Yield. Oil down for a Third Straight day. Back into the low 80s on wti crude. Small caps had been outperforming much of the day. Banks, though, continue to lag. They have certainly been pulling up the rear for much of the last several months. We begin with our talk of the tape. Is the threemonth market pullback driven by macro and Interest Rate concerns running its course as the final earnings season of the year gets under way or will the bolts remain penned in by higher rates and fears of slowing growth and whatever else we can think of. Lets ask adam parker, cnbc contributor. Adam, i dont know, people trying to look on the not so negative side. Yesterday, a bit of a failed rally. Today, yields are quiet, markets able to maybe seize on some of the fundamental news. Are weable to go from macro to micro at this point . During evenings season, some stocks give you four updates a year. The rest of it is all macro or factor betting. I think were getting some mixed to positive results on aggregate for the earnings season. I do think we can get back in this goldy locks period where we can dream theyre going to stop raising rates and eventually there will be accommodation . Yeah, i do. Well end up the year higher based on that. The key question has always been is it just another growth scare where investors are over anticipating a recession or a steep slowdown or rates going to hasten the day when we have to bring it here now . It is inconclusive evidence. There is nothing to say that the soft landing has been called off. Yeah. Of course. If you wait long enough, you forecast 17 of the last zero recessions and you get one, you can say youre right. Im not saying you. Well see. The ten year doesnt keep backing up forever unless growth is good. Theyre getting closer to the same level and well see what that means. I could see people wanting to buy the twoyear road of the tenyear and that will get us back to a normal shape curve. I dont see the tenyear backing up a ton. Yeah, wouldnt think, or you wouldnt want it, certainly, if that were the case. We have breaking news on qualcomm. Kristina partsinevelos here with that. Qualcomm aims to bring ai to the edge. Personal computers, local servers and smartphones. It plans to do so with the announcement of two new chips. First, the snapdragon and secondly the x elite chip for pcs and laptops. Both help run generative a. I. Applications without having to rely on the internet. My colleague had an exclusive interview with qualcomm executive who said the new smartphone should generate an a. I. Image in less than a second versus last years model which took 15 seconds or so. That means shoppers will no longer be asking how great is my camera, but what is the speed of these a. I. Applications . No mention of apple in this report. The second product is going to be an arm based cpu chip for microsoft powered pcs. The cfo saying it will make them the new cpu leader in mobile computing and says it is 4 1 2 times faster than intels x 86 chips. And will be introduced in mid2024. Reuters reported that nvidia is building a cpu chip for microsoftpowered pcs, amd as well. That means more competition for intel and apple that is growing in the space with its own custom chip over the last little while. For more on all of these products, qualcomms ceo will join us on cnbc at 4 00 p. M. Eastern for a first. Chkristina, thank you. What to make of this in a big picture sense where the companies are trying to go closer to the end user in terms of the a. I. Capabilities. Nvidia with the pc Chip Development news as well. Yeah, look, were in the early phases of a 120200 to 20 trend. Youll have semiconductors at the center of it. It is not nvidia will be best positioned and well do the best over time. There are multiple aspects to it. I think the easiest thing to say is Everyone Wants to compete against intel. They have been basically, lets say, the single worst steward and very easy going and gaining share from them and not surprised to see nvidia mention that yesterday as a superior company over the last ten plus years in a minimum. I think some of the other things on the phone, well have to see what the Competitive Landscape looks like. But, you know, there is a number of companies that will be participating. At some level you feel like the added capabilities are kind of table stakes. Things get better, they get faster. Im not sure where the incremental share gain comes from that. Some of it gets priced away. It is fair to say, if you came into this year thinking the Semiconductor Industry grew, non nominal gdp, compute will gain shares, and i think thats partially why the things are trading at higher multiples because their longterm growth rate will be higher. There is a way of telling a story this year in the market in general. You more or less had just kind of a bear market rally or very strong rally off the lows a year ago. And then beyond that, Everything Else has rolled over where as you had the a. I. Story line or anything that touches a. I. And megacap tech has managed to keep things