Today's big stories

Tech giant Microsoft announced a better-than-expected quarterly earnings update
A new survey revealed when exactly the world's richest investors intend to start buying up global stocks again – Read Now
Social media titan Facebook announced strong first-quarter results, but it has concerns about future revenues

1/3

Working It From Home

What’s Going On Here?

Even amid a global outbreak of Weeknd Dance Challenge videos, Microsoft’s still as productive as ever: the world’s second-biggest public company reported higher-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit late on Wednesday.

What Does This Mean?

Back in February, Microsoft warned investors its personal computing division – which sells products like Windows, Surface laptops, and Xbox consoles – would miss sales targets after Chinese factories shut down in response to coronavirus. But the pandemic giveth as well as taketh away: Microsoft’s cloud computing business grew revenue by a better-than-expected 27% last quarter, partly down to an increase in demand for its remote-working services. Its productivity segment – which includes Teams, rival to workplace chat app Slack – benefited from a sudden uptick in working from home too: Teams’ usage is up 775% in Italy alone.

Why Should I Care?

The bigger picture: Teamwork makes the dream work.
Companies around the world have already started planning for a remote-working future post the pandemic. Half the participants of a new US survey are planning to offer remote working as a permanent option for some jobs, and 40% say they’ll now accelerate automation and new ways of working. That’ll probably boost Microsoft’s cloud computing and productivity segments even more – adding to the recurring revenues that make up roughly 60% of the business – and help carry the tech giant through the upcoming recession.

Zooming out: Halfway to nowhere.
Speaking of recession, data out on Wednesday showed the US economy shrank for the first time in six years by a worse-than-expected annualized rate of 4.8% last quarter. A recession is technically two consecutive quarters of shrinking economic growth, so if forecasts for this quarter’s shrinkage are anything to go by, optimists – yes, optimists – might say we’re halfway there. Pessimists, however, might say the definition is redundant given the size of the drop – and that a recession has already well and truly arrived.

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2/3 Premium

Waiting Game

What’s Going On Here?

A new survey on Wednesday revealed that the world’s richest investors are waiting for the right time to buy global stocks – and they think they know when that’ll be.

Get the full story in the Finimize app

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3/3

U Up?

What’s Going On Here?

Facebook reported higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue late on Wednesday, and investors didn’t wait around to slide into the social media giant’s DMs.

What Does This Mean?

With the world forced to stay home toward the end of last quarter, there wasn’t much else to do but scroll through Facebook and watch Instagram Live’s quarantine concerts. That helped the tech giant clock 10% more monthly active users than the same time last year. Still, while it had predicted its revenue growth rate would slow this quarter, the company – like Google before it – hadn’t factored in just how much coronavirus-shy advertisers would curtail their March spending. That revelation landed with a thud: Facebook’s ad revenue so far in April has essentially been the same as a year ago (tweet this). What’s more, it seems to have lost its knack for keeping costs in check despite all the expense-trimming it’s been doing: it reported a quarterly profit that slightly missed estimates, and opted not to give investors a prediction about how its year will pan out.

Why Should I Care?

The bigger picture: It all ads up.
Facebook’s bigger advertisers do still seem to be splashing some cash on the platform, even if their future spending is uncertain. But the social butterfly serves eight million ad partners and 120 million businesses, and only 20% of its revenue comes from the top 100 of those. It’s Facebook’s smaller customers, then, that might be a cause for concern: small- and medium-sized businesses are among the worst hit by the pandemic, and while the economy will eventually recover, there’s no guarantee those firms will too.

For markets: What a relief rally.
Most investors were braced for harrowing updates for companies reliant on advertising, like Facebook, Snapchat-owner Snap, and Google-parent Alphabet. Perhaps the reality wasn’t as bad as they thought, because Snap, Alphabet, and now Facebook’s shares all shot up after their respective updates. No pressure, then: Twitter’s facing similar challenges, and reports its earnings late on Thursday.

Get invested: Our analysts decide whether Facebook’s stock is a good bet.

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💬 Quote of the day

“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.”

– Frida Kahlo (a Mexican painter)

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🔊 We’re all ears

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🌟 Editor’s Choice

Our new audio series, Keeping Up With The Community, introduces you to a few members of our community – from Nils in South Africa to Suzanne in Hong Kong – and gives you a chance to hear how they’re getting on. We started with our very own VP of Community in London: meet Max

📚 What we're reading

That’s one expensive mattress (Vice)
Inside the battle for brand authenticity (The Fashion Law)
Need some new books to read? (The Helm)

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Finimize - 📈 Whoa, Microsoft and Facebook

Today's big stories

Working It From Home

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

Waiting Game

👂 What’s that you say?

U Up?

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

🔊 We’re all ears

🌟 Editor’s Choice

Older messages

📉 Google's 4 billion dollar void

🤖 Big tech saves stocks

😨 JC Penney’s bankruptcy nightmare

💪 Blackstone: what coronavirus?

💪 Roche takes on coronavirus

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