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Amazon Stock Falls. Microsoft's Gloomy Outlook Is Bad News for Cloud Computing StocAmazon Stock Falls. Microsoft's Gloomy Outlook Is Bad News for Cloud Computing Stocks.Denton, Jack. Barron's (Online); New York While Microsoft's latest quarterly results revealed strength in its cloud computing business, a gloomy outlook was getting the spotlight Wednesday and weighing on stocks across the sector. After such a brutal stretch for tech and with the Nasdaq still in a bear market, who can blame investors for being a bit pessimistic? Shares in Microsoft (ticker: MSFT) fell 2.3% in premarket trading Wednesday. Investors initially smiled on better-than-expected December quarter results from the tech giant late Tuesday, led by the Azure cloud business, but muted guidance from the company erased gains and sent the stock falling. But Microsoft stock wasn't the only decliner. Amazon (ticker: AMZN), whose Amazon Web Services (AWS) is similar to Microsoft's Azure, shed 1.9% in the premarket session. There was more red across the cloud computing space, with shares in Salesforce (CRM) dropping 2%, Palo Alto Networks (PANW) slipping 1.4%, and Snowflake tumbling 3%. Futures tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq were down 1%. Genuine strength in the cloud in the final three months of the year at Microsoft just wasn't enough to dominate the narrative. Revenue in Intelligent Cloud, which includes Azure, came in at $21.5 billion, toward the upper end of the company's own guidance, with Azure sales surging 38% on an annual, constant-currency basis. But the period ahead looks darker: Microsoft sees Intelligent Cloud sales growth slowing to 17% to 19% in constant currencies in the March quarter to $21.7 billion to $22 billion—which is shy of Wall Street's consensus of $22.2 billion. The read-across to Amazon and others is straightforward: Don't get too excited about what may be upbeat fourth-quarter results. If Microsoft expects a gloomier start to 2023, then others are likely to follow. Recession fears are gripping Wall Street and company outlooks that imply anything close to an economic slowdown are quickly grabbing the spotlight this earnings season. The fourth quarter may have been strong across the cloud computing landscape, as Microsoft earnings suggested, but the stock market is forward looking—and it doesn't like what it sees. |
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