P.M. Edition for April 30. New data out today showed that the U.S. gross domestic product fell in its steepest decline since 2022. We hear from WSJ economics correspondent Harriet Torry about what this data, along with other metrics out today, say about the overall health of the economy. Plus, a growing number of companies are yanking their profit guidance for the coming quarter amid economic uncertainty. WSJ reporter Chip Cutter joins to discuss what this means for these companies and their investors. And a federal judge orders the release of a Columbia University student who was detained by the Trump administration. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What caused the U.S. economy to shrink?
For the companies that are still offering guidance, how are they doing it amid all this uncertainty?
The example of United Airlines is a really good one where they've offered two different paths where they say, OK, if things go this way, here's our profit expectations. Here's our business expectations. If it goes another path, here's what we might expect. So you see this like A-B testing a forecast.
And Carol Tomei, the CEO of UPS, said this week that the only thing we're certain of is we don't know which, if any, of our scenarios will play out. That's a comment that resonates with lots of executives across different industries right now.
That was WSJ reporter Chip Cutter. Thank you, Chip.
Thanks, as always.
Microsoft logged double-digit revenue growth in its fiscal third quarter. All three of the company's main business units topped internal projections, led by a 21% revenue increase in its cloud business. Overall profit rose to about $26 billion, up from roughly $22 billion a year earlier.
And Facebook parent Meta Platforms posted revenue growth in the first quarter and indicated growth would remain steady in the current quarter, squashing concerns that President Trump's tariffs would harm its global digital ads business. The social media giant said its sales grew by 16 percent to more than $42 billion, ahead of analyst expectations.
Its net income for the January to March period was $16.6 billion. In other news, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has urged a judge to reject the extraordinary measures proposed by the Justice Department to curtail the company's dominance in online search. The government has proposed to force a sale of Google's Chrome browser and require that Google share user data like search histories with rivals.
The testimony came during a trial before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, who ruled last year that Google had an illegal monopoly over online search. The judge is now hearing arguments and testimony over what remedy he should impose to restore competition and has said that he plans to rule by August.
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Chapter 2: How are tariffs affecting businesses?
President Trump has portrayed the deal as a way for the U.S. to recoup tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine. But in what appears to be a major concession to Ukraine, the latest draft doesn't require Kyiv to repay past military aid. The U.S. will, however, be able to count new military aid as a contribution to the fund. And that's what's news for this Wednesday afternoon.
Today's show is produced by Anthony Bansi and Pierre Bien-Aimé with supervising producer Michael Kosmides. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.
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