Here are five things you need to know this morning.

Big beats at Google and Microsoft: Earnings from tech giants Alphabet and Microsoft were hotly anticipated on Thursday, and the numbers from both companies came in ahead of expectations. Google was the big winner, with revenue increasing 15 per cent to more than US$80 billion, and profit rising from $15 billion to just over $23 billion. The strong showing prompted the company to announce plans to buy back $70 billion of its own shares and implement a quarterly dividend for the first time in its history. AI was a major driver of growth, as it was at Microsoft where the numbers weren’t quite as eye-popping but still solidly positive. Revenue rose 17 per cent to $61.9 billion during the quarter, and profit was higher, too. Google stock is up by about 11 per cent in premarket trading while Microsoft is up by about 5 per cent on the upbeat outlook. After a touch-and-go few weeks, the Magnificent 7 are looking a lot more magnificent once again.

Big Oil earnings disappoint: While Big Tech is shining brightly, it was a different story at Big Oil on Friday. Chevron shares were down by almost two per cent this morning while Exxon fared even worse after the two oil majors posted quarterly numbers that mostly failed to meet analyst expectations. Exxon’s adjusted profit came in 13 cents below the Bloomberg Consensus despite surging crude output from its marquee development in Guyana. And Chevron, meanwhile, fell short of revenue forecasts even as it surpassed per-share earnings and oil-production expectations. Both stocks lost ground in early trading despite an uptick in the price of crude oil.

Anglo American says no thanks to BHP offer: The deal is far from dead, but the proposed takeover of copper miner Anglo Amercan by BHP isn’t being welcomed with open arms by the target company. Management at Anglo has rejected the all-stock offer saying it “significantly undervalues” the company, calling the attempt “opportunistic.” The shares don’t seem to be losing much of the value they gained when the offer was announced, which is a sign that some sort of deal is still likely, whether it’s via a sweetened bid from BHP, or someone else. It’s worth noting that BHP’s initial offer still values the company well below what it was worth a year ago. Indeed, Anglo management isn’t the only ones who think BHP’s initial offer wasn’t going to get it done. “I can’t imagine too many longer-term Anglo shareholders would take this initial offer seriously,” said Tim Elliott, portfolio manager & head of mining at Regal Funds Management Pty Ltd., which owns shares in both companies.

PCE data shows inflation remains stubborn: It’s not exactly a household name, but as economic indicators go, we got a pretty important one this morning in the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released the PCE number for March this morning, and it showed that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation was still rising at a brisk pace in March. It rose by 0.3 per cent during the month and at an annual pace of 2.8 per cent. That’s just slightly ahead of expectations, and another sign that the price of goods and services in the U.S. continues to increase at a worrisome pace. It was only a few months ago that markets were expecting multiple rate cuts by the Fed this year, but after a slew of data in recent weeks showing stubbornly high inflation, swaps are now pricing in perhaps only one cut this year, and not until November.

Caisse lays off 7 per cent of staff: Quebec’s provincial pension fund the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec has laid off about 160 employees, or seven per cent of its workforce, with the merger of two real estate businesses it owns, Bloomberg reports. Chief Executive Officer Charles Emond provided the details to a committee of Quebec’s legislature on Wednesday and said there will be more job cuts over the next two years as the fund combines property owner Ivanhoe Cambridge with Otera Capital, a commercial real estate lender.  The fund manager posted a 6.2 per cent loss on its property portfolio last year — the only asset class for which it had a negative return.