Hot takes on hot wings, the state of the running shoe market, and Microsoft's recent quarter

Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi breaks down all the latest earnings reports, including Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Chipotle (CMG), and Wingstop (WING). Plus, why C-suite leaders are poring through Anthropic's S-1.

Sozzi sits down for an interview with Brooks Running CEO Dan Sheridan- whose company is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (BRK-A) (BRK-B)- to discuss the state of the running shoe market and the New York City Marathon.

This is just gonna be one of those shows. We got corporate earnings. Uh, it's been a wild 24 hours. We had a Fed meeting. I got Wingstop right on my desk. I don't wanna tell you why just yet. That's what we call a deep tease.I want to bring over here, uh, right to my interactive wall here of absolute fun. Shout out to the Kobayasi letter. I love this guy. I love these guys' work. I love following them on X. You can see all the stocks right here trading down pretty significantly relative to their 52 week highs. A loving, slaughtered, core weave, slaughter.Western Digital, Oracle, Arms, Circle, really all these names. I also got a shout out Meta too as well, well off its highs. I encourage you to go to go to Yahoo Finance, go to Yahoo Finance Alpha Space, pull up a chart on Meta, and you can see the horrible run that stock has been on after they reported earnings in part because free cash flow went negative. Nobody likes free cash flow right now, especially when it comes to big tech. We're going to keep it on moving here. Now the past 48 hours in the investing world has been absolutely.Wild, like this is wild, like I'm giving the Ric Flair woo, which is like our version of it. Uh, here's where I am.On 4 topics that have probably caught your attention because it has been hot and heavy. First, I love this line on Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and the team over at Bank of America. Quote, We think he risks losing relevance unless he's willing to either guide or surprise markets. I think the BFA team is right on the mark. The lack of guidance from Warsh has basically led the S&P 500 to trade flat since early August.That's better than meta, but still it's flat. Second, Oracle management went a long way in addressing some of the factors pressuring its stock at its annual gathering late Wednesday. It was good to hear more measured tones on Capex spending.In a more upbeat view on sales now, Oracle has to deliver on this very bullish mix every single quarter for the next 5 years, or it will be right back to where it was before the event. Third, Marvell reportedly eyeing a big deal for momentum that could create a new tech powerhouse that you will have to follow. But not to pooh pooh this one, friends. Closing the deal could take some time as it would require US and Chinese regulatory approvals. Good luck with that one.Good luck. Good luck getting that through. And 4, investors hate big tech serving up negative free cash flow. Metastock is having an abysmal post earnings run because it surprised everyone with negative free cash flow in the 3rd quarter. This just happened about a week and a half ago. You were there. I was there. We both read that earnings report. We were both on the earnings call. Alphabet delivered negative free cash flow in its 3rd quarter, and investors are putting the stock in the penalty box too, and that is where I am starting out here right now because the market.Has this quarter from Google. They hate this quarter from Google. They do not like it at all. Here are a couple of reasons why. Outside of what we heard from free cash flow being negative, you can see Google free cash flow negative right here two quarters in a row. This has been a cash beast.Pretty much ever since Google was created, look at these quarters post-pandemic, free cash flow, free cash flow, free cash flow. That's been Google. Well, not anymore. It went negative and the street doesn't like to see it, but a couple of other reasons why the stock is getting slammed. You can head to Yahoo Finance right now. You can check it out. We're pumping out stories. That's what this newsroom is doing. First up, search business.Year over year sales didn't impress everybody, didn't blow everybody away. In fact, they were below expectations, and yeah, I get, you know, Alpha wants to go on its earnings call and they want to tout a billion Gemini users, that's cool, but it is a search-led business.It's a search led business and it fell short of expectations, no good. Like I mentioned, negative free cash flow, pretty significantly worse performance on free cash flow relative to street expectations. Street is not liking this right now. If you're a big tech company, you post negative free cash flow, it's gonna fall absolutely like, like a bomb in water. It's just not gonna be good, not gonna be good. Next one, a rare double miss, and I can't, I was trying to think back the last time I.I talked about a double miss, that is a miss on sales and a miss on earnings for really any company, and I can't remember. I've been doing this for a while. I have not seen a double miss from a company in some time. And then last but not least, the search revenue decelerated quarter over quarter. Capex is rising because the company is investing aggressively in selling its own chips. So there's a lot.To unpack still in alphabet, but the street is just selling the stock first and asking questions later. They didn't like anything that this company did, despite the company out there on that earnings call doing what they would typically do, talk about all the positive, amazing things, and I didn't even put it on this list too.YouTube didn't blow everybody away, and I've been talking about how Netflix is losing share to YouTube. I still came away with that sense, but YouTube also didn't live up to expectations in the most recent quarter. Now the other side of this trade.Is Microsoft and Microsoft is getting some love, guys. It is getting some love. And here's one of the reasons why this beautiful chart I shared with the team, they put up on here this morning, and it's right on. God, I love AlphaSpace. I just love what we're doing with AlphaSpace, guys. But anyway, this chart, this is Azure sales growth now.Microsoft, in my view, historically trades off these Azure numbers, but especially now as you can see that acceleration in Azure sales. This has really been very, very good story here for all things Microsoft. Azure accelerating in the street love to see that. They love to see that. They love to see an earnings beat. We're not talking about a double miss from Microsoft like I just talked about for Alphabet. They liked that they saw that the guidance for Azure growth, 49% to 50%, also really good.So they're signaling another acceleration Microsoft off of this number. There's the big beautiful alpha space. I love alpha space. I use this all the time. It's so good. And then the Capex, you know, you just heard me talk about Alphabet going negative free cash flow with its results because it's investing so aggressively in all things AI. The thing is, Microsoft's Capex came in about $5 billion below estimates. So that's why the market is embracing this Microsoft quarter compared to Alphabet. Now look.I will leave it with this. I'm not going to say Alphabet had an abysmal quarter. I mean, a billion Gemini users is really strong. However, it's all about optics when it comes to investing. It's all about forward growth rates, and you came off of both of these quarters thinking Microsoft is the one that is going to see accelerating growth rates over the next, let's say 12 months, and perhaps Alphabet is the one that is going to show decelerating growth rates over the next 12 months in search, perhaps in YouTube. So that's why you're seeing really stark differences between how both of these big cap tech names are trading.And then there's that, and then there's my old fan that I love talking about, and it's been a busy morning, as you can see.That's Chipotle.And I can't say that I was blown away by this Chipotle earnings call.Wasn't blown away by the quarter. Low single digit sales growth for Chipotle, not exactly great. I mean this wasn't an old school Chipotle quarter driving double digit same store sales growth in the US and talking about traffic is absolutely ripping, uh, in, in so far quarter date. That wasn't the story. The thing is this, uh, Chipotle managed to deliver a little upside in same store sales considering the stock has really done nothing but gone down this year. The market liked to hear that. They like they're coming out with brisket.In the most recent, in the most recent quarter, they think the street thinks that's going to be a big sales driver, and I put there brisket or bust. That is the, that's the bottom line. Low income diners also coming back to the chain when they're not offering promotions, I think because of those new snack bowls. I'm one of those folks eating those snack bowls at Chipotle. They are an affordable price point. The next new approach to menu pricing and inflation.Concerns. I'd watch this. I think Chipotle is gonna raise prices a good bit next year to offset the inflation. Historically, Chipotle has not done that. They've eaten those price increases, but still, I think Chipotle is gonna hike prices next year and maybe earn some fatter margins. Outside of that, there's a lot of innovation going on, uh, in fast food, and I, I wanna bring up something I picked up from Wingstop and its CEO, uh, Michael Skipworth. I've talked to him, uh, through the years. He just dropped a pretty, uh, big new item. Take a listen to what he said about it.

