Wall Street closed higher on Wednesday, snapping a three-day losing streak. Stocks gained support as Treasury yields declined following the U.S. Treasury’s announcement that it would expand its debt-buyback program.
Overall, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up 0.2% to 7,708 and 26,331, respectively.
Chart of the Day
Here is the one-year chart of Microsoft (MSFT) as of August 5, 2026, when the stock was at $487.
Microsoft stock surged from ~$400 to ~$500 after its strong quarterly earnings release. The solid results reassured investors that Microsoft’s heavy AI infrastructure investments are beginning to generate meaningful returns.
Last quarter, Microsoft delivered 30% profit growth driven primarily by continued strength in Microsoft Cloud, Azure, and AI-related demand. Microsoft Cloud and Azure grew 27% and 43% year over year (YoY), respectively, reflecting accelerating adoption of AI workloads and enterprise cloud services.
Looking ahead, Microsoft plans to continue investing heavily in AI infrastructure, expanding data-center capacity, computing power, and specialized AI systems to meet demand for Azure and AI services. These investments are expected to support continued revenue and profit growth, although they also imply substantial capital spending as Microsoft scales its AI and cloud infrastructure.
Bloomberg reported most of Microsoft’s AI sales are coming from OpenAI. Microsoft is a big shareholder of OpenAI.
MSFT is part of the Conservative Growth Portfolio and Growth Portfolio.
