Alibaba ( BABA ) shares surged nearly 9% after the Chinese e-commerce giant posted stronger-than-expected quarterly profit, even as revenue narrowly missed Wall Street forecasts.  Net income for the fiscal first quarter came in at $5.9 billion, well above the $3.7 billion analysts expected. Revenue totaled $34.6 billion, slightly below estimates of $35 billion, reflecting pressures from China’s fierce e-commerce price war. Operating income slipped 3% to about $4.9 billion, while overall adjusted EBITA declined 14% year over year to 38.8 billion yuan. Despite those weaker margins, investors responded positively to growth in strategic areas such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing, helping push the stock higher to $130.20 in early U.S. trading.   AI and Cloud Provide a Growth Engine Alibaba’s results highlighted how the company is leaning on AI and cloud technology to offset challenges in its core commerce business. Revenue from the Cloud Intelligence Group rose 26% y...

Dell Technologies ( DELL ) delivered its strongest quarter on record, fueled by booming demand for artificial intelligence servers. Revenue for the fiscal second quarter jumped 19% year over year to $29.8 billion, outpacing expectations of $29 billion. Adjusted earnings of $2.32 a share also topped estimates. Cash flow from operations nearly doubled to $2.5 billion, a sign of strong execution. The company’s Infrastructure Solutions Group, which houses server and networking products, was the clear standout. Revenue surged 44% to $16.8 billion, driven by a 69% jump in servers and networking. Dell shipped $8.2 billion worth of AI servers during the quarter, already surpassing last year’s full-year total. Backlog remained hefty at $11.7 billion, though lower than the $14.4 billion reported in the prior quarter. Margins Under Pressure as AI Demand Ramps Despite record sales, shares of Dell slid as much as 11% following the results—the steepest intraday drop in nearly five months. Investors ...

Marvell Technology ( MRVL ) posted second-quarter fiscal 2026 results that initially appeared strong.  Revenue rose 58% year over year to $2.006 billion, powered by surging demand in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.67, matching expectations. The company also notched a record for quarterly revenue, driven primarily by its data center business. Yet the stock plunged more than 16% after the report, with shares trading around $65. The sharp decline reflects investor disappointment with Marvell’s outlook. Management guided for roughly flat data center sales in the third quarter, despite AI being the company’s largest growth engine. AI Demand Remains High, but Growth Proves Uneven Data center revenue surged 69% year over year to $1.49 billion, making up nearly three-quarters of total sales. However, that pace marked a slowdown from the prior quarter’s 76% growth, signaling “lumpiness” in hyperscale AI deployments. CEO Matt Murphy att...

Ulta Beauty ( ULTA ) delivered a standout second quarter, reporting earnings and sales that surpassed Wall Street expectations. Earnings per share came in at $5.78, roughly 15% higher than consensus forecasts, while net sales rose 9.3% year-over-year to $2.79 billion. Comparable sales climbed 6.7%, marking the retailer’s highest growth rate in over a year, fueled by a 3.7% increase in customer traffic and a 2.9% rise in average ticket size. Strength was broad-based across categories, with fragrance leading the way in double-digit growth, while skincare, wellness, makeup, and haircare also posted solid gains. Gross margin expanded to 39.2%, up nearly a full percentage point, reflecting stronger merchandise profitability and lower shrink. Ulta also highlighted the success of its loyalty program, which reached a record 45.8 million members, and the launch of 24 new brands, many exclusive to the chain. Guidance Raised, But Headwinds Linger Management lifted its full-year outlook, now expec...

IREN Ltd. ( IREN ) has emerged as one of the year’s most talked-about technology and infrastructure stocks, after reporting record revenue and profits while making bold moves into artificial intelligence. Once known almost exclusively as a Bitcoin miner, the Sydney-based company is rapidly transforming into a dual-powered business: securing its place as both a leader in large-scale mining and a growing force in AI cloud computing. For fiscal year 2025, IREN posted $501 million in revenue, nearly triple last year’s figure. Net income reached $86.9 million, a sharp turnaround from the prior year’s $28.9 million loss. Shares surged more than 15% following the announcement, adding to a gain of over 120% year-to-date. Bitcoin Mining Still the Backbone Despite its diversification, Bitcoin mining continues to account for the vast majority of IREN’s revenue. In the fourth quarter alone, mining generated $180 million, powered by the company’s 50 exahash (EH/s) fleet—an industry-leading scale. E...

Autodesk ( ADSK ) surged nearly 10% after posting quarterly results that comfortably topped expectations and signaled accelerating momentum in its core markets. For the second quarter, adjusted earnings came in at $2.62 per share, ahead of the $2.45 consensus, while revenue grew 17% year-over-year to $1.76 billion. Both metrics marked the strongest growth in more than three years, underscoring robust demand across architecture, engineering, construction, and manufacturing. Management also raised full-year guidance, projecting revenue of up to $7.08 billion, alongside stronger operating margins and free cash flow. The upbeat forecast was accompanied by a new long-term outlook, with Autodesk now targeting operating margins of around 41% by fiscal 2029, compared with 37% expected in 2026.   Construction and Cloud Platforms Drive Momentum A key highlight of the quarter was Autodesk’s Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AECO) segment, where revenue jumped 24% in con...