going. We know this, right . If thats true, it would seem to at least allow for the fact that the rest of the stocks, if not to carry the market, that there have to be some opportunities or some bad news already priced in on those levels. I think thats true. I get that question a lot, more of, like, hey, can we give a broadening rally. If you look at our last couple of weeks, i dont think small caps are that cheap. When i parse it out by growth versus value, growth looks expansive, for small and large, value looks cheap for both. I parse it out by quality, the megacap quality is much better than the small cap quality, higher margin, command an asymmetrical higher multiple. I dont think you get that broadening rally until or closer or more in the downturn. Blood on the streets phase. You need things much worse. Then you can dream the Margin Expansion that after that will be better. I think theyll have just as good results if not better than the small caps and what makes small caps work is their margins go up more. Is it labor, materials, the depreciation, pricing and mix, none of that looks like a great cocktail in its quarter to a relative basis. Im in the camp that the market goes up and the big seven participate at least pro rattia. It is pretty hard for it to be otherwise. Lets bring in cnbc contributor Brynn Talkington for more on this. Brynn, just in general, i know youre an owner of things like what microsoft and nvidia. How you to think they are positioned as were about to get this latest little update fundamental news. I think when i start with the technicals, if you look at the nasdaq, the nasdaq is firmly below the 15 and 100 day and continues to make those lower highs and lower lows. The nasdaq in general doesnt look good. A few standouts like google and meta, which look the best of the magnificent seven from a technical perspective. I go into microsofts earnings today. You look back the last two quarters, to me the key word that satya and team talked about was optimization. Meaning that clients have been optimizing their spend, meaning to me spending less, while last quarter we saw with microsoft the capex is picking up, mostly going to a. I. I think you a juxtaposition that overall the clients of microsoft are optimizing while microsoft is spending for the future. Theyre going to spend more today to try to earn more in the future on a. I. So i know that the street is looking for about 8. 7 Revenue Growth. I dont think that microsofts earnings today are the catalyst to get, like, the tech trade back up and running. I agree with adam, to say if we get a rally november and december, i think tech will keep up. But when i look back, microsoft is flat over the last two years. So ail lthough we love to talk about the year to date performance, if you held microsoft from november of 2021 to today, youre flat. You have seen a reversion and a catchup of being at that high in 2021. Yeah, no doubt. Look, if you look at a longer term chart, it looks like it could easily be this big double top. It went right up to the old highs over the summer and pulled back from there. On the other hand, over the course of those couple of years, it has gone from a 34 forward multiple down to 28. It is not cheap. But on some level it seems like microsoft for a while was almost the most important megacap in there because you everybody could make an excuse to own it for a while, right . You could be defensive, you could be a growth investor, you could essentially be playing the a. I. Theme or just saying these are really good managers and im just going to get in the way of every digital trend out there. How do you think that works from here . If you think about investing for the future, the yield curve doesnt matter to companies that are executing and can grow through a cycle. With microsoft on the positive side, you satya and team that continue to execute. He is very underrated, i think, in his dominance of a. I. And you also have microsoft, definitely the closest publicly traded company to open a. I. Because of their relationship they have. So i think that investors are going to continue to own microsoft in that a. I. Bucket and also dont forget, copilot in earnest launches the first week of november. So while it is not going to remotely be embedded in earnings or revenues for the foreseeable future, there will be a lot of excitement talking this quarter and next over how copilot is being adopted by all of us that use microsoft. I still think it is a great longterm hold. But i dont think this quarter is going to separate itself and youre going to see a big run outside of just the markets run itself because of these earnings this quarter. Adam . Hey, brynn. Nice to see you. I largely agree. I dont love the november 21st comparison. Thats the peak of we didnt start raising rates until march of 22. A lot of the nasdaq got killed. I think, brynn knows this, a lot of it comes down to your investment horizon. If youre saying five years from now, i would like to look back and have something in my portfolio that benefitted from