Shares in Snowflake (SNOW) surged by almost 8% in pre-market trading after falling 2% in the previous session. The company’s strong outlook, underpinned by growing demand for artificial intelligence tools, buoyed the stock.
The cloud-based data platform beat analysts’ estimates for its first-quarter earnings and issued a revenue forecast for the current quarter that topped Wall Street expectations.
The company’s stock is now up 16% since the start of the year.
Snowflake has made a strategic push into AI, partnering with OpenAI and Anthropic to help customers build and deploy more advanced models. The integrations are aimed at simplifying how businesses manage and interpret large volumes of data across cloud environments.
The company also continues to benefit from rising enterprise spending, as businesses increasingly shift their data workloads to the cloud and invest in AI capabilities.
Snowflake said it expects full-year revenue to reach $4.325bn (£3.224bn), representing a 25% increase from the previous year.
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“We believe the bump to full-year revenue despite the macro backdrop illustrates management’s confidence in the durability of near-term demand,” said Kirk Materne, an analyst at Evercore ISI, in a note to clients.
Sridhar Ramaswamy, Snowflake’s chief executive, said in a statement: “Our focus on making the Snowflake platform easy to use, to enable fluid access to data wherever it sits, and trusted for enterprise-grade performance, is what makes us differentiated.” He added that the company aims to “extend this value throughout the full data lifecycle.”
Despite reporting a net loss of $430m on a GAAP basis, Snowflake posted adjusted earnings of 24 cents per share, beating analysts’ consensus of 21 cents.
“We favour [Snowflake] as our top AI breakout play, with more meaningful AI upside in the back half of the year,” said Brent Thill, analyst at Jefferies, in a note ahead of the earnings report.
NYSE – Delayed Quote • USD
At close: 21 May at 16:00:02 GMT-4
Shares in Nike (NKE) were slightly higher ahead of the US opening bell, after dropping 4% at the last session’s close, as the sportswear giant announced plans to raise prices on selected products and resume selling directly on Amazon (AMZN) in the US.
The Oregon-based company said the changes are part of its “seasonal planning” strategy, and made no reference to ongoing trade tensions or tariff policies under US president Donald Trump, which have upended global supply chains.
From next Sunday, Nike will increase prices on a range of footwear, clothing and equipment. Most shoes priced above $100 (£74.50) will rise by as much as $10, while apparel and gear will see increases between $2 and $10. The company said that the popular Air Force 1 trainers and shoes priced under $100 will be excluded from the hikes, as will children’s products and Jordan-branded clothing and accessories.
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“We regularly evaluate our business and make pricing adjustments as part of our seasonal planning,” Nike said in a statement.
The company also confirmed it will begin selling products directly on Amazon again, ending a six-year absence. Nike last partnered with Amazon in 2019 before pulling back as part of a broader shift toward its own direct-to-consumer channels.
NYSE – Delayed Quote • USD
At close: 21 May at 16:00:02 GMT-4
Shares in Zoom (ZM) closed lower and remained in negative territory in pre-market trading, despite earnings and revenue beats in its fiscal year 2026 first quarter.
For the three months ended 30 April, Zoom reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.43, up from $1.35 a year earlier and ahead of Wall Street expectations of $1.31. Revenue rose 3% year-on-year to $1.175bn, also beating analyst forecasts of $1.166bn.
The company ended the quarter with 4,192 customers contributing more than $100,000 in trailing 12-month revenue, an 8% increase from a year earlier. Zoom also reported a trailing 12-month net dollar expansion rate for enterprise customers of 98%, a key metric of growth and customer retention.
Despite the solid earnings and revenue performance, net cash flow fell to $489.3m from $588.2m in the same quarter last year. The company closed the quarter with $7.8bn in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.
NasdaqGS – Delayed Quote • USD
At close: 21 May at 16:00:01 GMT-4
The price of bitcoin (BTC-USD) has risen above $110,000 for the first time in its history, after surging nearly 50% since April.
The record-breaking rally takes the cryptocurrency above its previous all-time-high of just over $109,000, which it reached in January.
“Now that January’s high has been surpassed — and the 50% upside from April’s lows has been achieved — bitcoin enters blue sky territory with tailwinds in the form of institutional momentum and a favourable US regulatory environment,” Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of digital asset trading platform Nexo, told Reuters.
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Lawmakers in Washington are closing in on agreeing rules that will provide a regulatory framework for stablecoins, a form of digital dollar widely used for payments and trading in crypto markets. The tokens aim to maintain a steady value against the dollar but sit outside the regulated banking system.
“The US debt instability has probably helped too,” Deutsche Bank analysts said.
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Shares in EasyJet (EZJ.L) were lower as the airline reported a headline pre-tax loss of £394m for the six months to the end of March.
That is compared with losses of £350m a year ago, but represents a “slight improvement” of about £50m when the later timing of Easter this year is taken into account, the airline company said.
Seasonal demand for air travel means airlines often record losses in the winter followed by profits in the summer.
EasyJet said the number of passengers it carried in the first three months of the year was 18.2 million, up 8% compared with a year ago.
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Its package holiday arm recorded pre-tax profits of £44m for the six months to 31 March. That is a 42% increase year-on-year.
EasyJet chief executive Kenton Jarvis said: “We continue to see strong demand for EasyJet’s flights and holidays, as we attract more customers through our great fares, friendly service and unrivalled network of destinations.
“We are executing well against our strategy, to drive efficiency and enhance our customer experience both in the sky and on the ground.
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