Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: Salesforce Rallies On Earnings Beat

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This is an abridged transcript of the podcast.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) is up more than 5% premarket after reporting second-quarter results that topped expectations and raising its guidance.

For the period ending July 31, Salesforce earned an adjusted $2.12 per share on $8.6B in revenue. Included in that $8.6B was $1.24B from marketing and commerce, $2.05B from services and $1.64B from platform and other revenues.

A consensus of analysts had expected Salesforce (CRM) to earn $1.88 per share on $8.53B in revenue.

Salesforce (CRM) also raised its fiscal 2024 guidance, as it now expects sales to be between $34.7B and $34.8B, up roughly 11% year-over-year.

Looking to the third-quarter, Salesforce (CRM) expects sales to rise roughly 11% year-over-year to be between $8.7B and $8.72B.

CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ:CRWD) is up 1.8% premarket as the cyber security company reported second-quarter results and guidance that surpassed Wall Street's expectations.

For the period ending July 31, CrowdStrike earned 74 cents per share, excluding one-time items, as revenue rose 36.7% year-over-year to $731.6M.

A consensus of analysts had expected CrowdStrike to earn 56 cents per share, excluding one-time items, on $724.39M in revenue.

CrowdStrike (CRWD) ended the period with 37% growth in annual recurring revenue to $2.93B.

Looking to the third-quarter, CrowdStrike (CRWD) expects to earn 74 cents per share on an adjusted basis, with revenue between $775.4M and $778M. Analysts were expecting the company to earn 60 cents per share, excluding one-time items, on $774.14M in revenue.

The Cyberspace Administration of China is expected to approve the first lot of generative artificial intelligence, or AI, services for public launch as soon as this week,

According to Bloomberg News citing people with knowledge of the matter, Chinese internet search giant Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) is expected to be among the first to win approval from the country's internet watchdog.

This would thereby open the space for domestic players to compete with large language models, from the likes of Microsoft (MSFT)-backed OpenAI, and others.

It is not clear which companies other than Baidu are among the first to get a nod to be providers of AI models, the report added.

Other headlines to look out for on Seeking Alpha:

Sam Bankman-Fried lawyers push for fraud trial delay

Toyota restarts Japan assembly lines after production system malfunction

Tesla under DOJ investigation for building Musk a glass castle

Cannabis stocks rally amid reports DEA may reclassify drug as less risky

U.S. stocks on Wednesday ended largely higher.

The Nasdaq (COMP.IND) rose 0.54%. The S&P (SP500) gained 0.38%, while the Dow (DJI) added 0.11%.

Nine of the 11 S&P sectors ended trading in the green, led by Tech and Energy. Utilities and Health Care were the two losers.

Treasury yields were little changed. The 10-year yield (US10Y) was flat at 4.12%, while the 2-year yield (US2Y) was also flat at 4.89%.

Now let’s take a look at the markets as of 6 am. Ahead of the opening bell today, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are mixed. The Dow is up 0.3%, the S&P 500 is up 0.1% and the Nasdaq is down 0.1%. Crude oil is up 0.3% at more than $81 a barrel. Bitcoin is down 0.9%.

In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is up 0.05% and the DAX is up 0.6%.

The biggest stock movers for the day premarket: UBS (NYSE:UBS) is up more than 4% after the company reported a record Q2 profit of $29B as a result of its takeover of Credit Suisse and stated that it will completely integrate its former rival's domestic operations by next year. The bank also stated intentions to reduce 3,000 positions in Switzerland over the next few years in order to save more than $10B by 2026.

Five Below (NASDAQ:FIVE) fell 6% after the company published mixed Q2 results and an unfavorable outlook.

On today’s economic calendar, at 8:30am the core PCE price index and at 4:30 pm the fed balance sheet.