'Dodged bullet': How 'Fast Money' traders are responding to Thursday's Big Tech earnings

Published Thu, Feb 2 20237:12 PM EST

Big Tech stocks Amazon , Apple and Alphabet reported earnings Thursday night. Investors watched for specific data points and commentary for insights into how to best position themselves. Taking the three together, Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said the companies had poor quarterly performances but didn't do as bad as some were fearing. "Ultimately, I think that this was a dodged bullet," Munster said on CNBC's " Fast Money ." "These are misses across the board. It could have been worse." AAPL AMZN,GOOGL 1D mountain Comparison chart Here's what investors had to say about each of the three: Apple Munster said Apple appears the best positioned coming out of earnings, given its relative likelihood of outperforming down the road. Apple missed both top and bottom line estimates from analysts , according to Refinitiv. The iPad was the only major piece of technology that exceeded sales expectations, while Mac and iPhone sales came in under expectations and showed year-over-year declines. The company did not give guidance on its current quarter, but Munster said to expect a rebound in Mac as old products get cycled out. "Apple is probably best positioned of the three to exceed the March quarter," Munster said. Karen Finerman, CEO of Metropolitan Capital, called the quarter "OK," noting expectations were not great to begin with. She also said it likely won't end up being a "super important" quarter for the long term. Dan Nathan, principal of RiskReversal Advisors , said the "battleground stock" is in one of the last battles it needs to fight in the bear market. Still, he said the quarter "wasn't great" and raised concerns that economic reopening in China may not be as large of a tailwind as some hope. Amazon Nathan said the stock's run should end given its earnings miss and signals of deceleration. The company beat revenue expectations for the quarter , according to Refinitiv, but reported its slowest year of growth in its time as a public company. Amazon also gave light guidance. Finerman said the guidance for Amazon Web Services also wasn't great. Revenue from Amazon Web Services missed expectations, while advertising revenue was higher than expected. She and Steve Grasso, CEO of Grasso Capital, both pointed to the different sides of the business, with both its e-commerce and web services focuses. Grasso said the e-commerce area specifically could likely benefit from headcount reductions. Amazon announced around 18,000 layoffs in January . "They're built with human beings, with human labor, with supply chain. They're built for a pandemic," he said. "The pandemic is over, so they have to … slowly reduce that headcount." Alphabet In contrast to Apple, Munster said the Google parent performed the worst of the three companies and expectations for the current quarter will need to come down. Alphabet missed on both per-share earnings and revenue compared with consensus estimates of analysts polled by Refinitiv. The company's revenue from YouTube advertising and the Google Cloud were also below the Street's expectations. "When we look at the three tonight, Google was the one that had the highest growth rate relative to expectations," Munster said. "That piece was a factor in giving Google the low grade here." But he also said the company was an early adopter of artificial intelligence and is "best positioned" to have an impact in the space in 2024. "Ultimately, I think the company is still the fabric of the internet," he added. "I think they're still going to do great long term."