The Eurozone economy is growing faster than expected, as is inflation

The results that were better than what was feared raised the prices of companies’ shares and caused a shock to the stock market. even the alphabet And the Microsoft failed Wall Street forecast.

The results showed that companies are not immune to problems such as supply chain disruptions, rising costs, and shifts in customer spending. But their giant companies are not as vulnerable to the various challenges sweeping the economy as small businesses Twitter And the Snap, owner of Snapchat.

During calls with analysts, company CEOs warned investors about the coming months, using words like “challenges” and “uncertainty.” Concerns about the economy have led some, including Alphabet, to slow the pace of hiring and take other precautions, but none have said they plan to start laying off workers.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai portrayed the slowing economy as an opportunity, saying the company will increase its focus and “will be more disciplined as we go.” He added, “When you’re in growth mode, it’s always hard to take the time to do all the adjustments you need to do, and moments like this give us a chance.”

In what many investors interpreted as a testament to industry optimism, Microsoft said it expects double-digit revenue growth for next year, and Amazon said it expects sales to increase at least 13% in the current quarter.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company would invest throughout the year to take a stake and build its business, while Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s chief financial officer, said it would have more products in stock and deliver faster.

“This is not a recession forecast,” said Shaun Stannard Stockton, president of Ensemble Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm that manages $1.3 billion. “If we avoid a severe recession, it’s clear that a lot of these companies will see a pickup in growth.”

Although Apple and Alphabet did not provide guidance, the companies bought back tens of billions of dollars in stock during this period. The $21.7 billion purchase of Apple and the $15.2 billion purchase of Alphabet saw companies believe their businesses will continue to grow in the coming years.

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, was far from the biggest tech companies, reporting the first drop in quarterly revenue since it went public a decade ago. Its problems were the result of increased competition from TikTok, which drained it from users and advertisers, and challenges from privacy changes on iPhones implemented by Apple.

The advertising market is expected to grow 8.4 percent this year and 6.4 percent in 2023, according to market research firm GroupM. Brian Wieser, GroupM’s head of business intelligence, said Facebook’s sales growth last year, when quarterly sales jumped 56 percent, made it unreasonable to continue growing.

Similar challenges have hit the e-commerce market. Convinced that the increase in online orders during the pandemic represents a fundamental change in the way people shop, Amazon has introduced an ambitious plan to open dozens of new warehouses. But as sales have slowed — with the number of items sold increasing just 1 percent last quarter — it has reversed course and decided to close, delay or cancel at least 35 warehouse openings.

Amazon’s smaller e-commerce competitor, Shopify, has said it will cut about 10 percent of its employees. Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify, said this year will be a “transition year in which e-commerce is largely reset” to its pre-Covid-19 growth levels.

The biggest obstacle for Apple has come from its reliance on China to manufacture most of its devices. In April, the company said it would lose about $4 billion in sales due to the closure of factories in Shanghai, where it makes iPads and Macs. But it still managed to increase its iPhone sales in this period by 3 percent and set a quarterly record for the number of people who traded Android smartphones for iPhones.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple has seen a “mixture of headwinds,” including supply restrictions, a rising dollar that has driven up prices for devices overseas and a slowdown in the global economy.

“When you think about the number of challenges this quarter, we feel really good about the growth that we put in,” Mr. Cook said. He added that the company would invest during the downturn, but it was “deliberate in doing so in recognition of the reality of the environment.”