What's moving markets today: April 25, 2019

Microsoft (MSFT) crossed the threshold of a $1 trillion valuation this morning shortly after the stock market opened.

Rising sales in its first quarter earnings release boosted its share price. The stock was last up about 4%.

Whether it's a day for the books remains to be seen. Microsoft's market capitalization will be determined by its closing price, rather than its highest level during intraday trading.

Arch rival Apple (AAPL) closed with the magical $1 trillion valuation in August last year, but has since fallen below that threshold. Amazon (AMZN) reached the level in September, but only during intraday trading. Both Apple and Amazon are due to report earnings today and tomorrow, which could boost their shares — and make the $1 trillion mark reachable again.

Southwest Airlines (LUV) exclusively uses Boeing 737 aircraft, but CEO Gary Kelly said its fleet lineup could change.

"That doesn't mean we will be an all 737 carrier into perpetuity," Kelly said on CNBC earlier.

Kelly said he's "not happy" about the grounding the Boeing 737 Max, which consists of less than 5% of the airline's fleet, but he's not concerned that Boeing (BA) is putting speed ahead of safety.

"Our negotiations and our relationship with Boeing is something I’ll take up with them privately," he said.

Earlier today, the airline revealed in its earnings that the grounding of its 737 Max planes, the government shutdown, and other "several unexpected events" cost the airline $200 million in the first quarter.

About an hour into the trading day, the Dow, the S&P 500 are down and the Nasdaq has given back its earlier gains.

3M (MMM) continues to be the biggest drag on the Dow, dropping 10.5%. Equipment maker Caterpiller (CAT), which was already weak following yesterday's earnings, added to its slide and was down 2.5%.

3M is also an S&P component, and one of the biggest losers in that index as well. It was only outdone by semiconductor producer Xilinx (XLNX), which fell nearly 15% after it reported earnings earlier.

Kenny Mitchell will be Snap's first Chief Marketing Officer.

He begins in June, and will report to CEO Evan Spiegel. Mitchell will lead the company's consumer and product marketing. Previously, he was the VP of brand content and engagement at McDonald’s (MCD).

Mitchell joins the company as Snap (SNAP) works to boost its marketing efforts to attract new users. Snapchat recently revamped its Android app, which could be key to expanding its audience.

On Snap's earnings call this week, Spiegel acknowledged the company will have to win back Android users who had a bad experience with the old version of the app. Part of that effort will be through a marketing campaign.

Stocks were mixed at the start of the trading day, as investors await further earnings reports.

Microsoft (MSFT) opened higher after yesterday’s strong earnings, rising enough to bring its market capitalization above $1 trillion immediately after the market open. Shares were last up 3.7%.

3M (MMM) reported weakening sales and slashed its forward guidance, which is weighing on its stock and the Dow. The company’s shares were off 10.2%.

Facebook (FB), which reported after the bell yesterday, was up 7.2%. The social media giant said it expected to pay up to $5 billion in a fine to the US Federal Trade Commission, but that doesn’t seem to faze investors.

A polar vortex, extreme flooding and massive amounts of snow in the first few months of the year across the United States has hurt UPS.

The shipping company said the severe weather shaved $80 million off its US bottom line in its first quarter, which is why it reported a lower-than-expected profit.

Earnings-per-share for the quarter came in slightly below expectations, but UPS still expects its full-year 2019 profit to remain on target.

UPS (UPS) shares are down 7% in early trading.

Microsoft is en route to top $1 trillion in market cap today.

Microsoft (MSFT) shares were up nearly 5% in premarket trading at $131.15, forecasting a valuation above the psychologically-important $1 trillion mark at the market open.

The tech company was boosted by Wednesday's first quarter earnings report. Microsoft reported a 41% jump in revenues for its commercial cloud business.

Apple (AAPL) is the only US company that has reached the $1 trillion market capitalization valuation so far, zooming past the mark last year. On Wednesday, Apple's market cap stood at round $977 billion at the close. With the company's earnings due on Friday, it could rally to top the key level again.

Amazon (AMZN) is in a similar boat, with its market cap standing at $936 billion at Wednesday's close. Amazon is reporting later in the day and could take course on the $1 trillion valuation.

This won't make Tesla (TSLA) executives feel any better a day after it's horrid earnings report.

Daniel Ives, a once-bullish Tesla analyst at Wedbush Securities, is expressing reservations about the company:

Ives said he's throwing in the "white towel on the name" and is downgrading the stock to a neutral from outperform and slashed his price target on the stock.

He expressed a loss of "confidence in the story with no pilot on the plane to navigate through this severe demand turbulence."

Tesla's shares are down more than 1% in premarket trading.

3M's (MMM), which makes Post-It notes and Scotch tape, had a "disappointing start to the year," according to its CEO.