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Q2 Earnings Cavalcade in Earnest: MSFT, UAL & DFS

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After the bell this Tuesday, we are seeing lots of earnings reports hitting the tape. Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) , United Airlines (UAL - Free Report) and Discover Financial (DFS - Free Report) all posted quarterly results, with positive performances if somewhat varied.

Microsoft pulled off an early win in the aftermarket with a 19% positive earnings surprise in its fiscal Q4, posting 69 cents per share on $22.64 billion in revenues. These figures topped the 58 cents per share and $22.11 billion, and pushed year-over-year revenues into positive territory for the software giant.

Cloud computing was up 7%, Office software up 5% and Services revenue up 9%. But it was its global data center platform Azure that performed strongest: +102% in Microsoft's Q4. For more on Microsoft's earnings, click here.

United also soared past expectations on both top and bottom lines this afternoon: $2.61 per share beat the $2.53 consensus estimate, and sales of $9.4 billion marginally improved on the $9.3 billion expected. The Chicago-based airline major also bought back 4.4% of shares outstanding, amounting to $694 million. Shares are up more than 1% in late trading; ahead of the Q2 report, UAL has traded down 16% year-to-date. For more on United's earnings, click here.

Discover Financial also outperformed expectations with an earnings per share of $1.47 on revenues of $2.216 billion, compared with $1.42 per share and $1.80 billion in revenues. Credit card loans grew 4%, whereas Payment Services volume fell 6% in the firm's Q2. This marks Discover's second straight earnings beat and fourth out of the past five quarters.