| Hi, it's Davey, Matt and Mark. Alphabet, Amazon and Apple are about to report earnings. But first... Today's must-reads: • Meta soared on strong earnings
• Samsung unveiled upgrades to cameras and batteries
• T-Mobile topped profit estimates Thursday is a big day for tech earnings. Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. all report financial results after the stock markets close in New York. Here's what we're watching out for: AlphabetThe digital-advertising slowdown finally caught up to Alphabet's Google. The search giant, whose core ads business is typically seen as resilient compared to social media advertising, came up short of analysts' expectations in the third quarter, and investors will be scrutinizing how search continues to fare amid a faltering global economy. Shareholders will also be looking for more details about the largest cuts in Alphabet's history. Virtually every unit was affected, including recruiters, engineers and workers in Google's closely watched cloud division. In spite of this, Google will aim to show it is catching up to its cloud rivals Amazon and Microsoft. Google's treasured AI unit largely weathered layoffs in January. But it is facing tests, too. The company declared a "code red" in response to OpenAI Inc.'s wildly popular chatbot, ChatGPT — a product that some investors worry could upend Google's search business — and Alphabet is likely rearing to meet the challenge. —Davey Alba AmazonAfter setting an extraordinarily low bar for itself with the holiday quarter forecast, Amazon will probably clear it. Market research suggests the wheels haven't fallen off the online shopping truck. Bloomberg Second Measure, which relies on credit and debit card transaction data, estimates that Amazon's sales to US consumers rose 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Amazon hasn't yet outlined the financial impact of its layoffs. Investors expect an update on that and the company's efforts to reduce the overcapacity and overstaffing in its logistics division that added billions of dollars to Amazon's costs last year. Finally, the health of Amazon Web Services is a big question mark after the unit, which often accounts for all of Amazon's operating income, showed the slowest growth since the company began breaking out the division's performance. Some analysts trimmed their estimates after Microsoft Corp., Amazon's main cloud rival, warned its own growth would slow. —Matt Day AppleThe holiday quarter may have marked a rare event for Apple: a potential decline in revenue from the year before. Luck wasn't on Apple's side during the quarter. Covid challenges in China dealt a blow to the company's operations there, leading to several-week shipment delays for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. The high-end iPhones make up the majority of phone sales for Apple and generate half of the company's revenue. Apple also made the decision to hold off releasing new Macs until the second fiscal quarter, which will make the holiday period look bleaker. On top of all that, the rocky economy challenges people's willingness to spend top dollar on gadgets. Even still, Apple is expecting to report eye-watering revenue of around $121 billion. —Mark Gurman Tom Brady announced his second retirement, but the NFL star's relatively small social media following highlights the difficulties around the league's planned international push. Electronic Arts cancelled a new game under development as the company gave a disappointing outlook for revenue in the current quarter. Palantir's CEO said Silicon Valley's products "obviously failed" to improve the world, speaking in a Bloomberg Technology TV interview. Startup EV automaker Rivian is reducing its headcount by 6% but is sparing assembly line workers at its plant in Illinois. Meta won approval from a US district court judge to buy virtual reality startup Within Unlimited, defying an effort by the FTC to block the deal. | 
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