What's going on?

Tech titan Microsoft booted up better-than-expected quarterly results late on Thursday, helping its stock rise…

What does this mean?

Microsoft�s total profit was much higher than investors had forecast. The company�s fast-growing cloud computing segment continued its ascent, with sales eclipsing investors� predictions. And a decision last week from a federal judge stands to improve its prospects further: rival Oracle saw its bid for an open $10 billion US government cloud computing contract thrown out. Microsoft now has a better chance of securing the contract � if it beats market leader Amazon to the punch�


Microsoft�s productivity and business software segment (which includes LinkedIn) also topped investors� predictions. The writing was on the Word document earlier this month: Microsoft took Pages out of Apple�s playbook and revealed that its Teams product � competitor to messaging startup Slack � had 13 million daily users compared to Slack�s 10 million (tweet this).

Why should I care?

For markets: Microsoft may ctrl the stock market.

Many global investors take their buying and selling cues from the US stock market since it�s the biggest in the world. And as the largest public company in the US, Microsoft has a major influence over the direction of the country�s stock market as a whole. Investors buying Microsoft�s stock after its update helped push the trillion dollar company’s share price 3% higher � and that momentum may help lift stocks elsewhere on Friday.

The bigger picture: Rainclouds over SAP.

Europe�s biggest tech company, SAP, reported a smaller-than-expected increase in its second-quarter profit on Thursday, and its shares fell 6%. Investors might�ve been worried that the tech giant’s plan to invest more heavily in cloud computing wasn�t bearing as much fruit as expected. And that may have prompted more investor questions about the billions SAP spent on cloud-related acquisitions last year, and whether they�ll amount to as much future profit as hoped.