Major earnings week weighs on tech stocks 

Thursday’s selloff was led by tech stocks, triggered by disappointing outlooks from giants Meta and Microsoft

article-image

Skorzewiak/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share


This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


US equities opened higher Friday morning, clawing back some of Thursday’s losses that saw the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 indexes drop 1.8% and 1.2%, respectively. 

The selloff was led by tech stocks, triggered by disappointing outlooks from giants Meta and Microsoft, both of which reported after the close yesterday. 

Both Meta and Microsoft beat expectations on some earnings metrics, but you wouldn’t know that looking at the share prices. Analysts attribute Thursday’s drops (-4% for Microsoft and -3% for Meta during after hours trading) to disappointing projections from both companies. 

Microsoft execs estimate between $68.1 billion and $69.1 billion in revenue for Q4, missing Wall Street’s forecast of $69.83 billion. The tech giant anticipates its cloud computing platform, which saw a 33% increase in quarter-over-quarter revenue during Q3, will slow during the final months of this year. 

Meta similarly beat on earnings per share and revenue for the third quarter, but execs say its spending spree is going to continue through the end of 2024. They calculate capital expenditures for the year to come in between $38 billion and $40 billion. This is up from the range given during the company’s last quarterly earnings report. Meta is also forecasting a “significant” increase in AI-related infrastructure expenses in 2025. 

Tom Essaye, founder of Sevens Report Research, said it wasn’t just Big Tech weighing on equities Thursday. Earnings across the board were disappointing (looking at you, Uber, Ebay and Intercontinental Exchange), plus economic data looks like we may see higher rates for a more sustained period of time.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.jpg

Research

Figure, founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, has emerged as a leader in onchain RWAs, with ~$17.5B publicly tokenized. The platform’s ecosystem volume is growing ~40% YoY as it expands beyond HELOCs into student loans, DSCR loans, unsecured loans, bankruptcy claims, and more. Operationally, Figure cuts average loan production cost by ~93% and compresses median funding time from ~42 days to ~10, creating a durable speed-and-cost advantage.

article-image

The CFTC-regulated exchange is opening doors to crypto builders and traders through grants, partnerships, and new deposit options

by Blockworks /
article-image

DFS tells banking organizations to integrate blockchain monitoring tools to curb money laundering and sanctions risks

by Blockworks /
article-image

New short and long-term priorities include L1 gas boosts, ZK-EVMs, privacy reads, and a lean, quantum-resistant Ethereum

by Blockworks /
article-image

The new stBTC token redistributes Bitcoin gas fees to users, creating liquid yield without inflation or lockups

by Blockworks /
article-image

The reserve will collect protocol revenues to back W token, alongside new yield and unlock schedule

by Blockworks /
article-image

Layer 2 network Taiko integrates Chainlink Data Streams to deliver reliable onchain market data for DeFi and institutions

by Blockworks /