Brian Stewart

We had Microsoft, we had Meta, Apple, Tesla.

this past week, kind of the meat of the earnings season getting going.

I think it's interesting to look at Microsoft and Meta as a pair.

Both companies beat expectations.

Both companies revealed higher CapEx spending.

For Meta, they're now spending $17 billion in the past quarter.

For R&D, that's 41% growth from last year.

It was $15 billion in Q3, it was $13 billion in Q2.

Back when Meta changed its name from Facebook to Meta, in that specific quarter, they had spent $6 billion on R&D.

So you can just see them constantly cranking up the amount they're spending.

Meanwhile, the stocks, Microsoft and Meta, went in different directions.

So...

Microsoft was down 10%.

Meta was up about 10%.

And so there's kind of an interesting dichotomy in how the market was reacting to what seems on the surface is relatively similar news.

I think one thing to look at is just the relative placement that Microsoft stock and Meta stock had going into the earnings report.

So as of the end of 2025, Microsoft was up 17% over a one-year basis and Meta was down 4%.

So you had more of a optimistic view of Microsoft's prospects as we were closing out 2025.

And then going into the earnings report, you saw Meta rise five out of the six sessions headed into the earnings report.

And you see it pop with the earnings coming out.