市場新聞與洞察
透過專家洞察、新聞與技術分析,助你領先市場,制定交易決策。

Expected earnings date: Wednesday, 28 January 2026 (US, after market close) / early Thursday, 29 January 2026 (AEDT)
Key areas in focus
Intelligent Cloud (Azure)
Azure remains Microsoft’s primary earnings swing factor. Markets are watching to see whether any growth reflects demand strength or capacity constraints, and how AI-related workloads are impacting margins.
Productivity and Business Processes
Microsoft 365, Office, and LinkedIn are sources of recurring revenue for Microsoft. Growth, pricing discipline, and client churn remain the key variables that markets will be watching.
Personal Computing
Windows, devices, and gaming are more cyclical. Stabilisation of PC demand and gaming engagement remain secondary sources of revenue but are still noteworthy.
Artificial intelligence
Approaches around the monetisation of Microsoft’s AI play are still developing. Trends in enrolment and infrastructure cost are expected to be key factors.
What happened last quarter
Microsoft reported results ahead of consensus, supported by steady cloud demand and resilient enterprise software revenues.
Azure and other cloud services' growth remained a central focus, alongside commentary on AI-related investment and capacity.
Last earnings key highlights:
- Revenue: US$77.7 billion
- Earnings per share (EPS): US$3.72 (GAAP) and US$4.13 (non-GAAP adjusted)
- Intelligent Cloud revenue: US$30.9 billion
- Azure and other cloud services: up 40% year on year
- Operating income: US$38.0 billion
How the market reacted last time
Microsoft shares fell in after-hours trading following the release, despite the beating of headline numbers, as investors focused on AI investment intensity, capacity constraints and related implications for future margins.
What’s expected this quarter
Bloomberg consensus points to continued revenue growth led by cloud services, alongside broadly stable margins despite elevated capex.
Bloomberg consensus reference points (January 2026):
- Revenue: about US$68 to US$69 billion
- EPS: about US$3.10 to US$3.20 (adjusted)
- Azure growth: mid-to-high 20% year on year (YoY) (constant currency)
- Operating margin: expected to remain broadly stable
- Capex: expected to remain elevated, reflecting AI and cloud build-out
*All above points observed as of 16 January 2026.
Expectations
Sentiment appears cautious. Microsoft can remain sensitive to any cloud, margin, or guidance disappointment, particularly where investors interpret investment intensity as open-ended.
Price action traded within an established range of US$472 and US$490 recently, but has moved below this in the last week.
Listed options were pricing an indicative move of around ±2% based on near-dated options expiring after 28 January and an at-the-money options-implied ‘expected move’ estimate.
Implied volatility was about 33.5% annualised into the event as observed on Barchart at 11:00 AEDT on 16th January 2026.
These are market-implied estimates and may change; actual post-earnings moves can be larger or smaller.
What this means for Australian traders
Microsoft’s earnings may influence near-term sentiment across US technology indices, particularly the Nasdaq, with potential spillover into global equity risk appetite and, in turn, the ASX.
As a major technology stock, and with Tesla (TSLA) also scheduled to report after the US close on the same day, volatility in Nasdaq-linked products may increase while futures markets remain open.
Important risk note
Immediately after the US close and into the early Asia session, Nasdaq 100 (NDX) futures and related CFD pricing can reflect thinner liquidity, wider spreads, and sharper repricing around new information.
Such an environment can increase gap risk and execution uncertainty relative to regular-hours conditions.

The ability to set up phone notifications for trading activity on your MT5 platform has many advantages including of course the opportunity to “Check-in” on the market whist on the move. It could be argued that this ability goes beyond simple convenience and in the case of “pending orders” could be viewed as an important part of risk management of trades that are opened through this method. Pending orders revisited Pending Orders are advanced entry orders that allow you to place an order onto the system that will be filled at a specific price level.
The key potential advantage is that you don’t have to be watching the market continuously for an order to be filled, and it can be filled at any time if the order is still active on the system. An example could be placing a “Buy Stop” order above an identified resistance level, so if the relevant currency pair or CFD moves to this price point then the order will be filled at your chosen price (You can still place a stop loss and profit target associated with the pending order). Although it a potentially attractive function of your Metatrader platform, one of the potential disadvantages is that without notifications set up you may not be aware that a trade has been entered until you are in a position to look at your trading platform on your PC for example.
Without this awareness of an “open” trade, the implications are: You will not be able to adjust a “trail stop” to lock in potential profit if the trade does go in your direction In the event of imminent economic data, you will not know to adjust such open positions to manage risks associated with this. Setting up phone notifications on your phone, is not only relatively simple but mitigates these potential disadvantages. Setting up notifications We will walk you through the set-up process on MT5 but is similar if you are using MT4.
Download the MT5 app on your mobile phone Allow to send “notifications”. Check in phone settings that it is set up. Open the app and go to messages in settings and find your Metaquote ID at the bottom of the screen.
Make a note of this (See diagram below). Open the MT5 platform on your PC In the tools menu, click on options and then the notifications tab. Enter your MetaquoteID in the pop-up box as shown below.
Click on test You should receive a notification on phone that set up is complete and subsequently with any orders you place and that are filled. Of course, feel free to contact the GO Markets team if you need additional support in setting this up at any time.

