Thursday’s big stock stories: What’s likely to move the market in the next trading session

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Here’s what CNBC TV’s producers were watching as stocks slipped on Wednesday, and what’s on the radar for the next session.

• The company reports Thursday after the bell. CNBC TV’s Steve Kovach is set to cover the numbers and the stock.
• Apple is up 5% in three months.
• Apple hit a high Oct. 15, and it’s down 3% since then.

• The tech giant beat on earnings and profit expectations.
• The stock is down nearly 4% in after hours.
• CNBC contributor Jeff Kilburg, fresh off scoring a big profit from a call on Tesla options, highlighted concerns about Microsoft spending too much on Copilot. “If we do see a pullback here, I want to buy more at $421,” he said on “The Exchange.”  “It makes a ton of sense to add here on any sort of pullback.”
• The stock slid to about $416 in extended trading.
• Shares of Microsoft are 7.6% from the July high and up 15% year to date.

• Factoring in after-hours action…
• Meta Platforms is up 23.7% in three months. It’s 2% from the early October high.
• Netflix is up 21.3% in the past three months, and Nvidia is up 32.9% in that period. Both are just off their highs: Netflix is 2.5% from the Oct. 21 high, and Nvidia is 3.5% from the Oct. 22 high.
• Amazon is up 5.4% in three months. It’s 4.2% from the July high.
• Alphabet is up about 2% in three months. It’s 9% from the July high. The stock was up nearly 3% on Wednesday after the previous evening’s earnings report in which the company touted growth in the cloud business.

• The stocks in the cloud sector are having a big October.
• The First Trust Cloud Computing ETF (SKYY) is up 4.7% in October.
• Datadog is up 11% in October, 7.5% from the February high.
• Cloudflare is up 11% in October, 22% from the February high.
• Zscaler is up 9.27% in October, 28% from the February high.
• Asana is up 5.5% in October, 47% from the December 2023 high.
• Snowflake is up 3.6% in October, 50% from the February high.
• Atlassian is up about 20% in October, still 26% from the January high.

• The group ranks in the middle of the pack over the past three months versus the rest of the S&P sectors. It’s up more than 6% in that period.
• On Thursday, Ingersoll Rand and W.W. Grainger report numbers. Both hit highs this month.
• Ingersoll Rand is down nearly 2% in the past three months. The stock hit a high Oct. 15, and it has fallen more than 5% from there.
• W.W. Grainger is up roughly 13% in the past three months. The stock hit a high Oct. 21 and is down 2.7% since then. It is the best performer in the sector, followed by Eaton and Trane Technologies.
• Boeing, Textron and Stanley Black & Decker are at the bottom of the list. Stanley Black & Decker and Textron are down about 11% in three months. Boeing is down about 17% in that period.

• This is the third best S&P performing sector in the last three months.
• Xcel Energy reports Thursday, as does Southern Co.
• Xcel is up about 8% in three months. The stock hit a high last week but has dropped 4% since then.
• Southern Co. is up 7% in three months. This stock also hit a high last week and has dropped 5% since then.
• Vistra, Constellation and NRG are the top performers. AES, American Water Works and American Electric Power are the laggards.

• The Chinese automaker reports Thursday.
• The stock is up 46% in three months.
• Li Auto is 38% from the February high.