Key points:

• Google parent set to report
• Shares rise ahead of the bell
• Capex to sit front and center

Search giant is seeking that extra effort to try and hit a record high ahead of the earnings update on Wednesday.

🚀 Bulls Eye $350 Before the Print

• Alphabet stock GOOGL pushed about 1.5% higher pre-market, going for $350 a pop, a fresh record. At that level, the search giant clocks in near $4.2 trillion, suddenly eyeing Nvidia at the top of the market-cap food chain.
• Options activity shows traders leaning bullish into earnings, with call buying stacking up around the $350 strike. Translation: plenty of bets that momentum sticks through Wednesday’s report.
• The setup feels familiar. Strong trend, rising expectations, and one simple question hovering over the tape: does Alphabet deliver enough to justify the hype right now?

📊 Earnings Math Traders Are Watching

• Wall Street expects 15.4% year-over-year revenue growth to $111.4 billion, accelerating from last year’s pace. Adjusted earnings are penciled in at $2.64 per share, setting a solid but demanding bar for the quarter.
• Last quarter helps the bull case. Alphabet beat revenue estimates by 2.4%, posting $102.3 billion, up 15.9% year over year, alongside a clean EPS beat. Consistency has become part of the story.
• A repeat performance would reinforce the idea that search, YouTube, and cloud can still grow fast even at trillion-dollar scale. Misses, though, tend to get punished at these altitudes.

🧠 AI, Capex, and Microsoft

• Investors want proof that new AI features can lift revenue without exploding costs. Capex, short for capital expenditures, matters because it funds data centers and chips. More spending can mean growth, but also thinner margins.
• That trade-off hurt Microsoft, which dropped hard after flagging heavier AI spending. Alphabet now faces the same microscope.
• If management shows discipline while monetizing AI, $350 stops looking ambitious. If costs steal the spotlight, traders may remember that records come with gravity too.

Source: Tradingview