Here’s a market-moving mouthful: Alphabet reported earnings the same day China launched an anti-trust probe into the company — all while Presidents Trump and Xi volleyed tariffs back and forth. First time reading? Join 190,000 self-directed investors and sign up here.

Google misses the mark

Turns out even a $2.5 trillion company has off days.

Alphabet reported mixed fourth-quarter earnings after the bell Tuesday and its shareholders couldn’t stomach the results.

Shares plunged more than 9% in after-hours trading following the news:

• Earnings per share: $2.15, above $2.13 LSEG estimate

• Revenue: $96.47 billion, below $96.56 billion LSEG estimate

To be clear, investors weren’t selling off simply for the marginal revenue miss.

Its cloud business in particular fell flat — just as Microsoft’s did a week ago — coming in at $11.96 billion for the quarter, below expectations for $12.19 billion.

“The cloud division’s importance is critical in driving AI services and applications,” said Jay Woods, chief global strategist for Freedom Capital Markets. “Investors were hoping to see more bang for their buck and were disappointed.”

While earnings per share did beat expectations, it was the smallest beat of 2024 at less than 1%, as the chart below illustrates.

The quarter before, for instance, Alphabet beat Wall Street’s EPS estimates by nearly 15%.

Some other key numbers:

• YouTube ad revenue: $10.47 billion, up 13.8% from a year ago

• Google Search revenue: $54.3 billion, up 12.5% from a year ago

• Google ad revenue: $72.46 billion, up 10.6% from a year ago

Notably, Alphabet also announced $75 billion in capital expenditures for 2025 — more than expected — to continue investing in artificial intelligence.

“Will investors shake off this shortfall in cloud and focus on the positive aspects of this giant conglomerate?” Woods said. “For now it’s in the penalty box until better results on its cap-ex start to get realized.”

China, tariffs and AI

President Trump on Monday delayed tariffs for Canada and Mexico after striking deals with the leaders of each nation, but his 10% levy on China took effect early Tuesday, as he promised.

Minutes later, however, Beijing announced a series of moves against the US:

• Fresh 15% tariffs on about a range of US products and energy

• Export controls on key minerals, effectively immediately

• It added US biotech firm Illumina and retailer PVH Group to its unreliable entities list

Oh — and it launched an anti-trust investigation into Google.

…the day of its earnings release, and only a handful of days after China’s DeepSeek rattled every major US technology company that’s bet big on AI.

Among the Magnificent Seven names, two are left on earnings: Amazon reports February 6, and Nvidia is due on the 26th.

Public’s Premium membership grants access to all of the above data, as well as a VIP account manager, analyst ratings, crypto data and Alpha, a proprietary financial AI model. Learn more.

Elsewhere:

🌯 Chipotle beat earnings but the stock fell. The burrito chain disappointed investors with a muted same-store sales forecast for the year, even as it reported that foot traffic in its restaurants has continued to rise. (CNBC)

📈 Snap stock rallied double-digits after hours. The company has been investing in AI and machine learning tools over recent quarters, and shareholders cheered its earnings results. Snapchat saw a 9% jump in daily active users in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago, hitting 453 million accounts. (Reuters)

🍻 Want more financial news, but after the closing bell? Thousands of readers trust Brew Markets for their end-of-day analysis. I’ll handle your morning dispatch, and you can wrap up your afternoons with Brew Markets from Morning Brew — sign up free.

🪙 US lawmakers are pushing for stablecoins. Senators plan to move quickly to help President Trump develop clear regulation for digital assets, and they intend to start with a stablecoin-related bill. Members from both political parties are reportedly on board to get a “win” in the digital asset space. (Yahoo Finance)

Rapid-fire: 

• President Trump said Tuesday evening the US will “take over the Gaza Strip” and “own it” (CNBC)

• Crypto czar David Sacks held a press conference Tuesday and said a “golden age” is coming and that they are evaluating a bitcoin reserve (CoinDesk)

• Job openings declined more than expected in December, falling to their lowest since September (Yahoo Finance)

• Advanced Micro Devices stock climbed immediately following earnings, but then fell sharply overnight (Reuters)

• Bitcoin helped Anthony Scaramucci beat nearly every hedge fund on Wall Street last year (The Profile)

• Robinhood pulled its Super Bowl betting contracts after regulators asked the brokerage to stop offering customers access to them (WSJ)

Get actionable insights

Opening Bell Daily’s Best Ideas Club provides members with high-conviction investment and trade ideas sourced from exclusive interviews with Wall Street executives, insiders and strategists.

Every Sunday, members receive one actionable report unpacking an elite investor’s single best idea — as well as its risks, key financials and charts.

Last thing:

*Paid endorsement for Open to the Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA & SIPC. This does not constitute investment advice. Investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. See additional disclosures in video description. All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Open to the Public Investing, member FINRA & SIPC. Cryptocurrency trading services are offered by Bakkt Crypto Solutions, LLC (NMLS ID 1890144), which is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the NYSDFS. Cryptocurrency is highly speculative, involves a high degree of risk, and has the potential for loss of the entire amount of an investment. Cryptocurrency holdings are not protected by the FDIC or SIPC. Securities in your account are protected up to $500,000. For details: www.sipc.org. Banking services and the Bank Accounts are provided by Jiko Bank, a division of Mid- Central National Bank. For U.S. See public.com/#disclosures-main