Microsoft Stock Price Stays Up As US Stock Markets Decline. What’s Going On?

Summary:
• Microsoft stock price defied the wider stock market on Wednesday, signaling a potential upbeat momentum ahead of earnings.

Microsoft stock price stayed on the upside in the early hours of trading on Wednesday, defying a broader market decline. The tech giant was up by 0.2 percent and traded at $428.73 as of this writing, extending a wining streak that goes back five sessions. That went against the grain, as stocks underperformed amid mounting concerns surrounding the adequacy of the next Fed interest rate decision .

The risk-averse sentiment sent the S&P 500 down by 0.5 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Index was at -0.5 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was down by 0.5 percent. Investors remain concerned that the Fed’s likely 0.25 percent interest rate cut in November might not be enough to offer a strong growth ecosystem.

Microsoft’s defiance of the market comes ahead of its quarterly earnings release which is a week away. Citi maintained a “buy” rating on the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock on Wednesday, stating that while its Q1 earnings might be weighed down by substantial expenditure on AI infrastructure, the revenue growth from that front, including Cloud computing could pick up substantially in the subsequent quarter.

In addition, Citi says that there’s a good chance that the forthcoming earnings could beat consensus forecasts. On the downside, however, the bank reduced its target forecast for Microsoft stock price frm $500 to $497. The strong show by other AI-centric companies in this earnings season could incentivise investors to buy Microsoft’s recent pullback in the intervening period to the earnings release date.

Microsoft stock price prediction

The momentum on Microsoft stock price signals a continuation of the upside above the pivot mark at 427.95. The upside will likely encounter initial resistance at 430.58, but a prolonged control by the buyers could break above that mark to test 432.15.

Alternatively, moving below 427.95 will signal prevalance of the downside. With that in play, the first support could come at 425.51. However, if the downward momentum persists, the decline could break below that mark to render the upside narrative invalid. Meanwhile, the stock price could go lower to test 424.00.