Amazon, Apple Lead Big Earnings Afternoon

Thursday, May 1, 2025

Market indexes took a wide-ranging tour throughout the trading day today, opening the session in the green and topping out ahead of the lunch hour (with the Dow up +400 points at that point) before dialing back in the afternoon. Then, in the final 10 minutes before the closing bell, indexes nose-dived into the close, though remained in the green.

The Dow added +83 points on the day, +0.21%, while the S&P 500 almost tripled this, percentage-wise: +35 points, +0.63%. That’s because the tech companies led the way, as seen by the Nasdaq’s strong +264-point gain today, +1.52%, and +11 points, +0.60%. Bond yields, which initially pointed lower this morning (helping investors believe rate cuts may be forthcoming) were back up on both the 10-year and 2-year offerings.
 

Big Quarterly Earnings Afternoon: AMZN, AAPL, RDDT & More

Q1 results for Amazon AMZN were released shortly after Thursday’s close, with solid beats on both top and bottom lines. Earnings of $1.59 per share was tidily ahead of the $1.35 consensus (and $1.13 per share reported in the year-ago quarter). Revenues of $155.67 billion beat estimates by more than a billion dollars, and more than $10 billion higher than the $143.3 billion reported a year ago. 

Yet shares were selling off on the news, as investors began to compare Amazon’s AWS cloud business with that of Microsoft’s MSFT Azure, which stormed past estimates yesterday afternoon. AWS came in at a respectable +17% for the quarter, which was lower than the +17.6% estimates (and whisper-number, which was upwards of +20%). Operating Income outpaced expectations in the quarter; AMZN selling has cooled to just -2.5% at this hour.

Check out the updated Zacks Earnings Calendar here.

Apple AAPL put up decent numbers in its fiscal Q2 release this Thursday, outpacing on earnings by 4 cents to $1.65 per share on $95.36 billion, which came in a billion dollars ahead of estimates. iPhone sales grew +2% year over year to 46.84 billion units, above expectations. Services grew +12% in the quarter, but this was basically in-line with consensus.

China share was -2% to $16 billion, but this was an improvement over expectations and quarters in the recent past. CEO Tim Cook, when speaking to CNBCX this afternoon, credited this with China’s “national subsidy program,” which is ongoing. Cook also felt that “pull-forward” demand was not significant in the quarter, meaning he expects future quarters to perform well, too. Shares are down -2.7% in late trading.

Airbnb ABNB was mixed in its Q1 results after today’s close, posting 24 cents per share which missed the Zacks consensus by a penny on $2.27 billion in revenues, which narrowly eked past the $2.26 billion expected. Next-quarter revenue guidance was in-line with earlier estimates, with Gross Book Value having grown +7% year over year. That said, the company said it was experiencing softness in U.S. travel, and shares are down -4% in the after-market.

Reddit RDDT notched strong outperformance in its Q1 report this afternoon, with earnings of $0.13 per share well past the $0.02 anticipated. Revenues came in $20 million ahead of projections to $392 million in the quarter, and the revenue guide for next quarter has been ratcheted higher. The stock had ben down -27% year to date, and is up +18% in today’s late session.

Cloud communications provider Twilio TWLO posted a strong earnings beat late Thursday, with $1.14 per share nicely beyond the 92 cents in the Zacks consensus. Revenues also surpassed expectations, albeit by a slimmer margin: $1.17 billion versus $1.14 billion expected. Next-quarter guidance is in-line with previous estimates on the bottom line, but are raised on the top. Shares are trading up +9% in post-session trading.

Meanwhile, point-of-sale solutions provider Block XYZ, formerly Square, missed on both top and bottom lines by wide margins after today’s closing bell. Earnings of 56 cents per share may not be directly comparable to the 88 cents in the Zacks consensus, based on newly calculated stock-based compensation. But revenues of $5.77 billion in the quarter missed the $6.18 billion by a fairly wide margin. The company also reduced guidance. Shares are down -12% at this hour.

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