Microsoft to Report Q2 Results on Jan 28, AI Business May Be Turning Point

Wells Fargo lowered the firm's price target on Microsoft to $665 from $700 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The firm believes that AI is still "the name of the 2026 game." Wells sees three key ways to play, namely infrastructure, incumbents, and innovation. While adoption will likely be uneven, secular trend will ultimately drive 2026 performance, it adds.

Northland names Nebius a top pick for 2026 and reiterates an Outperform rating on the shares with a $211 price target. The firm sees the company's debt being backed by the Microsoft (MSFT) contract and visibility into where 2.5GW of power will be sourced will be key catalysts for the shares to more than double. The growing period, which is now at three months, to secure debt with respect to the $17B Microsoft contract announced in September likely has investors concerned, the analyst tells investors in a research note. However, Northland's discussions with industry participants suggest the growing period of time for Nebius to secure the debt is "100% around managing the near 0% probability of MSFT not needing the contracted capacity or exercising the right to make partial payments or receive credits as renumeration in the very low probability scenario NBIS fails to meet certain agreed upon service levels." It says violation of service levels is a very low probability.

"Game On" is The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.VIDEO GAME SPENDING:Circana analyst Mat Piscatellathe release of Activision's"Call of Duty: Black Ops 7" marked the 18th consecutive year that a "CoD" franchise release has been the best-selling game of its release month, while PS5led hardware in both unit and dollar sales for the month of November. Total projected spending across video game hardware, content and accessories fell 4% when compared to a year ago, to $5.9B, in November in the U.S. Hardware, accessory and console content declines drove the change. The average price paid for a new unit of video game hardware in the US during November 2019 was $235. In November 2025 it was $439. 3.9M units of video game hardware sold in the US in November 2019. In November 2025 it was 1.6M, Piscatella noted. PlayStation 5 was November's best-selling hardware in both units and dollars, the first time this has occurred since the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo Switch 2 ranked 2nd for November across both units and dollars. Other top-selling games for the month were Electronic Arts'"Battlefield 6," Take-Two's"NBA 2K26," EA's "Madden NFL 26" and "EA Sports FC 26," Nintendo's "Pokemon Legends: Z-A," and Sony's "Ghost of Yotei."OVERTIME WORK:Staff at Sony'sNaughty Dog games studio, known for the "Last of Us" and "Uncharted" franchises, are working mandatory overtime to finish a demo of their upcoming title "Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet," as the studio infamous for crunching on projects revives a now frowned-upon practice in the games industry, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. For the past seven weeks, the developer has been pushing employees to work extra long hours to prepare for an upcoming review of the demo by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony's PlayStation business, Schreier says, citing people familiar with the situation. The game is set for release in mid-2027, the author says, citing people familiar with the schedule.BUY NINTENDO:Freedom Capital upgraded Nintendoto Buy from Hold with a 13,340 yen price target. The shares have come under significant pressure in recent weeks, declining 20% in the month of December alone driven by concerns around memory pricing, but commentary from Nintendo suggests that memory pricing concerns may be overdone and the company is still in "the early innings of the promising" Switch 2 cycle, the firm tells investors.HOGWARTS LEGACY:Warner Bros. Discoveryits 2023 video game "Hogwarts Legacy," a game based on the "Harry Potter" franchise, has sold 40M units total. The game is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2.Clickto check out recent Media Buzz Sentiment on Warner Bros. Discovery as measured by TipRanks.MORE VIDEO GAME NEWS:Disneydoesn'tRobloxa safe platform.A legalbetween Sonyand Tencentover the release of Tencent's game "Light of Motiram" has concludeD.