a. I. You have to own nvidia and microsoft. Theyre the best positioned. And im sure ankur will talk about this next. You want to own it. Whether you get upside enough, they didnt have upward earnings revisions last report of microsoft and other megacaps did. Surely theyre well positioned to benefit if you look out one, two, three years. You can start sketching out a scenario where you pay 20, 30 times that. It is all investment horizon. I dont know fwhabout the next months. Brynn, you mentioned microsoft investing for the future as the customers try to trim back. This is an area of sensitivity along the street with the companies, meta, everyone fitiate f fixated on the operating guidance. How does that play out . I think last quarter theyre spending a lot on capex. Theyre going to when i said theyre going to continue to the clients are optimizing, they are not. Theyre investing for one, two, five years from now. I think we all understand copilot is going to be 30 ahead, so you can do some math and actually see over the next one to two years how that actually trickles down to revenues. I dont think with the other companies thats so clear. I do think between the very close relationship they have with open a. I. , copilot being 30 ahead, which you could model out if there is broad adoption, that gives another runway for microsoft over the next few years. Yeah. More broadly, i was noticing the way exxonmobil and chevron traded lower after making acquisition announcements. It now happens a lot, crude has been in pullback mode. But it seems like these companies in particular cultivated a Shareholder Base that says kick the cash back to us. Thats what we want right here. It is a tricky thing for management and i guess if you want to know what you own, whether you own an empire builder or a show holder return focus management. In the near term, you never like that kind of price action, very tactical. You hope when you buy something, the market likes it, i think theyre getting assets and pretty low premium, look at chevron situation. Any medium or longterm view, i believe you should own a lot of energy and energy stocks. Demand looks to me like it will be very steady, with looking at install base of new vehicle sales and Capital Spending is top left to bottom right. You can have a lot of other things happening. I think the probability that we have demand above supply is very high in the medium to low term. I would recommend investors own at much energy, equities, or actual direct resources as they can. One of my two highest conviction ideas for our institutional clients. Youre probably along for that ride to some degree. I think were very exposed to energy. And as a longterm investor, it is great to get the cash back. I get your point, mike. I agree with that. But ultimately i think with both of these pioneer and hess, exxon and chevron are saying one plus one can equal three here. What were seeing if you look at ford and gm, people dont want to buy evs in aggregate. They want to buy a tesla. They want to buy an experience. So i think these companies are getting a read from the street. I promise you fossil fuels will be here five decades from now. This whole peak oil, all go solar or go green, that is taking a back seat to the reality of how expensive it is to go green and people still have not going to have a large adoption to evs. I think theyll continue to buy tesla, and this is where to me that narrative for companies with high Free Cash Flow, high shareholder return, squarely sits in the energy camp. I wholeheartedly agree with what adams view. Still a cigarette business and still make a lot of money. Last year was the biggest Coal Production ever. This will be several years from now. I get it. But the Oil Intensity of gdp is going nothing but down and has gone nothing but down forever. That doesnt mean in the absolute terms demand goes down. Just to be clear, im not talking about the environment. Im talking about the stocks, theyre cheap with low estimates, tons of Free Cash Flow and everyone hates them. Thats a cocktail that lookings good to me every time. Everyone hates a minus two. Besides s brynn and i. There is opportunity i think more for us. Fair enough. Good to talk to you. Well catch up with you again soon. Lets get to our question of the day. We want to know which of this weeks reports will have the biggest move post earnings . Alphabet, microsoft, meta or amazon. We will share results later in the hour. Were just getting started. Up next, your tech playbook, Ankur Crawford is ahead. Shell join me at post nine after this break. S p up near the highs of the day, 80 basis points. Every day, businesses everywhere are asking is it possible . With comcast business. It is. Is it possible to help keep our Online Platform safe from cyberthreats . Absolutely. Can we provide health care virtually anywhere . We can help with that. Is it possible to use predictive monitoring to address operations issues . We can help with that, too. With the advanced connectivity and intelligence of global secure networking from