Alphabet reported better than expected top- and bottom-lines for the second quarter after the bell tonight.

• Revenue $84.74 billion, estimate $84.37 billion

• Revenue ex-TAC $71.36 billion, estimate $70.7 billion

• EPS $1.89, estimate $1.84

Cloud revenues were particularly strong as the rest of the business segments were basically in line (with Ad revenue solid)...

Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer; CFO said:

“We delivered revenues of $85 billion, up 14% year-on-year driven by Search as well as Cloud, which for the first time exceeded $10 billion in quarterly revenues and $1 billion in operating profit.

As we invest to support our highest growth opportunities, we remain committed to creating investment capacity with our ongoing work to durably re-engineer our cost base.”

Sundar Pichai, CEO, said:

“Our strong performance this quarter highlights ongoing strength in Search and momentum in Cloud. We are innovating at every layer of the AI stack.

Our longstanding infrastructure leadership and in-house research teams position us well as technology evolves and as we pursue the many opportunities ahead.”

The initial kneejerk reaction was 3-4% lower (perhaps on the lack of big beat), but that has reversed and GOOGL is trading higher in the after-hours...

Let's see if this can hold...