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Evaluating Microsoft and Apple Stock Ahead of Earnings

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On today’s episode of Full Court Finance at Zacks, Ben Rains looks at the broader earnings picture as Wall Street prepares for a busy week of earnings results from some of the biggest names in technology. The episode then dives into Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) and Apple (AAPL - Free Report) ahead of their quarterly financial releases to help figure out of either tech giant’s stock is worth buying.

The election is roughly one week away and stocks fell on Monday on the back of growing coronavirus concerns. Wall Street will also be focused on quarterly earnings results from Boeing (BA - Free Report) , Mastercard (MA - Free Report) , Facebook , Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) , Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) , and others. With this in mind, the overall S&P 500 earnings outlook has continued to improve (also read: Previewing Big Tech Earnings).

Today’s episode then dives into Microsoft and Apple. MSFT is set to report after the closing bell on Tuesday and holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at the moment. The company’s Office unit is still vital to businesses, students, and many others, and the pandemic has highlighted the importance of its stay-at-home segments that compete against Zoom Video (ZM - Free Report) and others. And it has continued to expand its gaming reach, as it grows more influential in the cloud computing space.

Meanwhile, Apple released the iPhone 12 ahead of the holiday shopping season. Beyond its first 5G-enabled smartphone, investors have grown more focused on its growing services unit that includes its app store, subscription services such as Spotify (SPOT - Free Report) competitor Apple Music, its streaming TV platform, news offering, and more. AAPL stock is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at the moment that rests nearly 15% off its 52-week highs.

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