comcast business. Its not just possible. Its happening. With gold bond. You can age on your own terms. Retinol overnight means. The smoothing benefits of retinol. Are now for your whole body. Plus, fastworking crepe corrector diminishes wrinkled skin in just two days. Gold bond. Champion your skin. Here in the bay, our cars takes and all of our stuff where we want to go. But, our cars cant take us e with unpaid tolls. Vehicles with overdue, unpaid tolls may not be able to renew their registration until outstanding balances are paid. Payment assistance is available. Visit bayareafastrak. Org ase so go pay your unpaid tolls y and keep your wheels on the the nasdaq higher as heavyweights microsoft and alphabet gear up for earnings after the bell. Here to preview the report and metas later this week is Ankur Crawford, chief executive Vice President and Portfolio Manager at alger. Good to see you. Good to see you too. We often talk about these stocks as one big blob, the magnificent seven or faang or whatever it is, as if theyre Similar Energy sources driving them, as if the same things matter to all of them. Not always the case. As we sift among the ones reporting this week, what matters . I think what matters is different for every single one of them in part because the end markets and the operating expense discipline is all different for each one of them. For microsoft, what is going to matter is, you know, do they see stabilization in azure or Cloud Business . How do they think about or how are they guiding us to how a. I. Will be with the introduction of copilot in q4 and 2024. For meta, it is going to be all about opex. They seem to have a great revenue, we expect revenue beat and probably a raise. But what are they going to say about their do they go back to their ways of precovid, they spend willynilly or maintain the discipline . For google, little bit different. Google, it feels like, you know, what is the product cycle . Were looking to see if they say anything about a. I. That can help us bridge the gap in a more uncertain economic environment for a product cycle. So i think it is different for each one. You may see a bifurcation in their reactions of each one of them. When it comes to microsoft, there is the, you know, obviously in the azure business, thats a matter of if is demand settling out, margins stable for a while. In terms of what theyre doing with a. I. , with copilot, there is the were going to sell x number of subscriptions seats or whatever, also, how you are running your business differently, presumably. Your own business with all these tools. Yeah. So, it is funny, i think the Software Companies are not only the enablers of this entire a. I. Revolution were embarking on, but they also are eating their own to some extent, they are increasing internal productivity, theyre seeing how much productivity is increasing and then selling it. So, they actually get a benefit from both sides, where as the rest of the market will benefit from the productivity increase. Some of these Software Companies will see a massive increase in pricing power, in part because theyre enabling that product to be increased. Yeah. I guess there is not a real handy way for investors to say were just going to play that trend. They go to the providers, right . Do you think that as people look at other businesses as those Companies Adopt whatever these productivity enhancing tools are that it actually is making its way into earnings models and things like that . I think that is going to be slow relative to, you know, how we want it to establish itself. And in part because these changes take time. However, it takes time relative to the Business Model that we have on excel in the grand scheme of things. I think by the end of the decade, well probably see 40 penetration of gen a. I. Type products into the mass market. Every Single Company will have to adopt this. You mentioned for alphabet, you know, one of the questions is what are they going to be able to tell us in terms of their position here and whether theyre going to get payback on their investments. As a business right now it seems like they had a little scare, the street thought they were going to be kind of a victim of the a. I. Movement and now it is back up toward its highs, seems like it is a consensus hold again. And oftentimes i think, you know, consensus is consensus. And oftentimes what you have do is look beyond this quarter. Theyre going to be reporting in 30 minutes. And were kind of looking forward six months and saying, you know, the economy is a little bit unstable. The tenyear is over 5 or close to 5 . The consumer is looking a little shakier than it has historically over the last few years. So the end market is eadvertisig driven by the consumer and the economy. Because google, unlike the others, they dont have a product cycle that bridges them through this uncertain environment, it becomes a little bit more difficult to own relative to the other two that do have product cycles. Im looking over six months, i dont know what happens tonight. Sure. So