Another day of interesting knowledge gained from all the earnings calls/I guess Covid is still a thing

I'll start with earnings which still pointing to a mixed bag economy.

From Google/Alphabet:

To give you an idea of their data center buildout, and all the construction needs when doing so, "In 2024, we broke ground on 11 new cloud regions and data center campuses in places like South Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, and around the world." And "today, cloud customers consume more than eight times the compute capacity for training and inferencing compared to 18 months ago. We'll continue to invest in our cloud business to ensure we can address the increase in customer demand."

"Strong growth in Search and YouTube advertising was partially offset by y/o/y decline in network revenues. In terms of vertical performance, the 13% increase in search and other revenues was led by financial services followed by retail. The 14% growth in YouTube advertising revenues was driven by strong spend on US election advertising with combined spend from both parties almost doubling from what we saw in the 2020 elections."

"With respect to CapEx, our reported CapEx in the 4th quarter was $14 billion, primarily reflecting investments in our technical infrastructure with the largest component being investment in servers, followed by data centers to support the growth of our business across Google Services, Google Cloud and Google DeepMind...We expect to invest approximately $75 billion in CapEx in 2025." Thus, a faster run rate pace than in Q4.

The stronger dollar clipped their revenue growth. "At the current spot rates, we expect a larger headwind to our revenues from the strengthening of the US dollar relative to key currencies in Q1 vs Q4 2024."

Stanley Black & Decker finished their quarter "Against a mixed macroeconomic backdrop." And, "Aggregate market demand is expected to remain muted but relatively stable in the first half with the potential for a positive inflection later in the year supported by strength in professional construction as well as aerospace and industrial fastening."

From Simon Property when asked about the state of the consumer: