Trending tickers: Microsoft, Netflix, Domino’s Pizza and Hargreaves Lansdown

Microsoft (MSFT)

Shares in the world’s most valuable company by market capitalisation lost ground in pre-market trading amid reports that television channels, airports, banks and even the London Stock Exchange (LSEG.L) are reporting technical glitches and organisations around the world have been knocked offline in a massive outage causing Windows computers to suddenly shut down.

Microsoft announced on its social media accounts that it was "investigating an issue impacting users' ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services."

It said customers may experience issues with multiple Azure services and its Microsoft 365 suite of apps. This could include “failures with service management operations and connectivity or availability of services.” Various Microsoft 365 services were impacted, including Teams.

Microsoft users worldwide have expressed their frustration and confusion on social media as they experienced similar shutdowns on their computers.

Cyber security engineers pointed to a problem with Crowdstrike (CRWD), a piece of antivirus software, which appeared to be causing computers to crash.

Netflix (NFLX)

Shares in Netflix were slightly lower amid mixed results that showed revenue and subscriber growth but weaker-than-expected guidance for the third quarter.

The streaming giant delivered the growth that its high-price stock demands, thanks to better-than-expected growth in the subscribers signing up to watch its hit series Bridgerton, Baby Reindeer and The Gentlemen.

The streamer said its ad-supported memberships grew 34% during the period compared to the same quarter last year. Netflix’s global paid memberships rose 16.5% year over year to 278 million.

However, Netflix said it expects the pace of its subscriber additions to slow in the third quarter.

Revenue was roughly $9.6bn, up 17% compared to the year-earlier period, driven primarily by the increase in average paid memberships.

Netflix said it now expects full-year reported revenue growth of 14% to 15%, compared with previous guidance of 13% to 15%.

Read more: FTSE 100 LIVE: European stocks slump as Microsoft IT outage hits airlines, banks and media firms

The streaming service also announced it will start phasing out its Basic plan, its cheapest advertising-free plan, which costs $11.99 per month in the United States.

The company had previously stopped accepting new sign-ups for the Basic plan, instead pushing customers to Netflix’s ad-supported plan, which costs $6.99 per month. However, existing users were allowed to keep the basic plan.

Domino's Pizza (DPZ)

Domino’s Pizza saw shares crash over 13% in Thursday’s session and was basically flat ahead of the US opening bell after its Q2 results fell short.

The company reported a 7.2% increase in global retail sales to $4.43bn in the second quarter – that's those coming from both franchised and owned stores – with US store sales rising 6.8% to $2.22bn and international sales gaining 7.7% to $2.21bn.

Total revenues came in at $1.10bn, up 7% on the previous year but slightly below what the market was expecting.

It also warned of slower third-quarter comparable sales and trimmed its target for new international store openings, sending its shares down 13%.

Read more: Stacking supermarket shelves helped me launch one of world's fastest-growing travel companies

The company's target of opening more than 925 international outlets for the year is expected to fall short by about 275 after its Australia-based master franchisee said earlier this week it was closing low-volume stores in Japan and France.

For the US market, it expects comparable sales to rise 3% or more in the third and fourth quarters, compared with 4.8% reported in the second quarter.

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L)

Hargreaves Lansdown recorded a record high of £155.3bn in assets under administration last quarter, after a jump in new customers before the end of the tax year in April.

In a trading statement, bosses said net new clients jumped 85% in the three months to the end of June.

The Bristol-based investment group brought in £1.5bn net new business in the three months to June 30.

Hargreaves Lansdown also revealed that talks with a private equity consortium interested in acquiring the fund supermarket have been extended.

“Discussions between Hargreaves Lansdown and the consortium, as well as the negotiation of definitive transaction documentation, remain ongoing,” the statement said.

The deadline has now been extended until 5pm on 5 August, according to a statement from Hargreaves Lansdown.

Hargreaves Lansdown has been in discussions with CVC, Nordic Capital and Platinum Ivy, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, for the past month over a possible deal.

The original for the consortium to make a firm offer for Hargreaves Lansdown or walk away was 19 July.

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