Before the bell: stellar results

Meta and Microsoft soar, and UCB also far exceeds expectations. Wall Street braces for a major IPO.

As expected, the US Federal Reserve kept the dollar interest rate unchanged at 4.25 to 4.50%. Policymakers are clearly not bowing to pressure from Donald Trump. Only two out of seven regional Fed presidents voted in favor of a rate cut. Ahead of the decision, European equities barely moved. The average European stock gained 0.3%. At AMG Critical Materials, second-quarter revenue rose to 439 million dollar, a 20% increase from the same period last year. The company has not yet experienced any negative impact from higher tariffs. US markets were also subdued, with the S&P 500 down 0.1% and the Nasdaq up 0.2%.

This morning, the Topix in Japan is up 0.8%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index drops 1.4%. We’re bracing for a flood of earnings today. In Belgium, AB InBev has already published its quarterly results: revenue rose 3%, though volumes fell 1.9%. Notably, sales of non-alcoholic beers increased by 33%. Yesterday, we reported that analysts expected UCB’s first-half revenue from Bimzelx to triple to 607 million euro. But UCB went well beyond that, booking a whopping 800 million euro in revenue from the psoriasis drug. For the full year, UCB now expects to generate at least 7 billion euro in revenue. Ontex, Bekaert, Fagron, Argenx, and Syensqo also reported results before the bell, with GBL and Quest for Growth due after hours. Across the border, Flow Traders, ArcelorMittal, ING Group, Shell, and Unilever are reporting in the Netherlands. In Germany, we’ll hear from BMW and Puma, while in France, earnings are expected from Safran, Sanofi, and Renault. In the US, results from Mastercard, AbbVie, Cameco, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Roblox are coming before the bell, with Apple, Amazon, and CloudFlare reporting after hours.

Magnificent Meta and Microsoft

Two of the Magnificent Seven—Microsoft and Meta—reported earnings last night, both beating expectations convincingly. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue surged 18% year-over-year to 76.4 billion dollar, far exceeding analyst expectations of 73.9 billion dollar. Net profit rose 24% to 27.2 billion dollar. Investors pay close attention to the performance of Azure, Microsoft’s cloud business—and it didn’t disappoint. Cloud revenue jumped by 39%. Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, also posted a 22% increase in quarterly revenue to 47.5 billion dollar, again well above expectations. Advertising revenue continues to fuel the company’s investments in artificial intelligence. Net income rose by 36% to 18.34 billion dollar. Investors cheered the results: Microsoft and Meta shares rose 8.1% and 11.8% respectively in after-hours trading.

Figma’s first trading day

Today, design software company Figma makes its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. The firm specializes in collaborative tools for designing user interfaces and prototypes, widely used by big names like Microsoft and Netflix. Demand for Figma shares is sky-high. According to Bloomberg, demand is 40 times greater than the available supply. Last week, the price range per share was raised to between 30 and 32 dollar. At the top of that range, the company would be valued at 18 billion dollar. That’s still below the 20 billion dollar Adobe offered for Figma in 2022—a deal that was ultimately blocked by European and UK regulators.

Did you know…

that Belgian holding company Sofina is also benefiting from Figma’s IPO? Sofina invests in private equity through Sequoia Capital’s funds, which bought Figma shares back in 2019 for just 1.10 dollar each. That’s a return of over 2,600% in just six years.