Alphabet jumped 11.5% in premarket trading after the Google-parent announced its first-ever dividend, a $70 billion stock buyback and beat estimates for first-quarter results. Lifting sentiment further, Microsoft gained 4% on beating Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and profit, driven by gains from AI adoption across its cloud services. Other growth stocks also rose on the results, with Amazon.com and Nvidia up 3.1% and 1.3%, respectively.
Former band member John Lodge announced that Pinder died on Wednesday.