Microsoft, Boeing fall premarket; Fox, News Corp and AT&T rise

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trading on Wednesday, 25th January. Please refresh for updates.

• Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock fell 3.1% after the software giant reported its slowest quarterly sales growth in six years and warned of further weakness ahead, even at its Cloud-hosting business Azure.
• Boeing (NYSE:BA) stock fell 2.6% after posting a surprise loss in the fourth quarter due largely to production delays with its 777-9 project. The company is taking extra care to avoid a repeat of the 737 MAX certification scandal. Boeing still reported positive annual cash flow for the first time since 2018 and forecast a further improvement this year.
• Capital One Financial (NYSE:COF) stock fell 3.2% after the consumer lender said its net income fell by a quarter in the final three months of 2022, hurt by a surge in credit provisions to $2.4 billion.
• ASML ADRs (NASDAQ:ASML) fell 2.7% after the maker of chipmaking equipment said its first-quarter gross margin will come in between 49% and 50%, missing estimates.
• Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) stock fell 5.2% after the tissue and towels group’s sales fell short of expectations. The outlook for 2023 is also muted, at only 2%-4% organic sales growth, with currency effects excepted to shave a couple of points off that.
• NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) stock fell by 3.7% after the renewable energy giant said its long-serving CEO will retire. Quarterly earnings were some 4% ahead of expectations at 51c.
• AT&T (NYSE:T) stock rose 2.6% after forecasting a rise of over 4% in wireless service revenue this year and reporting slightly stronger-than-expected subscriber growth in the fourth quarter. Its bottom line, hurt by $25B in impairment charges and higher interest costs, was not a surprise, and underlying earnings were slightly ahead of forecasts.
• News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) stock and Fox Corp (NASDAQ:FOX) stock both rose after the sons of Rupert Murdoch abandoned tentative plans to bring the two businesses back together. The decision benefited News – the publisher of The Wall Street Journal – more, given that it escapes any liability for the libel suits Fox is currently facing from two makers of voting machines used in the 2020 election.