Stocks stall, small-caps tumble on hot inflation print

Ford reported its first-quarter results after markets closed on Wednesday. The automaker’s shares climbed roughly 7% in after-hours trading on the news.

For Q1, Ford reported:

• Adjusted earnings of $0.66 per share, compared to the $0.18 per share expected by Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet. The figure includes Ford’s tariff reimbursement.

• $43.25 in total revenue, vs. the $42.66 billion consensus forecast. Automotive revenue came in at $39.8 billion, compared to estimates of $38.9 billion.

• A $1.3 billion tariff refund.

Ford boosted its full-year guidance for adjusted earnings before interest and taxes to between $8.5 billion and $10.5 billion, up from between $8 billion and $10 billion.

Late last year, Ford announced it would take $19.5 billion in charges — one of the largest write-downs ever — relating mostly to its EV business. Of those charges, $7 billion will be spread across this year and next, the company said.

Earlier this month, Ford recorded an 8.8% drop in Q1 sales from the same period last year, a similar result to Detroit rival GM, which posted a 9.7% sales drop.

Microsoft shares dipped after the company reported strong Q3 earnings postmarket Wednesday, posting ​​sales of $82.9 billion for the quarter, beating FactSet analyst estimates of $81.4 billion. Earnings per share were $4.27, handily beating estimates of $4.05. 

In a closely watched number, Microsoft’s Azure cloud business increased 40% year on year, just above the 39.7% estimated. The metric technically beat expectations, but may not be the beat investors were looking for.

Total capital expenditure for the quarter was $31.9 billion, up 49% year on year, above estimates of $27.5 billion and down from Q2’s $37.5 billion.

One thing investors were eager to find out: how is the company doing in its effort to fulfill the billions in backlogged commercial bookings? Last quarter, the company reported a staggering $625 billion in remaining performance obligations, and 45% of that was for just one customer — OpenAI.

For the third quarter, Microsoft reported a backlog of $627 billion, up 99% year on year. The company said the RPO increase was 26% — in line with “historical seasonality” — when excluding OpenAI.

Breaking down the results by the company’s business lines:

• ☁️ 🤖 Intelligent Cloud (Azure, server products): $34.7 billion in revenue, up 30% year on year.

• 📝 📊 Productivity and Business Processes (Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, Dynamics): $35 billion in revenue, up 17% year on year.

• 💻 🎮 More Personal Computing (Windows, Xbox, Bing): $13.2 billion in revenue, down 1% year on year.

Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said in the earnings release:

“We delivered results that exceeded expectations across revenue, operating income, and earnings per share, reflecting strong execution and growing demand for the Microsoft Cloud.”