Good morning investors!

If this is your first time reading, welcome to The Investor’s Edge — a thriving community of over 28,000 subscribers striving to be better investors with an edge in the market.

Every weekend we publish “The Weekly Wrap-Up” — your ticket to being well informed and staying ahead in the investment game!

This report is designed to help investors of all skill levels break down important stories/topics within the stock market. And best of all, we cut through all of the BS and give you exactly what you need to know in easy to digest, bite sized pieces of content.

Grab your coffee and let’s dive in.

The S&P and Nasdaq made new all-time highs again, while oil prices saw another big jump.

These are some of the biggest stories from the second half of the week that had an influence on market action.

It was a monster week for Q1 prints, with all five beating on revenue and EPS. Reactions were mixed though, as elevated capex guidance overshadowed clean operational beats at Meta and Amazon, while Apple and Alphabet caught bids.

Alphabet $GOOGL ( ▼ 0.63% ) posted its fastest revenue growth since 2022, led by a historic Cloud quarter and Search reacceleration that pushed back hard on the AI disruption narrative.

Microsoft $MSFT ( ▼ 0.2% ) beat across the board with Azure reaccelerating to 40% growth and the AI business crossing a $37B annualized run rate, though the stock fell as a $190B full-year capex outlook and a light Q4 revenue guide dampened sentiment.

Amazon $AMZN ( ▲ 1.41% ) crushed every line with AWS hitting its fastest growth in 15 quarters and retail margins expanding, but shares slid roughly 3% as free cash flow collapsed 95% year over year on a $44B capex quarter.

Meta $META ( ▲ 0.27% ) beat cleanly on revenue and adjusted EPS with ad impressions and pricing both accelerating, but shares dropped roughly 7% as capex guidance was raised $10B at the midpoint and DAP missed estimates, with internet disruptions in Iran cited as the culprit.

Apple $AAPL ( ▼ 1.18% ) put up its best March quarter ever across revenue, iPhone, and EPS, with Services hitting an all-time high and gross margin beating consensus, though supply constraints on TSMC's 3nm node limited the iPhone upside. Shares moved higher on a Q3 guide that topped expectations.

For full breakdowns of these earnings, including graphics and all key takeaways. head to the earnings channel in our Discord.

The Federal Reserve voted to hold its benchmark rate at 3.5%-3.75% for the third consecutive meeting, citing elevated inflation and mounting uncertainty from the Middle East conflict. The 8-4 vote was the most divided FOMC decision in over three decades, with dissenters split between wanting a cut and wanting to drop any signal of future cuts. Fed Chair Jerome Powell used his closing remarks to defend the institution's independence and confirm he will remain on the Board.

🔑 Key Points

👀 What You Need to Know

The Fed is caught between inflation that keeps running hot and an economy that has not yet cracked, and the Middle East conflict is making both sides of that problem worse. The unusual four-way dissent signals the committee is losing its internal consensus heading into a leadership change, which adds uncertainty to an already murky policy outlook. Powell's decision to stay on the board blocks Trump from filling that seat with a new appointee.

📚 Edge-ucation: What is an FOMC Dissent?

A dissent happens when a voting member of the Fed disagrees with the majority decision and puts that disagreement on the official record. Instead of going along with the group, a dissenting member is publicly signaling that they believe policy is moving in the wrong direction, and that signal carries real weight for markets.

Understanding dissents gives investors an early read on where monetary policy is heading before the Fed ever makes an official move.

Apple just secretly added Starlink satellite support to iPhones through iOS 18.3.

One of the biggest potential winners? Mode Mobile.

Mode’s EarnPhone already reaches 490M+ users that have earned over $1B, and that’s before global satellite coverage. With SpaceX eliminating "dead zones," Mode's earning technology can now reach billions more in unbanked and rural populations worldwide.

Their global expansion is perfectly timed, and investors like you still have a chance to invest in their pre-IPO offering at $0.50/share.

With their recent 32,481% revenue growth and newly reserved Nasdaq ticker, Mode is one step closer to a potential IPO.

Tap into a $1T opportunity — invest now at just $0.50/share and get up to 20% bonus.

^{Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.modemobile.com. This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile’s Regulation A+ Offering.}

^{Mode Mobile recently received their ticker reservation with Nasdaq ($MODE), indicating an intent to IPO in the next 24 months. An intent to IPO is no guarantee that an actual IPO will occur.}

^{The Deloitte rankings are based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their fiscal-year revenue growth percentage over a three-year period.}

OpenAI had one of its most consequential weeks in recent memory, with a federal jury trial, a damaging financial report, and a rewritten partnership with its largest backer all landing at the same time. A report revealed the company missed internal targets for both revenue and weekly active users, raising questions about its ability to fund billions in data center commitments ahead of a potential IPO. OpenAI also formally ended its cloud exclusivity with Microsoft, opening the door to selling its models through Amazon and Google.

🔑 Key Points

👀 What You Need to Know

OpenAI is spending aggressively on infrastructure while revenue growth has slowed, and it is heading toward a public market debut at the same time. The Microsoft deal rewrite gives OpenAI more ways to bring in customers, but it also confirms the old partnership was not generating enough growth on its own. For now, the company is burning cash fast and facing real questions about whether its business can keep up with its ambitions.

In this section, we'll be curating a selection of news headlines we think you'll find interesting. If a topic catches your eye, click the provided links to read more about it.

We continue to push out more and more content every week to give investors that edge. Here are the posts Investor’s Edge+ subscribers received this week.

Mondays are for the investors. Every Monday morning we share exactly what we’re watching in the week ahead, how we’re positioning, and even share a sneak peek into our systems and models. This week we discussed how stocks were sitting at all-time highs as we entered one of the biggest weeks of the year - 5 MAG7 earnings, a Strait that is still closed, the Fed rate decision, and the latest PCE report. See the latest full report here:

Next week will be another big week for the market, with a slew of earnings and 5 labor reports scheduled. As always, we’ll be breaking the news as it all happens.

It’s another major week for earnings and we’ll be busy once again. Here is the full calendar of scheduled earnings releases:

Overall, 12 of the names we cover are set to report:

Next week is all about the labor market with nonfarm payrolls, unemployment, ADP, JOLTs, and initial jobless claims all on the calendar.

We also get services PMI data, new home sales, and consumer sentiment.

Here is the full calendar of events we will be watching:

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Our Discord server is tailor-made for investors like you who want to dive deeper into stocks, share insights, and engage directly with us. And it’s completely free!

Here’s what you’re missing in the Discord:

🗨️ Chat rooms: Investors discussed the the huge moves from mega cap tech. Members also dove into the number of jobs reports and shared their views on the overall economy.

📊 Earnings / Economic reports: No more waiting for our newsletters to hit your inboxes - see earnings results and economic data as they are released. And more importantly, get our reactions and insights immediately.

🚨 Trade Alerts: Chris and Mark shared several trades, including additions to the portfolio and trades that set up their portfolios for the week.

Join us on Discord and let's level up our investing game together. The future of trading awaits—and you're invited to be a part of it! 🌟

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Thank you for reading this edition of the Weekly Wrap-Up. Have a great weekend!

Until next time investors!

Mark & Chris

The Investor’s Edge

This is not investing advice. It is very important that you do your own research and make investments based on your own personal circumstances, preferences, goals and risk tolerance.