Many traders have the prudent approach that treats trading as you would a business. A critical component of this is to have a thorough knowledge of your expenditure in relation to your trading activity. With Share CFDs these are potentially fourfold, namely: Your cost of trading (e.g. brokerage) Your cost of holding a position The cost to enter a trade (your margin requirement) Potential cost of the data feed (for non-traders) Brokerage Traditionally, using a broker to trade shares incurs a fee for services of the placement and exit of a trade termed brokerage.
This is usually organised as a minimum flat fee or a percentage of the trade entered, whichever is the higher figure. The majority of Forex traders are used to not “officially” paying a brokerage. However, the bid/ask spread could be logically viewed as the cost of entry, as if you were to close a position immediately then you would be paying the difference between bid and ask prices.
Hence, although with shares you are essentially in a loss situation at the start because of brokerage, with Forex you are also in a loss position at the start of a trade, due to the spread. With CFD share trading, the brokerage applied to entry and exit is 0.08% of the overall position exposure or a fixed minimum charge of $10 - whichever is greater. For example. if you had entered a position with exposure of $10,000, the brokerage cost of this trade would be 10,000 x 0.08% = $8, therefore this would attract the minimum $10 brokerage.
Alternatively, if the position was exposure of $20,000, the brokerage would be $16. This will be considered in your profit/loss column on your platform. Holding costs As with Forex trading, if you choose to trade longer timeframes involving holding a position overnight, there is a debit or credit applied to your account for this.
This charge is dependent on the direction of the trade (i.e. long or short) and the ‘swap rate’ applied to the position direction. The value is calculated using a base rate of 2.5% and then: If it is a long trade the interbank rate is added to this If it is a short trade the short interbank rate is subtracted from this Rather than having to find the interest rate and doing the calculation yourself, to make it easy for you, the swap rate can be found by right-clicking on the CFD in the “market watch” box of your trading platform and subsequently clicking on “specifications”. Scrolling down the pop-up box will reveal the swap rates.
For example, on the day of writing this article the swap rates for BHP are as below So, a long trade with $20,000 of exposure to BHP with a swap of -4.05 is charged as (20,000 x 4.2%)/360 = $2.25 per day. Again, this daily holding charge (applied at 4.59pm US EST) will be visible on your trade box on your platform in the swap column and taken into account in your profit/loss column. The cost to enter a trade (your margin requirement) As with Forex, with CFDs you have the opportunity (as well as being aware of the risks) of using leverage to enter positions.
Unlike Forex, there is not a set margin, so as with index CFDs, each equity CFD has its own set margin level. Again, these may be found in the ‘specifications’ box. For example, ANZ has a margin of 0.05 or 0.5% applied, whereas with BHP the margin applied is 0.075 or 7.5% (See below) So as an example, If we take BHP at this margin rate and we open CFDs to the value of 10,000 the margin requirement on this position will be $750.
The potential cost of the data feed Most global exchanges, including the ASX, charge for a data-feed of live prices and other trading information e.g. volume. Often, these are passed onto individual clients, however, as part of the service we offer, you will get this live feed at no subscription charge whilst you are actively trading. Some of the information described above may be new to you, so if you need some clarity you can simply get in touch with us and we will always be happy to help.

When we first start to trade, or subsequently (as a more experienced trader) when we trade a new symbol or system we are often “excited” as we see a “hope” for better results. We often forget that the development of expertise in other areas we have in life (think about what you do in work now for example), you must invest time, effort, learning and making mistakes (providing you acknowledge and learn from them) to develop. This is not an overnight transformation, rather it may take several weeks if not months before you feel confident in your knowledge and skills.
It is bizarre therefore that we should expect anything different with trading development. To be clear, we respect and commend those who take the leap and move from demo to live account. After all, a demo platform ( you can trial a MetaTrader 4 or MT 5 demo account here ) will serve you in learning how the platform works, how to add indicators and get used to how markets move.
However, it is only when you start to have some “skin in the game” and are trading YOUR money, albeit with tiny positions to start with that you learn the most important lessons in trading and develop the appropriate mindset to begin to think about trading larger positions. All that been said, we see time and time again new traders or those trading a new system exhibiting three cardinal sins of the developmental trader, and decide to trade: a. With positions that are too big b.
Short cutting learning and system development c. Strategy skipping (i.e. moving from new system to new system) without meaningful measurement as to what works for you (and what doesn’t) or indeed whether the problem is YOU failing to trade a system religiously. These are all symptoms of impatience, of wanting to get massive returns quickly and without putting the hard yards in at the front end.
Remember this... The purpose of your trading when you start trading a live account should not be huge profit, rather it is to develop the confidence in your system, consistency in action and the measure whether what you are doing could be improved. Although it may seem strange to suggest, it is this and not, in the early stage of trading, the money (and level of profit) is most relevant in your potential lifelong career as a trader.
It is through patience, and adhering to that initial purpose that you can gain sufficient confidence and competence to trade larger positions (after all it is just moving a decimal point to go from 1 mini-lot to a standard lot) and put the right foundations in to move forward. Exercising patience to have the right things in place will serve you well for a potential lifetime of trading, to be impatient may mean your trading lasts but a few weeks or months. It is really that simple.