does that imply Something Like a meta . All this focus on the operating expenses, thats because people just take for granted that, you know that advertising engine keeps spinning . It is not only the advertising engine that meta has, it is the product cycles under align, the core advertising engines with reels, with direct to connect, with the a. I. Platform that they just recently introduced and the monetization of all of these. That is going to drive the top line, but we just have to make sure that they dont spend it all away. Yeah. So we actually realize it in Free Cash Flow. Yeah. That will be the focus and i dont know, last time people panicked about the spending at meta, it created a good buying opportunity, but much lower. Well see how it goes. Great to see you. Thanks so much. Up next, trading the uncertainty, bank of americas chris hyzy highlighting the three sectors hes seeing strength in right now. Hell break down how you should position your portfolio after this break. Closing bell will be right back. Ah, these bills are crazy. She has no idea shes sitting on a goldmine. Well she doesnt know that if she owns a Life Insurance policy of 100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. Even a term policy. Even a term policy . Even a term policy find out if youre sitting on a goldmine. Call Coventry Direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. Welcome back the major averages in the green today as treasury yields stabilize ahead of a flood of Earnings Reports. Here to share where hes finding opportunity is chris hyzy of merrill and bank of america. Good to see you. Great to be with you, mike. How are you seeing the big picture action . You could have said coming into this week, markets maybe getting a little oversold, were in a better seasonal period, near some kind of potential support levels, maybe the yields can calm down a little bit and make way for something good seasonally as we focus on earnings. Does that make sense . Are you persuaded by the action today at all . Im not traditionally this stark as it relates to what this week actually means. But this is a big week. The magnificent seven, the narrow leadership has been the news headline for a while. That passed the baton over to the 5 yield on the 10year treasury and bouncing off of 4200 on the s p and so many cross currents not to mention the significant rise in geopolitical volatility and risk overall. This mountain of earnings this week is particularly in the tech sector, that has to drive some momentum and a little bit of tailwinds and catalysts to get some of that, i wouldnt call it risk on, but to get some of that move back into the equity markets to establish these long positions again to set ourselves up for next year. So, this is a big week. What are we being set up for into next year is also the question. It seems as if were a year after there was a near unanimous consensus that there was a recession coming within a year. We didnt get it. It still feels like rolling our anxiety forward every few months that in fact finally is going to be some kind of economic payback period. What is your assumption at this point . Certainly the assumption is that it is a mixed bag. There is going to continue to be cross currents. The great debate we wrote this report not too long ago, soft landing or any kind of landing . And for what it is worth, i think if you talk to businesses, if you see what is going on generally speaking in the forwardlooking projections, what gives it some comfort is the fact that there is slower spending at the consumer level and a little bit of relaxation of growth overall, were not in that mode where were falling down the cliff, yet. The fed hikes that we already have seen are beginning to bite, but there is tremendous resiliency out there. So what gives us comfort, mike, is the fact that profits could actually reaccelerate next year. Now, the question still is out, did we actually bottom in earnings . Some think we have. I think it is a little bit of a mixed bag. But overall when you look at next year, should be that platform year again, more normal yield curve, more normal economic activity. And the thinking cap that goes on in investors heads should be more about the latter part of 24, 25 and 26 to establish that longterm sustainable bull market again. It is a good ways to look ahead, though well see if people can maybe use that as a frame. Where within the market seems like it makes sense to try and position as we head into Something Like that . I think if you look at market internals, we all know you talk about the 493 other stocks and how attractively valued many of them are. Even if you look at the s cyclicals, and small caps on a relative and absolute basis, and emerging markets, there are so many ands, ands, ands, thinking forward, when you think about what drives longterm sustainable bull markets eventually you got to look through the storm, the wall of worry is high, when you get that blue sky, it is almost too late, so you stick through it. You be diversified, stay high quality