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Luke Kawa6/24/25

Why Ives says a defanged Iran is extra bullish for tech stocks

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives is out with an interesting take on why a potential ceasefire between Israel and Iran is especially good news for his coverage area: tech stocks.

(Note: the fires do not appear to have fully ceased in the Middle East, but traders appear to be treating this matter as closed.)

Ives recalls the slew of multibillion-dollar deals struck in May between entities in Saudi Arabia as well as the UAE, with America’s AI heavy hitters like Nvidia, Oracle, Advanced Micro Devices, and Super Micro Computer proof positive that the Middle East is aiming to position itself as a major player in the sovereign AI push.

“The biggest threat to the region and the potential ‘black swan event’ was Iran and its nuclear program... and now that threat is gone,” he wrote. “With a weakened Iran and no nuclear capabilities, there is a growing view from tech investors that the opportunity for the Middle East to embrace the tech and AI boom is now on the doorstep being led by Saudi and UAE.”

He recommends taking advantage of any geopolitical-induced discounts on his favorite AI names, which include Nvidia, Palantir, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Meta, and Tesla.

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Qualcomm spikes despite poor forecast, citing progress with “leading hyperscaler” and an imminent return to growth in China

Qualcomm, a chip company seemingly left behind in AI, is trying to lean in more to the boom.

A crowd of visitors at the Qualcomm ( Qualcomm is an...

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Max Knoblauch8h

Ford raises its full-year guidance, receives $1.3 billion tariff refund

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.

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Microsoft beats on revenue and earnings in Q3, but only meets expectations for cloud growth

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.”

Carvana reports better-than-expected Q1 sales, gross profit per vehicle

Carvana reported its first-quarter earnings after markets closed on Wednesday.

Carvana In Arizona

Amazon reports strong Q1 results with mixed Q2 guidance

The e-commerce and cloud giant just released quarterly results.

Amazon Delivery Truck

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