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Comment by nostromo | Hacker News Reader

"Alphabet cracks $100B in annual revenue as advertising soars" was the original article title.

As the earnings release progressed, Reuters decided to change the title to, "Alphabet's earnings miss Wall St. estimates as spending grows"

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Always fun to see how two correct interpretations of the exact same number can be seen as correct vs misleading depending on the tone of the writer.

Or the market's reaction following the announcement. I would imagine that they have to have two draft titles ready for every piece written about earnings announcements.

Not far off. On big announcements for economic releases and earnings reports there are multiple pieces written and when the reporter gets the numbers (sometimes under embargo) they choose the piece, fill in the blanks, make some finishing touches, and send it out.

The market reactions however are driven by automated systems that get machine digestible metrics and reactions are programmed in ahead of time. The market literally adjusts at the speed of light.

Absolutely. Also continually interesting to me to see response, given Google gives no guidance, compared to other companies that provide guidance and then 'miss' resulting estimates.

(Disclosure: I work at Google)

What do you mean? Google might not give guidance but they still certainly miss street consensus.

As Alphabet doesn't give earnings guidance, it should read "Wall St. estimates miss Alphabet's earnings as spending grows".

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