“We need to contain this immense power of the big digital companies,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a virtual address at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday. “We want the platforms to be transparent about how their algorithms work because we cannot accept that decisions that have a far-reaching impact on our democracy are taken by computer programs alone.”Read More: Tech Giants Risk Breakup Under Strict EU Digital Rules EU officials have rallied around the bloc’s plans to curb hate speech and disinformation in recent weeks following the attacks on the U.S. Congress. Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Snap Inc. banned the accounts of former U.S. President Donald Trump for posts they said encouraged the violent rioters who stormed the Capitol building and spread false information about the country’s November election.European leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel have warned of the dangers of letting private companies take such decisions and insisted on the need for regulation, particularly on matters of speech.French lawmakers are working on provisions that would implement the DSA regime in France before it enters into force at EU-level. The provisions are likely to be added to Macron’s flagship law on “separatism” and “republican principles” which is under review at the National Assembly. The bill was presented after the gruesome killing of a teacher, Samuel Paty, by a Jihadist after he had been criticized in a video online.The French Constitutional Court has previously struck down a government-backed provision to fight hate speech that would have forced platforms to remove obviously illegal content within 24 hours of being notified.Pichai, who is CEO of Alphabet’s Google unit, spoke with EU digital czar Margrethe Vestager Monday to discuss ongoing competition cases and digital legislation.Macron also set out his red lines on cloud computing in his call with the two executives, the aide said. Microsoft and Google have both joined consortia with European partners that aim to provide cloud-computing services to clients in the EU. Macron told them that he could only accept the involvement of companies from outside the EU if they were fully compliant with European law and data protection issues, the aide said.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

With the recently-launched Project Fair Shot initiative, Cloudflare (NET) comes forward to help government and organizations in facilitating the vaccination program.

Stock futures move higher following solid earnings reports; Microsoft, AMD, General Electric and 3M report earnings; Leon Black steps down as CEO of private-equity giant Apollo; BlackBerry surges again.

Shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose by 14.37% in the past three months. Before we understand the importance of debt, let us look at how much debt Microsoft has. Microsoft's Debt According to the Microsoft's most recent balance sheet as reported on October 27, 2020, total debt is at $63.55 billion, with $57.05 billion in long-term debt and $6.50 billion in current debt. Adjusting for $17.20 billion in cash-equivalents, the company has a net debt of $46.35 billion. Let's define some of the terms we used in the paragraph above. Current debt is the portion of a company's debt which is due within 1 year, while long-term debt is the portion due in more than 1 year. Cash equivalents include cash and any liquid securities with maturity periods of 90 days or less. Total debt equals current debt plus long-term debt minus cash equivalents. Investors look at the debt-ratio to understand how much financial leverage a company has. Microsoft has $301.00 billion in total assets, therefore making the debt-ratio 0.21. As a rule of thumb, a debt-ratio more than one indicates that a considerable portion of debt is funded by assets. A higher debt-ratio can also imply that the company might be putting itself at risk for default, if interest rates were to increase. However, debt-ratios vary widely across different industries. A debt ratio of 35% might be higher for one industry and average for another. Why Investors Look At Debt? Debt is an important factor in the capital structure of a company, and can help it attain growth. Debt usually has a relatively lower financing cost than equity, which makes it an attractive option for executives. Interest-payment obligations can impact the cash-flow of the company. Equity owners can keep excess profit, generated from the debt capital, when companies use the debt capital for its business operations. Looking for stocks with low debt-to-equity ratios? Check out Benzinga Pro, a market research platform which provides investors with near-instantaneous access to dozens of stock metrics - including debt-to-equity ratio. Click here to learn more. See more from BenzingaClick here for options trades from BenzingaEarnings Scheduled For January 26, 202110 Information Technology Stocks Showing Unusual Options Activity In Today's Session© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Microsoft's (MSFT) Teams app is being deployed by SAP SE (SAP) across its solutions portfolio.

Dow Jones futures were higher early Tuesday after Apple and Tesla stock set record highs. Microsoft earnings are due late Tuesday.

Microsoft is finally breaking out to new highs but it's doing so just ahead of earnings. Will the results ruin or accelerate the move?

(Reuters) - `When Microsoft Corp reports earnings on Tuesday, investors will be looking for signs that big businesses are still investing in cloud computing, that smaller businesses are starting to recover and whether Xbox sales will be slowed by chip shortages. The Redmond, Washington-based company is a winner of the pandemic-driven shift to working and learning from home, with businesses and schools adopting its Teams collaboration software and shifting many other apps to the cloud. Investors will closely track growth of Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing business that competes with Amazon.com's Amazon Web services and Alphabet Inc's Google Cloud.

General Electric, Verizon and Johnson & Johnson are slated to report results before the bell, while tech giant Microsoft will announce after the bell.

The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google