■ Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG)
Pivotal Research Upgrade: Raised price target from $400 to $420 with a Buy rating. Analysts highlighted that the search engine business remains a powerful cash cow with accelerating growth for four consecutive quarters. They noted that the Gemini model holds a performance edge over competitors, which, combined with strong pricing power, will accelerate Alphabet's AI business.
Mizuho Target Hike: Increased target from $400 to $410 with an Outperform rating. Google Cloud revenue surged 48% YoY in Q4, a 14 percentage point acceleration from the previous quarter. While the 2026 Capex guidance of $175B–$185B caused some investor concern, Mizuho believes the $82B increase in backlog and strong net cash position mitigate financial risk. The shift toward proprietary TPU processors is also expected to boost cloud margins.
■ Microsoft (MSFT)
Stifel Downgrade: Lowered rating from Buy to Hold and slashed the price target from $540 to $392. The downgrade stems from slowing Azure cloud growth and a massive Capex burden. Stifel warned that consensus estimates for Azure might be overly optimistic given supply constraints and intensifying competition from Google and Anthropic.
Capex Cycle: Microsoft is expected to spend nearly $200 billion in Capex for FY27, far exceeding the $160B Wall Street estimate, which may put downward pressure on the stock due to profitability concerns.
■ Amazon (AMZN)
German Antitrust Fine: The German Cartel Office fined Amazon €59 million ($69.5M) for anti-competitive practices, specifically for setting price ceilings on online sellers in its German marketplace. This is the first such fine under new 2023 regulatory powers; Amazon has one month to appeal.
■ Meta Platforms (META)
Allegro Partnership: Meta announced a partnership with Allegro (the "Amazon of Poland") to integrate "Allegro Lokalnie" ads into the Facebook Marketplace. The collaboration aims to evaluate content-sharing efficiency between the two platforms before deciding on a broader rollout across Eastern Europe.
■ Earnings & Guidance Summary
e.l.f. Beauty (ELF): Shares rose pre-market after raising its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $3.05–$3.10 (vs. $2.87 est). Q3 adjusted EPS of $1.24 on $490M revenue significantly beat estimates.
Estee Lauder (EL): Beat Q4 estimates with $0.89 adjusted EPS on $4.23B revenue. However, it warned of a $100 million tariff impact in FY26, including a 39% rate on Swiss imports and 35% on Canadian imports.
Qualcomm (QCOM): Shares fell after issuing weak FY26 Q2 guidance (Rev $10.2B–$11B vs. $11.11B est) due to smartphone supply chain bottlenecks caused by surging AI data center memory demand.
Arm Holdings (ARM): Despite beating Q3 estimates, shares slipped as Q4 adjusted EPS guidance of $0.58 barely topped the $0.57 consensus, failing to satisfy high investor expectations.
Carrier (CARR): Trading lower pre-market after reporting results below consensus.
■ AI Infrastructure & Semiconductors
Broadcom (AVGO): Jefferies maintained a Buy rating with a $500 target. Broadcom is expected to be a primary beneficiary of massive AI infra spending by Alphabet and Oracle. Notably, Alphabet is projected to deploy 6 million custom processors in 2027, with Broadcom handling 85–90% of that volume.
■ Policy & Executive Shifts
Netflix (NFLX): Shares gained after President Trump stated he would not intervene in the Netflix-Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) merger, leaving the decision to the DOJ. This reversal from his previous skepticism improved investor sentiment, even as Paramount/Skydance continues a $108B hostile bid for WBD.
Chevron (CVX): Announced a major executive reshuffle following the Hess asset integration. Jake Spiering will succeed the retiring Frank Mount as head of Business Development on Aug 1, and Molly Laegeler will lead Supply & Trading starting March 1.
■ Crypto Assets
Market Downturn: Bitcoin fell below $70,000, dragging down crypto-related stocks including MicroStrategy (MSTR), Coinbase (COIN), and Robinhood (HOOD).