right now, but overall it is productivity, it is a resumption of the profit cycle and it is ultimately falling yields. Not collapsing yields, but falling yields which helps support that better Attractive Foundation in stocks relative to fixed income. Well touch on fixed income very quickly. A more normal yield curve is on its way. There is some pain on the way and it is pain extended longer than most people expected. But where real yields are now, fixed income is also attractive. Youre not concerned necessarily that when you do get the yield curve return to a more normal shape, everyone says thats another Building Block of the eventual recession . Well, not if youre coming off of the severe tightness of overall policy and starting to come down. If there is more normal monetary policy, where rates come down a little bit on the front end, after the back end starts to look through and see slower growth, you get a more normal yield curve, Something Like 3. 5 fed funds, 4. 5 to 5 . Thats the 1990s. We had very good years overall across Asset Classes in the 1990s. They werent absent of volatility, but more normal than the days of low rates, low inflation, quantitative easing all the time. Well see. The fed seems to be in no mood to cut two Percentage Points anytime soon. Well see how it goes. Chris, thank you very much. Thanks, mike. Up next, were tracking the biggest movers as we head into the close. Kristina standing by with that. Verizon having its best day since the great financial crisis. And slow demand offset by higher prices from one conglomerate yet again. Ill have that name and much more after the break. Icy hot. Ice works fast. Heat makes it last. Feel the power of contrast therapy. So you can rise from pain. Icy hot. Together, we built something truly beautiful. It takes years of dedication to get to this milestone. The New York Stock Exchange is a symbol of what america is all about the potential of an american dream. It is day one. A lot of work has happened to lead to this historic moment. The only way you can move a Society Forward is a true expression of freedom. 20 minutes until the closing bell. We have the dow about 240, the s p up threequarters of 1 . Back to kristina for a key look at the stocks to watch. The conglomerate raised its earnings per share outlook citing restructuring and spending control efforts and raised prices. Shares up are 5. 5 today. General electric is also in the green after handily beating estimates and raising its forecast thanks in large part to increased demand in the aerospace business. Shares of ge up 7. 5 now. Last but not least, verizon is having ibest day since 2008. They raised the Free Cash Flow forecast for the year, shares up 9 , but still down 13 this year. Mike . Kristina, thank you. Another name were watching this afternoon is gm. This as the uaw expands its strike to a crucial gm plant. Phil lebeau here with that. A big plant and a big hit for general motors. Youre talking about the plant in arlington, texas, where they build all of their large suvs. Some perspective just how important this plant is, 5,000 uaw members walked off the job there. This is 20 of gms u. S. Production. It is the largest most profitable plant they have in the united states. Not surprisingly, this is news that does not fit well as they come off of an Earnings Report where they said, look, were already going to take an 800 million hit, 200 million a week Going Forward and that was before the announcement came out. They pulled back their guidance, completely for the year, they dont know how much the cost will be from this strike. Here is Ceo Mary Barra during the Conference Call talking about the state of negotiations. Current offer is the most significant that gm has ever proposed to the uaw. They demanded a record contract and thats what we offered for weeks now. A historic contract with record wages that have increases that are substantial, record job security, and world class healthcare. As an offer that rewards our team members but does not put the company and their jobs at risk. Accepting unsustainably high costs is something i will not do. We will get ford results after the bell on thursday. And stellantis, it had a plant that was hit yesterday by the by friday, by the uaw, they will now have 525 workers that they are laying off, the Ripple Effect we have been talking about. More than 7,000 workers between gm, ford and stellantis has been laid off. That shows you this goes beyond the people that have walked off the job. It is impacting others at plants that are still in operation, though at a reduced rate. That will certainly start making its way into the broader economic numbers. Gm stock peaked today around 10 00 a. M. After those earnings. Down 4 since then as were talking about this new plant closure. The question again, does this seem to just get everybody else dug in, in the same positions or moving the process along at all . Two arguments here. Youll hear people say this is an indication that the uaw is flushing it out toward the end that we may be close to a