U.S. stocks edged higher Wednesday as the Fed held rates steady. Buyers held the lead through the decision, but Big Tech earnings split the mood after the bell.

The S&P 500 closed at 7,743.98, up 0.3%, while the Dow gained 0.2% to 52,475.10. $QQQ advanced 0.6%, $IWM added 0.4%, and six of 11 sectors finished green. Technology led at +0.8%, while Utilities was the weak spot at -0.8%.

The Fed’s 10-2 decision included two dissents for a hike, while federal funds futures priced an 84.6% chance of a quarter-point increase in December. $TLT fell 0.8% as traders looked past the pause.

Microsoft delivered the cleanest after-hours result, with faster Azure growth and a capital bill below expectations. In contrast, Alphabet’s cloud boom could not offset weaker advertising, heavy spending, and negative free cash flow. Oracle’s investor-day roadmap eased debt fears, Vertiv turned data-center power demand into a blowout, and Wendy’s received a non-binding takeover proposal. Stocktwits traders bought the Google weakness, but the selloff said Wall Street was not grading on cloud alone.

Today's Briefing:

Microsoft reported fiscal first-quarter results Wednesday after the close, beating expectations as Azure accelerated and a smaller-than-feared capital bill eased the market’s biggest worry. The company earned an adjusted $4.89 per share on $92.28 billion in revenue, topping estimates of $4.71 and $90.62 billion.

The RIP: $MSFT climbed 3% after hours. Azure grew 48%, Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $63.9 billion, and capital expenditures including finance leases totaled $45.2 billion versus roughly $51 billion expected. ☁️

The quarter showed Microsoft can keep feeding AI demand without letting spending outrun the story. Free cash flow was $18.6 billion, while Azure alone generated $33.17 billion in revenue. The next test is whether that infrastructure converts into durable margin expansion as the company scales Copilot and its OpenAI partnership.

Stocktwits sentiment leaned bullish at 60% after the report, though message volume remained normal. That is optimism, not euphoria, despite the clean headline beat. 🚀

Alphabet reported third-quarter results Wednesday after the bell, and the market punished the gap between extraordinary cloud growth and softer core advertising.

The RIP: $GOOGL ( ▲ 1.34% ) fell 9% after hours. Earnings of $2.12 per share missed the $3.02 estimate, while revenue of $127.58 billion came in just below roughly $128 billion expected. Google Cloud revenue surged 103% to $30.71 billion. 🌩️

Search revenue still rose 12%, but growth slowed from 17% in the second quarter and 19% in the first. Meanwhile, capital spending reached $51.36 billion and free cash flow swung to negative $9.07 billion. Investors are demanding that the AI buildout strengthen the ad engine, not merely create a second one.

Stocktwits sentiment remained 74% bullish on heavy message volume. The community is leaning into the cloud acceleration, but the selloff says Wall Street is grading Alphabet on cash generation and search resilience first. 🔥

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Oracle laid out an aggressive AI-era financial plan at its investor day Wednesday, giving shareholders a path through the debt and spending anxiety that has dominated the stock. Management projected fiscal 2030 revenue above $225 billion, adjusted earnings above $21 per share, and adjusted operating margins above 40%.

The RIP: $ORCL closed up 11%, then slipped 3% after hours. Oracle also reaffirmed fiscal 2027 revenue above $90 billion and adjusted EPS of $8.10. 🏗️

The company expects capital spending to peak in fiscal 2027 and 2028, with positive free cash flow returning in the second half of fiscal 2028 and topping $30 billion in fiscal 2029. That timeline gives investors milestones, but it does not erase the financing risk. Oracle had $125.34 billion of notes and borrowings at the end of August against roughly $36.37 billion in cash. 🗺️

Vertiv reported a third-quarter blowout Wednesday as data-center power and cooling demand accelerated across the Americas. Sales jumped 61% to $4.31 billion, about 15% above the $3.75 billion estimate, while adjusted earnings of $2.21 per share cleared the roughly $1.83 consensus.