Just this weekend and this week you have an opportunity to try a really unique flavor that may sound a little odd at face value, Sour Patch Kids wing flavor, but it's actually incredibly delicious and so I would encourage you all to go out and try it, but it's a way for us to innovate with flavor, create some new news for ourguests.

And this is my public service for all of you. Uh, I am training for my next High Rocks race in, uh, Nashville. I shouldn't be eating any of this, but the team wanted me to try the Sour Patch, uh, wings. They know I'm a Sour Patch guy. Our whole studio now smells like Wingstop. Historically, I like Wingstop.I eat it once a year for the Super Bowl. Uh, wow, guys, you guys got me the bonus. You got me the boneless wings. You guys are good. You guys know me really well. Can you see this? I gotta hold it up higher, guys. Like I'm just, this is real-time stuff, guys. This is not, this is not planned, uh, it's glazy. Oh man, my, uh, like I'm not gonna get this off my hands for the next 5 years. So you can see like little pieces of Sour Patch Kids. Uh, shout out Max Grader, uh, for going out and getting these things bright and early. They're hot, they smell really, really spicy, and I can't believe we gonna eat it, but I'm gonna eat it anyway.There's something, there's something bizarrely good.About these, it's kind of like, it tastes like a Sour Patch Cub.But like a mango sweet sauce, and I can't believe I'm eating this at like 9:45. I have my next guest, Dan Sharon over at Brooks watching me off camera. I'm, I'm like this is a total dope. Um, this is really good. The food is good, but this is the type of innovation that sticks out.Fast food has lost, I think it's innovative edge. They're afraid to take risks because they're battling inflation. They're closing restaurants. It's just nice, it's this type of stuff from the folks over at Wingstop that I think cuts through the clutter.It's not gimmicky, it tastes good, almost tastes like a boneless Chinese spare rib. I'll leave it at that, I gotta wipe my hands, I wanna talk some running shoes. That's really good guys, it's really good, thank you, Max.We're going out and getting that. This is not coming off anytime soon, but what it is what it is. I'm wanna talk some running shoes because we are New York City Marathon's coming up, and, uh, I'm excited to watch it. I'm not competing in it. I have to do my training and push sleds. I wanna bring in Dan Sheridan. Brooks Running CEO has been watching me eat these saucy wings off camera. Dan, I'm sorry, man. I'm, I'm not gonna shake your hand. I'll give you a left hand fist bump. Uh, good