Key insights
- Roblox bookings guidance was slashed due to age verification issues and a ban in Russia, overshadowing otherwise strong Q1 results. Alphabet's cloud revenue accelerated, driven by AI infrastructure demand. Reddit is up. Overall, mixed signals with a slight negative tilt due to Roblox's significant guidance cut.
📌 Top story -- scroll down for more updates
10:15 am -- RBLX -17.5%
By Yasser El-ShimyTeam Rule Breakers
Roblox (RBLX 15.02%) put up a genuinely strong Q1 2026: DAUs, hours, revenue, and free cash flow all grew impressively year-over-year. But nobody's talking about that. The headline is a bookings guidance gut-punch: Management slashed full-year 2026 bookings growth from 22%-26% all the way down to 8%-12%, a 14- to 18-point haircut in a single quarter.
The culprits? Two self-inflicted wounds. First, Roblox rolled out mandatory age verification across its platform, which unexpectedly strangled new user acquisition and throttled the in-app communication features that make Roblox, well ... Roblox. Second, Russia banned the platform in December, knocking a chunk of users off permanently. Toss in a $57 million regulatory settlement accrual from U.S. state attorneys general, with more states still at the table, and you've got a noisy, uncomfortable quarter despite the underlying numbers holding up.
Here's where I land on it: The long-term thesis is still alive, but it's on probation.
10:05 am -- GOOG -0.2%
By Matt Frankel, CFP®Team Hidden Gems
Alphabet (GOOG 0.36%) this week delivered its fastest revenue growth in two years, and the engine was unmistakably Google Cloud. Consolidated revenue climbed 22% year over year to $109.9 billion, beating Wall Street's $107 billion consensus, while Cloud revenue alone jumped 63% to $20 billion and cleared estimates by nearly $2 billion. That acceleration matters because Cloud growth had been 48% just one quarter earlier, suggesting enterprise demand for Alphabet's AI infrastructure is compounding rather than plateauing. Backing that up, Cloud's order backlog nearly doubled quarter on quarter to over $460 billion, giving management a multi-year line of sight on contracted demand.
9:50 am -- RDDT +7.0%
By Morning Show host Tim BeyersTeam Rule Breakers
The human-centered internet is having a moment in the age of AI. Reddit (RDDT +9.99%) reported a 69% increase in revenue and a 7X increase in net income in Q1.
The stock is up just over 13% as I write this morning, and deservedly so.
Reddit offers investors a beautiful story of scaling done extremely well. Mostly, that seems to be because Reddit ads are just present enough in feeds to not deter users while also being effective enough to keep marketers coming back for more. Data licensing to the big AI players doesn't hurt, either.
8:20 am
By Morning Show host Alicia AlfiereTeam Rule Breakers
Etsy (ETSY 0.33%) stock popped earlier this year on the news that it is selling its second-hand and vintage clothing business, Depop, for $1.2 billion in cash. This could be a good thing for the overall business, as the sale will allow leadership to focus only on the Etsy marketplace.
Etsy is also going through a period of transformation and the first quarter showed some potentially early signs of positive momentum for the marketplace of vintage, unique, and personal items:
9:15 am -- AAPL +4.2%
The S&P 500 surged past the 7,200 milestone to kick off May, propelled by a 3% jump in Apple (AAPL +3.98%) shares. Despite a second consecutive quarterly miss in iPhone revenue, Apple's superior revenue guidance and earnings beat effectively calmed Wall Street. Broader markets found further support as West Texas Intermediate futures fell 2% on reports that Iran is engaging with U.S.-backed peace amendments via mediators. This follows an April where the Nasdaq logged its best monthly performance since 2020, signaling robust appetite for tech growth.
8:15 am -- AAPL +3.4% in premarket trading
Equity futures started May in the green as Apple (AAPL +3.98%) climbed 3% following a fiscal second-quarter beat. Despite iPhone revenue missing targets for the second time in three quarters, a robust sales outlook and broad earnings strength have pushed the S&P 500 above the historic 7,200 level. While the Nasdaq faces slight premarket pressure, markets remain remarkably resilient even as geopolitical tensions with Iran persist.