The RIP: $VRT surged 16% Wednesday. Organic orders more than doubled, and Americas sales rose 74.5% to $2.99 billion. ⚡

The company raised the midpoint of its full-year sales outlook by roughly 5% to $14.65 billion and guided fourth-quarter revenue to a $4.41 billion midpoint, up about 50%. Adjusted operating margin expanded 290 basis points to 25.2%, while free cash flow rose 50% to $652 million. Vertiv is showing that AI infrastructure demand is reaching the companies that keep racks powered and cool. 🔥

Wendy’s confirmed Wednesday that it received an unsolicited, non-binding $7.35-per-share cash proposal from a group including Trian Partners, Flynn Group, BlueFive Capital, and Sixth Street. An independent board committee is evaluating the offer, and the company warned there is no guarantee a transaction will follow.

The RIP: $WEN jumped 15% Wednesday and was flat after hours. The proposal values Wendy’s at roughly $1.4 billion and represents about a 20% premium to Tuesday’s $6.14 close. 🍟

The bid arrives after a punishing stretch for the restaurant chain. Second-quarter same-store sales fell 7%, traffic dropped 12.5%, the company withdrew its full-year outlook, and the dividend was cut. The offer puts a price on a turnaround that public investors have not been willing to underwrite. 🧾

The Federal Reserve held its target range steady at 3.75% to 4.00% Wednesday, but the market immediately moved on to December. Futures and prediction markets say the October hold was the setup, not the story, with another quarter-point hike favored for the year’s final meeting.

The RIP: The 10-2 vote included two dissents for a hike. Federal funds futures priced an 84.6% chance of a 25-basis-point increase on December 9, versus 76.5% on Polymarket and 74% on Kalshi as of Wednesday evening.

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh refused to promise the next move, saying he does not believe in forward guidance outside emergencies. That makes Thursday’s PCE inflation report the next live vote. A hotter print would reinforce what the markets already expect; a miss could reopen the hold case. 📊

The forward shift matters more than Wednesday’s pause. Another hike would raise borrowing costs for households and companies, pressure longer-duration bonds, and keep rate-sensitive growth stocks exposed. $TLT fell 0.8% Wednesday, while $QQQ gained 0.6% before Big Tech earnings pulled it lower after hours. 🏦

44.7K WATCHERS · BULLISH · NORMAL ACTIVITY

ServiceNow sank after quarterly revenue grew 20.5% to $4.11B, but slower forward contracted-revenue growth and a slight adjusted-EPS miss outweighed stronger AI targets.

13.1K WATCHERS · BULLISH · NORMAL ACTIVITY

Fortinet cratered after hours despite adjusted EPS of $0.91 and revenue of $2.08B beating estimates, as margin pressure and muted guidance overwhelmed a raised full-year outlook.

16.3K WATCHERS · BEARISH · NORMAL ACTIVITY

Lumentum jumped after hours after Bloomberg reported Marvell was in advanced talks to buy the optical-networking company, putting a potential deal under one of AI’s hottest hardware names.

62.9K WATCHERS · BULLISH · HIGH ACTIVITY

SELLAS fell after its Phase 3 REGAL leukemia trial recorded the prespecified 80th event, triggering final analysis while topline results and the study’s efficacy remain unknown.

Bearish 🐻 | Bullish 🐮 | It’s Complicated 😵‍💫

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🤖 OpenAI Looks Beyond Nvidia to Google’s AI Chips

🧾 Microsoft’s Cloud Beat Sends Shares Higher

💰 Ford Says 2027 Earnings Will Stay Flat

💾 Chipotle’s Sales Streak Survives an Earnings Miss

⚡ Trian Puts a $1.4B Price on Wendy’s

📊 SELLAS Hits the GPS Trial’s Final Event

💱 The FX newsletter keeping score on the calls everyone else forgets

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