resolution if you will. But i get no sense that this is, you know, were going to seeing some announced within the next week or so. I just dont get that sense from talking with people who are close to the process. And one other thing to keep in mind, mike, gm shares also under pressure because of the news out of california with the dmv and cruise. Cruise in the future potentially could be a big moneymaker for gm. This is not good news coming out of california. If you buy into the idea that cruise and autonomous driving will help gms bottom line. Phil, thanks so much. Last chance to weigh in on our question of the day. We askeded which of this weeks reports will have the biggest impact. Well bring you the results after this break. Powering Sustainable Growth in a changing world. Powering Financial Solutions that transform industries. Powering innovation with access to capital. Powering critical decisions with precise data and insights. Powering seamless execution in evolving markets. We deliver our entire global bank to power new possibilities for you. Barclays corporate and investment bank. Powering possible. Lets get the result of our question of the day. We asked which of this weeks reports will have the biggest move post earnings. Microsoft in the lead. The largest of them all. 38 of you said thats going to have the biggest move. Amazon right behind it. Up next, the earnings setup, were breaking down what to watch when alphabet, microsoft, snap and visa all report in overtime. All that and much more when we take you insidthmaeton e e rk ze. In the u. S. We see millions of Cyber Threats each year. That rate is increasing as more and more businesses move to the cloud. So, the question is. Cyber attack as cyber criminals expand their toolkit, we must expand as well. We need to rethink. Next level moments, need the next level network. [speaker continues in the background] the network with 24 7 builtin security. Chip . At t business. 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And its customizable scans with social sentiment help you find and unlock opportunities in the market. E trade from Morgan Stanley. With powerful, easytouse tools, power e trade makes complex trading easier. React to fastmoving markets with dynamic charting and a futures ladder that lets you place, flatten, or reverse orders so you wont miss an opportunity. E trade from Morgan Stanley we are now in the closing bell market zone. As the indexes hang near the highs of the day. There is a wave of major earnings out in overtime today. Were bringing you what to watch for each of them. Deirdre bosa has alphabet. Steve kovach on microsoft. Julia boorstin on snap. And kate rooney on visa. D, alphabet or it is only less than 2 from its highs, it is up 6 this month. Does that mean expectations are high . It does mean expectations are high. This is a stock that is favored by the long onlies. The long hug of megacaps. The first was characterized by more of the promise of artificial intelligence, what it was going to do there. The second half has been back to basics, the fundamentals. Alphabets core business is still very much so in advertising story. Nearly 80 of revenue comes from search and other ads. So thats what analysts are going to be looking at. The street will be look at. Were expecting 10 top line growth, which is really the epitome of growth, growth at a reasonable price. When you look at alphabet, it feels like one of the safest stories in megacap out there. The stocks have grown so large, could have an outsized impact if it does miss. As you said, expectations are high. And, remember, also, that alphabet does not guide. Thats important to keep in mind. Absolutely. I also wonder if there is anything to be said, any color on any of the various legal challenges theyre facing or other Big Investments or something that could be beyond the advertising story. Yeah. You know, moon shot project, right, the x division is interesting. This has been losing a lot of money for a lot of time. You wonder if there will be more discipline there. What is interesting there is headlines that came out of cruise. Waymo owned by google is a major competitor and that driver less car race and the fact that its main rival in San Francisco has had its driverless operation sus suspended, i wonder if thats a chance for waymo to pull further ahead. Well see if there is any commentary on the call. Thanks so much. Steve, microsoft, another consensus favorite, what are we expecting . Yes, so, look, it is not necessarily going to be about selling a. I. Tools, it is about talking about the demand for a. I. Tools. So a week from today, microsoft is going to start selling copilot, a. I. Assistant we have been talking about for so many months now. It goes on sale for 30 per user per month. There is hundreds of millions of potential users for this product. We havent heard too much specifics from microsoft, though, on when to expect real sales. They said maybe sometime next year. But then again, theyre launching it sooner than many expected. So, listen to the call for