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U.S. indices mixed as Fed signals March hike
U.S. indices were initially trading higher on Wednesday, as markets were hopeful heading into the FOMC meeting.
The Federal Reserve was holding its first policy meeting of the year, where it is gave additional guidance on its first rate hike of the year.
As expected Federal reserve Chair Jay Powell said the bank stood ready to raise in March with additional hikes to follow.
| 💡 Key Points Investors have been expecting a rate hike to come soon, but the uncertainty over an ever tighter policy worried investors, resulting in choppy market conditions. Traders are anticipating a funds rate by the end of the year of about 1%, from the near-zero range where it’s currently pegged. |
As of writing, the NASDAQ was down 0.31%, with the S&P 500 up 0.37%, while the Dow was down 0.57%.
Microsoft Q4 earnings beat expectations
Shares in Microsoft were up by over 3% during Wednesday’s session, as markets reacted to the company’s Q4 earnings.
The tech held its earnings call after yesterday’s closing bell, and announced better than expected gains across the board.
Microsoft reported d earnings of $2.48 per share, with revenue coming in at $51.73 billion for the quarter.
These numbers beat analysts’ expectations for Q4 earnings of $2.31 per share, on revenue of $50.65 billion.
In a statement after the earnings call, Amy Hood, CFO of Microsoft stated that, “Solid commercial execution, represented by strong bookings growth driven by long-term Azure commitments, increased Microsoft Cloud revenue to $22.1 billion, up 32% year over year”.
| 💡 More Microsoft Figures There weren’t any true major weak links this quarter — even Surface revenue, which Microsoft previously expected to dip a bit, grew by 8 percent thanks to strong Surface Laptop sales. Windows OEM revenues also increased by 25 percent, not a huge surprise since the overall PC industry is still going strong. Where the PC business goes, Microsoft’s revenues will follow, after all. When it comes to Office, the company says its consumer revenue increased by 15 percent, and that it has reached 56.4 million Microsoft 365 subscribers. |
$MSFT was up 3.48% as of writing.
Oil prices climb beyond $90 per barrel
Brent prices rose above $90 per barrel for the first time since 2014, as markets reacted to ongoing tensions in Ukraine.
Reports suggested that the United States was preparing to send in over 1,000 troops to the region, as it hopes to deter Russia from invading neighboring Ukraine.
The news comes crude inventories rose to 2.3 million barrels last week, after markets had anticipated a draw of 0.728 million barrels.
WTI crude rose today to an intraday high of $87.95 on the report, whilst Brent rose to $90.47.
Traders will now watch to see if OPEC+ will make any changes to its policy during next week’s meeting.
“It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”
– Warren Buffet