With the Brexit negations dominating the news flow over the last few weeks, you may forget there are other events taking place. On Thursday, the European Central Bank will announce its decision whether to increase, decrease or maintain the interest rates. The decision is scheduled to be announced at 12:45 PM UK time.
Why Is The Announcement Important? The European Central Bank is the central bank for the Eurozone, the countries which have adopted the Euro, including Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. ECB’s decision to increase, decrease or maintain the interest rate has a significant impact on the financial markets because changes in interest rates affect the exchange rate of the Euro, so it is one of the must-watch economic events in the calendar.
Expectations The European Central Bank has not changed its interest rates since March 2016 and analysts are forecasting that the rates will also remain unchanged in the upcoming meeting. All eyes will be on the European Central Banks President, Mario Draghi’s speech shortly after making the announcement. Hot topics will involve the Italian and the Brexit process, which has developed into complete chaos.
The French budget is another issue to address for the ECB after the French President Emmanuel Macron gave in to the recent anti-government protests by the ''yellow vest'' movement which will cause France to exceed the European Union’s budget deficit ceiling next year. Other ECB data releases to keep an eye out: ECB Marginal Lending Facility (12:45 PM London time) Previous: 0.25% Forecast: 0.25% ECB Deposit Facility Rate (12:45 PM London time) Previous: -0.40% Forecast: -0.40% This article is written by a GO Markets Analyst and is based on their independent analysis. They remain fully responsible for the views expressed as well as any remaining error or omissions.
Trading Forex and Derivatives carries a high level of risk. Sources: Go Markets MT4, Google, Datawrapper

One of the must-watch economic events this week will be the Bank of Canada interest rate decision. The decision is scheduled to be announced on Wednesday 29th May at 15:00 PM London time. Why Is The Announcement Important?
A bank interest rate is a rate at which a countries central bank lends money to local banks. The interest rate is charged by nations central or federal bank on loans advances to control the money supply in the economy and the banking sector. The Bank of Canada has an inflation target of 1% to 2% (currently 2%), and the interest rates are changed accordingly to meet the target.
Therefore, the Bank of Canada’s and other central bank rate decisions can have a significant impact on the financial markets. Expectations The last time the Bank of Canada raised its key interest rates was back in October of last year and it is expected that the rates will remain unchanged at 1.75%, according to the analysts. ''Recent economic data suggest that growth will be stronger than the Bank was expecting in the first quarter, providing a reason to not cut rates.'' ''At the same time, growth will remain below potential, providing no reason to lift rates. The Bank of Canada will, therefore, remain in a holding pattern for now and make any necessary adjustments to that stance based on incoming economic data'', Principal economist Alicia MacDonald said at the Conference Board of Canada last week.
Even though a rate decision is not expected, traders will be keeping a close eye to the upcoming meeting and the comments after the rate decision has been announced. To keep up to date with other upcoming economic events click here for our Economic Calendar. This article is written by a GO Markets Analyst and is based on their independent analysis.
They remain fully responsible for the views expressed as well as any remaining error or omissions. Trading Forex and Derivatives carries a high level of risk. Sources: DataWrapper, Bank of Canada

On Monday, UK Chancellor Phillip Hammond announced its latest budget, which did not have a massive impact on Pound Sterling. Now that is out of the way; it’s time to focus on another critical economic event – the Bank of England rate decision. The decision is set to be announced at 12:00 PM London time on Thursday.
About Interest Rates Interest rates are set by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee which is made of nine members – The Governor, the three Deputy Governors for Monetary Policy, Financial Stability and Markets & Banking, the Banks' Chief Economist and four external members appointed directly by the Chancellor. Bank of England has an inflation target of 2% (currently 2.4%), which is set by the Government and the Bank of England’s monetary policy is set to achieve the Government’s target. If the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate is more than 3% or less 1%, the Governor must write a letter to the Chancellor to explain why and outline how they will get the inflation to the target of 2%.
Expectations We have seen two rate hikes from the Bank of England in the last year, one in November 2017 and August of this year. The current interest rate stands at 0.75%, and according to the latest forecast, we will not see the Bank of England raising the rates in its upcoming meeting. After the announcement, all eyes will be on the Bank of England’s Governor Mark Carney press conference with his latest outlook on the British economy and Brexit.
The Governor recently mentioned that a limited and gradual series of interest rate hikes are required to keep the inflation in check. The markets are expecting a potential hike in May 2019, after the United Kingdom formally leaves the European Union. Other UK data to keep an eye on: • Bank of England Asset Purchase Rate (12:00 London time) Previous: £435 billion Forecast: £435 billion • Bank of England Inflation Report (12:00 London time) This article is written by a GO Markets Analyst and is based on their independent analysis.
They remain fully responsible for the views expressed as well as any remaining error or omissions. Trading Forex and Derivatives carries a high level of risk. Sources: Go Markets MT4, Google, Datawrapper