Your Evening Briefing

April 30, 2026

Stocks climb to new record high as traders digest Big Tech earnings

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 notched new record closing highs as investors digested yesterday’s earnings from Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Every sector climbed higher except for technology. Communications was the best performing sector as blowout earnings results from Alphabet offset investors’ disappointment with Meta’s earnings.

Moving higher:

Alphabet skyrocketed higher after reporting earnings yesterday that sharply beat analysts’ expectations, powered by big revenue gains in its cloud division.
Qualcomm soared on solid but unspectacular Q2 results, despite a downright disappointing Q3 sales forecast.
Beyond Meat rose amid retail trader enthusiasm over the simple fact that it scheduled an earnings release.
Caterpillar spiked as the AI boom fueled demand for its engines and turbines, with power infrastructure spending accelerating.
Hertz soared after announcing a partnership with Uber regarding maintaining and servicing autonomous robotaxis.
Eli Lilly climbed after quelling fears that its GLP-1 pill debut was off to a rocky start, beating Q1 estimates, and raising its full-year guidance in this morning’s earnings report.
Blue Owl Capital jumped after reporting better-than-expected Q1 fee-related earnings.
Critical minerals stocks including MP Materials, Lithium Americas, USA Rare Earth, Critical Metals, Trilogy Metals, American Battery Technology Co., and United States Antimony Corp. all climbed on reports that China is tightening production and enforcing quotas.
MARA Holdings surged on a $1.5 billion acquisition of Long Ridge Energy, adding 1 GW of potential power capacity.
Gemini Space Station rose following CFTC approval to operate a derivatives clearinghouse.

Moving lower:

Meta sank despite posting an earnings and revenue beat after the bell yesterday, as its capex estimate surged to a range of between $125 billion and $145 billion.
Microsoft slipped as investors grappled with yesterday’s Q3 earnings earnings report. The company has plans for 2026 capex totaling more than Disney's entire market cap, raising questions about its ability to capture AI dollars.
Nvidia tumbled as hyperscaler earnings signaled that GPUs are no longer the missing ingredient in the AI boom, with spending shifting toward other hardware and memory chips.
Trump-backed WLFI token sank to a new all-time low amid a governance proposal to unlock 62 billion tokens.

Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta plan to spend more than $700 billion on capex this year

Big Tech’s big capital spending continues to surge even higher than the companies had previously expected. Read more.

A tale of two capex increases: Why investors are responding to Google and Meta so differently

Two Big Tech companies posted stellar earnings and upped their capex forecasts. One stock is up, one is down.

Read more.

This morning, the American Automobile Association (AAA) reported that the national average gas price in the US had risen to $4.30 per gallon — the highest level seen since July 2022 — as the global energy crisis continues to trickle down to consumers. Read more.

The number of people using Meta apps just fell for the first time in seven years
The company shed 20 million “daily active people” across its app family in the first quarter.
Google’s business did great — its investments in other businesses did even better
The company racked up an eye-popping $36.9 billion of investment gains during the quarter, largely from its stakes in private companies like Anthropic and SpaceX.
Ford’s leaving the door open for a Chinese automaker collaboration, says RBC
US lawmakers have raced to introduce legislation to lock in restrictions on cheaper Chinese vehicles and parts ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting in May.
Xbox has “work to do” as console sales drop 33% in Q3
Microsoft said gaming revenue fell by $380 million in the quarter.
Analyst: US could see $5 gas by Memorial Day, $6 per gallon on the table
Gas could hit $5 per gallon by Memorial Day, $6 by later in the summer: “Nothing’s impossible at this point.”
Merger of Twenty One with Strike and Elektron may portend the future for digital asset treasury companies
The move comes at a time when cracks in the digital asset treasury ecosystem are widening.

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