Can it get any quieter? Preliminary volume on Wednesday for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) was 27.2 million shares. For the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ), it was a paltry 18.3 million shares. The 50-day average for SPY is 48M shares and the 200-day is 68M. For the QQQ, and the 50-day is 39M and the 200-day is 52M. We suppose that means that a lot of people are on vacation or a lot of people were unwilling to trade ahead of Nvidia's earnings release. Yet in no surprise, Nvidia beat and raised and was up 4% after hours (AH), giving the whole semiconductor complex a nice boost. The real AH action was in software, with Salesforce.com (CRM) spiking 13% and CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) soaring 12%. Could we actually have a period when both semis and software are ripping higher? Now that would be powerful!

Meta Platforms operates the world's largest family of social networking websites, including the flagship Facebook site, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Reels, and Threads. The sites enable users to communicate with friends and family by posting content; comment on others' posts; share photographs, website links, and videos; message; and play games. The company also partners with application developers to add functionality to the sites and allows users to pay for virtual goods and services through its Payments function. Meta's Superintelligence Labs is one of the pioneers in GenAI research, and its Reality Labs segment develops and sells new computing form factors like virtual reality headsets and smart glasses. Meta derives about 63% of its revenue from outside the U.S.

Meta is the largest social media company in the world, boasting close to 4 billion monthly active users worldwide. The firm's "Family of Apps," its core business, consists of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. End users can leverage these applications for a variety of different purposes, from keeping in touch with friends to following celebrities and running digital businesses for free. Meta packages customer data, gleaned from its application ecosystem and sells ads to digital advertisers. While the firm has been investing heavily in its Reality Labs business, it remains a very small part of Meta’s overall sales.

Apple is among the largest companies in the world, with a broad portfolio of hardware and software products targeted at consumers and businesses. Apple’s iPhone accounts for the majority of the firm's sales, and Apple’s other products, such as the Mac, iPad, and Watch, are designed around the iPhone as the focal point of an expansive software ecosystem. Apple has progressively worked to add new applications, such as streaming video, subscription bundles, and augmented reality. The firm designs its own software and semiconductors and works with subcontractors such as Foxconn and TSMC to build its products and chips. Slightly less than half of Apple’s sales come directly through its flagship stores, with the majority coming indirectly through partnerships and distribution.