Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Hump day
Stocks fell pretty hard Tuesday as investors wondered whether another banking crisis could be in the offing. First Republic Bank shares fell about 50% after the lender's earnings report revealed bigger withdrawals than feared during March's banking chaos. Wednesday could shape up to be better, however, after a pair of tech giants posted promising quarterly results. (See below.) And more big earnings are on deck: Boeing is reporting before the bell, while Facebook parent Meta is set to go after the closing bell. Follow live market updates.
2. Microsoft's bullish report
Microsoft impressed investors Tuesday evening with its quarterly results, posting revenue and earnings that topped Wall Street's estimates. Shares jumped in extended trading. The tech giant also offered revenue guidance for the current quarter that exceeded analysts' expectations. And executives touted the company's foray into artificial intelligence. "We will continue to invest in our cloud infrastructure, particularly AI-related spend, as we scale to the growing demand driven by customer transformation. And we expect the resulting revenue to grow over time," Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said.
3. Alphabet's turn
Google parent Alphabet didn't wow investors with its earnings report, but it still delivered largely positive results. The company beat on the top and bottom lines, and its cloud-computing business turned a profit. Alphabet rang up better-than-anticipated revenue from YouTube ads, while overall ad revenue beat the Street – but came in lower than it did in the prior-year period, as an advertising pullback broadly weighs on the tech and media industries. Alphabet also announced that it had authorized a share buyback of $70 billion.
4. First Republic's fate
The banking crisis didn't quite go away last month. Here it is, almost May, and another publicly traded mid-sized bank is seemingly on the brink. Shares of First Republic, which has boasted of a wealthy clientele, are down more than 90% so far this year, with losses accelerating this week after the company revealed it suffered a bigger deposit drain in the first quarter than was feared. Now, everyone from Wall Street to Washington is trying to figure out what to do with First Republic, and the next few days are crucial, according to CNBC's David Faber. What's the way forward? Well, the bank's advisors are touting a plan that would put the onus on big banks and avoid a government rescue, CNBC's Hugh Son reports. We'll see soon whether it gains any traction.
5. David Zaslav, movie mogul
Warner Bros. put on quite the show Tuesday at CinemaCon, the big industry event going on this week in Las Vegas. The studio has high hopes for "Barbie," due in July, as well as June's DC Comics extravaganza "The Flash," which screened for conference attendees – and blew them away. But the presentation wasn't just a showcase for the company's movies. It put Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and his release strategy in the spotlight. The company, he said, aims to release 16 movies this year and 20 movies a year going forward. And, even though WBD is getting ready to unveil is much-hyped Max streaming service, Zaslav said he wants the company's movies to play in theaters for a long time and is in no hurry to put movies on the platform.
– CNBC's Tanaya Macheel, Jordan Novet, Jennifer Elias, Hugh Son and Sarah Whitten contributed to this report.
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