The Nasdaq has continued to rebound and drift higher after the market received favorable quarterly results and guidance from Meta Platforms (META) and Microsoft (MSFT).
Microsoft has hired a law firm that is fighting back against the Trump administration's legal industry crackdown, dropping another prominent firm that chose to settle with the White House.
Major U.S. equities indexes pushed higher on Thursday after strong quarterly earnings reports from software giant Microsoft (MSFT) and Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META) helped alleviate some concerns about the possible impact of tariffs on big technology companies.
Microsoft raised the recommended retailer pricing for its Xbox consoles and controllers worldwide, effective Thursday (May 1), and said it expects to raise the price of its new, first-party games starting during the holiday season.
Ted Mortonson, managing director at Baird, discusses Microsoft's better-than-expected third-quarter results. He joins Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow on "Bloomberg Technology.
The move comes a few weeks after PlayStation maker Sony raised the prices of its PlayStation 5 console in various markets.
The company also expects its momentum to continue in the fourth quarter – especially with its focus on artificial intelligence.
Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) has earned a price target boost from analysts at Wedbush following its earnings report, with analysts citing broad-based strength and powerful AI-driven momentum across the company's Cloud portfolio. “We are raising our price target from $475 to $515 following this robust Microsoft quarter while maintaining our ‘Outperform',” analysts wrote, calling the results “an Aaron Judge-like quarter featuring beats across the board.
Microsoft said it's charging more for the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X consoles and some compatible controllers, citing "market conditions." The prices for new games will also be higher during the holiday season due to increasing development costs.
Meta Platforms and Microsoft earnings boost confidence in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, leading to a spike in related stocks and ETFs.
MSFT's third-quarter fiscal 2025 results reflect strength in the AI business and Copilot adoption, backed by accelerating growth in its Azure cloud infrastructure unit.
Microsoft Corporation NASDAQ: MSFT stock shot up more than 10% in early trading the day after it delivered third quarter 2025 earnings that can rightly be described as a home run. The move in the stock has now erased all of the stock's losses since February 2025.