any kind of color commentary on how demand is backing up for the product when it launches next week. As for the core business and looking back, azure cloud growth important for the company, we have seen it slip from that around 50 growth mark over two years ago, it slipped down, analysts expecting 26 growth and the real question about azure, mike, is whether or not that has bottomed out and well start seeing growth accelerate again for azure. And then finally, ill point out for a good read on consumer electronic demand, look at windows revenue. Thats the money microsoft makes every time a third party like lenovo or samsung sells a pc with windows license as a gauge of pc demand which we know has been cratering all year. Absolutely. Thats been certainly the soft spot. Steve, well catch up with you soon once the numbers are out. Julia, snap, i would imagine investors really have a little bit of skepticism toward this. What do you expect . Snap shares did gain nearly 3 today into the close. The stock is down about 23 since the last earnings three months ago. On concerns about two consecutive quarters of declining revenue. The companys earnings are expected to swing to a 4 cent per share loss from 8 share gain. So the key question here is when will snap forecast a turn around to its Revenue Growth . Analysts are looking for 2. 6 Revenue Growth in the fourth quarter. The other key issue is User Engagement in light of the ongoing popularity of tiktok and others. Going into earnings, 73 of analysts have a hold rating on the stock, 15 have the sell and 12 have a buy. Mike . Yeah, and, ulall i wonder about snaps pla in the industry. How are they have they been saying they might be able to gain more scale or prove their resilience in the face of all that. Snap has been arguing it is a different use case. It is where friends communicate with each other. Now it is offering people this a. I. Assistant, this a. I. Tool that is integrated into that communication experience. But they also have that entertainment element for when youre waiting for your friend to respond to you. What snap says it is really about friends staying in touch, where as instagram might be following people you dont know at all or as well. And tiktok is more about pure entertainment. They argue they have a different use case and theyre digging deep into that. And they hope room for everybody for now. Julia, thank you. Kate, visa has sort of been a bit of a proxy on overall Consumer Spending. How is that looking . Were talking about visa, a relative safe haven or it has been lately. Were expecting 10 Revenue Growth for the quarter. Visas fiscal year wrapped up. Well get some new outlook from visa, the annual outlook in this report today. Youre going to get that glimpse into the health of the consumer and really set the bar high, delivering pretty strong growth, talked about the consumer being resilient. Look for commentary by these on a similar vain talking about consumer trends, health of the consumer. Amex gives us a preview, but the higher end customer. That Consumer Spending commentary, thats going to come through, guidance a little more of that color on the analyst call. And, kate, in addition to it just being obviously this huge play, this platform that just goes up and down with consumer activity, there is a debate going on about its longterm place, the Payment Networks in the whole industry. Maybe there is less leverage to overall Consumer Spending than there used to be because of alternative ways of paying. And youve seen this boom bust phase with challengers in fintech, but it is unclear how much that had an impact. Thats a great call. Fed now, the idea that you could move money in a cheaper faster way throughout the banks, getting rid of the need for an intermediary like visa, you had a lot of those competitive challenges, also things like pricing pressure, there is that perennial conversation about fees and what the Credit Card Networks are charging here. Also regulatory discussions. Visa had a major acquisition of plaid they had to call off because of doj pressures. Theyre hamstrung when it comes to growth through m a. So well see. But absolutely more competition, more pricing pressure and the macro environment too that weighs on it. You wonder if theyre sorry they werent allowed tobuy plaid. Well see how it goes. Kate, thanks so much. Appreciate it. 30 seconds still to close. Well be going out with a three quarter percent gain. Nasdaq slightly outperforming. We have oil prices in retreat. Down a couple of a percent today as bond yields we have the tenyear down to 4. 82 . As we get ready for all the megacaps, growth stock earnings, thats going to do it for closing bell. To overtime with Morgan Brennan and jon fortt. Live from cnbcs live summit in new york. Im Morgan Brennan. That is the score card on wall street. Winners stay late. Im jon fortt from cnbcs Technology ExecutiveCouncil Summit in new york. And im Morgan Brennan at cnbc headquarters. It is a make or break hour for tech as microsoft, alphabet, Texas Instruments and snap get