Microsoft Jumps 8% as Cloud Growth Pulls Nasdaq Out of Correction
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- Microsoft surged 8% in premarket trading after its cloud unit grew at the fastest pace in four years while it held the line on AI spending, reassuring investors that heavy capex is converting to revenue.
- S&P 500 futures gained 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 contracts rose 0.4% after the index had slipped into a correction, reversing the recent sell-off.
- Bitcoin traded near $63,900, easing slightly, and has been moving with the chip and AI complex rather than on any crypto-specific catalyst, per CoinDesk data.
- Microsoft's results stood in sharp contrast to Alphabet, which raised its spending forecast last week and unsettled investors worried about ballooning AI bills.
- The read-through from the article: AI capex is now visibly converting to growth at Microsoft without demanding a bigger bill — the payoff investors had been waiting for all month.
Why it matters: Microsoft's 8% premarket jump and fastest cloud growth in four years gave the Nasdaq its first reprieve from correction territory, validating the AI spending thesis that Alphabet's earnings had rattled just a week earlier. Bitcoin's tight correlation with the chip complex means the same AI-capex narrative now drives crypto's near-term direction more than any token-specific development.