Snowflake ( SNOW ) and Pure Storage ( PSTG ) surge on Thursday on strong earnings and AI tailwinds. Snowflake Rides AI Demand to Strong Quarter Snowflake delivered a standout second quarter, topping Wall Street estimates and raising its full-year outlook, sending shares up more than 14% in early trading. The cloud data platform reported adjusted earnings of $0.35 per share, well ahead of analyst expectations of $0.27, while revenue climbed 32% year-over-year to $1.14 billion. A key highlight was product revenue of $1.09 billion, above forecasts, supported by growing enterprise adoption of Snowflake’s AI-powered offerings. The company added 48 new customers generating over $1 million in annual product revenue, bringing the total to 654 such accounts. Net revenue retention stood at a healthy 125%, signaling that existing customers are expanding their spending. Management boosted full-year product revenue guidance to $4.4 billion, up from the prior $4.33 billion, reflecting stronger deman...

CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) posted a strong second quarter for fiscal 2026, beating Wall Street expectations on both earnings and revenue.  The cybersecurity leader reported adjusted earnings of $0.93 per share, topping analyst estimates of $0.83, as revenue rose 21% year-over-year to $1.17 billion. A standout figure was net new annual recurring revenue (ARR), which surged to a record $221 million, up from $194 million in the prior quarter. Total ARR climbed to $4.66 billion, representing 20% year-over-year growth. This recovery signals renewed customer momentum following last year’s global IT outage, which had briefly dampened expansion. CrowdStrike also generated record free cash flow of $284 million—about one-quarter of revenue—underscoring the strength of its subscription-driven business model. Operating income reached $255 million, or 22% of revenue, while gross margins remained a healthy 78%. Guidance Stays Conservative, But Growth Signals Build Despite the strong quarter, managemen...

Okta ( OKTA ), the identity and access management cybersecurity company, delivered a robust fiscal second-quarter report that reassured investors after a rocky start to the year.  Revenue climbed 13% year-over-year to $728 million, easily topping Wall Street’s $711 million estimate. Adjusted earnings came in at $0.91 per share, beating expectations of $0.84. The upbeat results were welcomed by the market, sending shares up nearly 6% in early trading Wednesday. The move comes after months of investor caution, as concerns about government contract delays and macro uncertainty weighed on the stock. This quarter’s performance and forward-looking guidance suggest many of those fears were overblown. Guidance Turns Bullish After Conservative Stance Management lifted its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $2.88 billion to $2.89 billion, up from its prior $2.85–$2.86 billion projection. Annual adjusted earnings guidance was also raised to $3.33–$3.38 per share, compared with earlier p...

MongoDB ( MDB ) shares soared more than 30% on Wednesday after the company delivered much stronger-than-expected earnings and raised its outlook for the rest of the year.  The results showed that demand for its cloud platform, Atlas, is picking up speed as companies look for better ways to handle data in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). In the quarter ending July, MongoDB reported revenue of $591 million, up 24% from last year and well ahead of Wall Street estimates. Adjusted earnings came in at $1 per share, far above the $0.66 analysts were expecting. A year ago, MongoDB was losing money—so the swing to profitability highlights just how much the business has improved. Management also raised its forecast for the full year. Revenue is now expected to come in between $2.34 and $2.36 billion, with profits in the $3.64 to $3.73 per share range. Both figures were well above earlier guidance.   Atlas Cloud Platform Driving Growth The real star of the quarter was Atlas, Mong...

Semtech ( SMTC ) shares surged more than 16% after the California-based chipmaker reported fiscal second-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations.  The company also highlighted accelerating demand from AI-driven data centers. For the quarter ended July 27, Semtech delivered adjusted earnings of $0.41 per share, edging past consensus by a penny. Revenue climbed nearly 20% year-over-year to $257.6 million, essentially matching analyst estimates. Profitability saw an even sharper rebound: earnings were up more than 270% from the same period last year, while free cash flow swung from negative to a healthy $41.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA hit $56.5 million, exceeding forecasts by nearly 14%. The upbeat results immediately lifted shares, with the stock climbing near $60 in early Tuesday trading. Data Center Sales Fuel Growth The quarter’s standout performance came from infrastructure markets, where net sales grew 39% to $73.4 million. Within that category, data center sales nearl...

Apple ( AAPL ) shares have finally shown signs of stabilization after a bruising 2025. The stock, which had been down 17% for the year by the end of July, rallied nearly 9% in August—its strongest monthly gain since mid-2024. The shift came after CEO Tim Cook committed an additional $100 billion to U.S. manufacturing during a White House meeting, a move widely seen as easing tariff pressures from President Donald Trump. The decision came at a crucial moment. Trump’s levies had already cost Apple $800 million in its fiscal third quarter, underscoring the financial strain of overseas production. By signaling greater domestic investment, Apple managed to defuse a key political risk that had weighed heavily on the stock. AI Ambitions and Growing Competition Alongside tariff relief, Apple has begun addressing another lingering concern: its late entry into the artificial intelligence race. The company has explored potential acquisitions of French AI firm Mistral—last valued at around $6 ...