Big Tech Earnings Week: Microsoft and Meta Report Wednesday, Apple and Amazon Thursday

The heaviest stretch of the second-quarter reporting season lands this week, with four of the world's most valuable companies posting results inside roughly 48 hours. MSFT and META are scheduled for Wednesday, July 29, followed by AAPL and AMZN on Thursday, July 30.

The variable that matters most across all four is artificial intelligence spending, and whether the capital going into data centres is being matched by revenue that investors can see. For Microsoft, analysts are looking for fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of roughly $4.21 per share, with Azure the number that usually sets the reaction: management guided to 39% to 40% constant-currency growth, and the buy-side expectation sits nearer 36%, which is the level the market appears to treat as the real bar.

Because these companies carry an outsized share of S&P 500 market capitalisation, the results function as an index event rather than four separate single-stock events. A common reaction across the group would move the benchmark regardless of what the rest of the week's reporters deliver, which is why positioning into Wednesday tends to tighten across the broad tape.

Beyond the headline numbers, the disclosures worth reading closely are capital expenditure guidance and the depreciation schedules that follow it, along with any language on whether AI capacity is demand-constrained or supply-constrained. That distinction has become the market's shorthand for whether the current spending cycle converts into earnings or into a drag on free cash flow.

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