PABLO SCARPELLINI Los Angeles

The Angels

Updated Thursday, February 1, 2024-23:38

  • Companies Apple launches its augmented reality glasses, its first major project since 2014

After a day of sharp stock market falls as a result of the Fed's decision to keep interest rates intact, the three technology giants that presented results after the bell gave the final blow.

Amazon

rose strongly in the

after-hours

market after a packed Christmas season, including record sales.

Meta

did the same by announcing better than expected results and confirming that it will begin paying dividends to its shareholders for the first time. And

Apple

stuck out its chest after breaking a revenue record in the services chapter (23,117 million dollars) and presenting robust iPhone sales figures.

Amazon

did not disappoint during the most important time of the year for its books. The net sales of the e-commerce giant

grew by 14%

to sign a quarter of 170,000 million dollars compared to 149,200 million in 2022. It is the unmistakable sign of the optimal moment that the United States economy is going through. Amazon and Christmas spending are the ideal thermometer to measure it.

Not only digital sales grew. Its other large business unit,

cloud data storage, increased 13%

year-over-year to $24.2 billion. "This fourth quarter was a record holiday shopping season and closed out a strong 2023 for Amazon," said Andy Jassy, ​​CEO of Amazon.


Mark Zuckerberg, for his part, was more moderate in his statement despite the forcefulness of the numbers from

Meta

, the brand that owns

Facebook and Instagram

. The Menlo Park company

tripled its net profit

in the fourth quarter—from $4,652 million to $14,017 in the last three months—up 201%. The year closed with a 69% improvement, spurred by the 3.2 billion people who actively use their networks, more than ever. On Facebook alone, 2.11 billion people continue to log in daily, an increase of 6%. It doesn't seem like it's going out of style at all.

Its shares soared up to 12% after the close of trading, encouraged not only by the improvement in its numbers but by the dividend that Meta will pay its shareholders (half a dollar per share) as of March 26. Zuckerberg was also satisfied with the progress made in artificial intelligence and the metaverse, the virtual reality universe on which they are working.

The last to present its results,

Apple, can boast of having returned to the path of growth

a year later. Quarterly revenue of $119.6 billion represents a 2% improvement over 2022, snapping a negative streak of four consecutive quarters of declines. Furthermore, the iPhone 15 seems to be responding to Wall Street's expectations, with a turnover of $69.7 billion that chases away, for the moment, the ghosts of a slowdown in its flagship product.

The problem remains China. T

he slowdown of the Asian giant has been felt in the turnover of the Cupertino colossus.

Sales have fallen 15% in a year in a region that accounted for a fifth of Apple's revenue during the last fiscal year.

Tim Cook, however, focused on highlighting the optimal performance of his commitment to services. "We are pleased to announce that our installed base of active devices has surpassed 2.2 billion, reaching an all-time high across all products and geographic segments." He also has "the incredible Apple Vision Pro" ahead of him, the augmented reality glasses that go on the market on Friday and that demonstrate his commitment to innovation, despite critics who accuse them of the opposite.