Stock Market Today, Sept. 25: Microsoft Stock Jumps 4% After Revamping Copilot With Code Generation and Agentic AI Tools

Source Motley_fool

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), an enterprise software and cloud infrastructure provider, closed at $516.17. The stock rose after Microsoft unveiled a Copilot revamp. Investors are watching to see AI adoption rates and cloud demand in the upcoming quarters. Trading volume reached 37.9M shares, coming in nearly 15% above its three-month average of 32.9M shares.

How the markets moved today

S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC) closed at 7,742, up 0.49%, while the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) finished at 27,069, up 0.48%. Among large-cap software, cloud computing, and enterprise productivity technology rivals, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) closed at $137.10, down 1.75%, while Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) closed at $343.92, up 0.46%, as investors kept focusing on AI cloud demand and Microsoft's spending plans.

What this means for investors

Microsoft highlighted an array of new Copilot capabilities today, including coding tools and a persistent AI agent, as it tries to develop its AI offerings beyond its original "chat assistant" AI.

Spending over $115 billion on capex, mostly for data centers and AI infrastructure in 2026, MSFT stock (and most of the Magnificent Seven) will be under close scrutiny as the market waits for an ROI on these massive outlays.

Today's positive market reaction suggests it views Copilot's new updates as a step in the right direction, but it is still very early innings in the AI transformation, so investors shouldn't overreact one way or the other based solely on today's news.

That said, Microsoft trades at 21 times cash from operations -- slightly below its five-year average of 25 -- so if its investments pay off, there is ample room for upside in the reasonably priced stock.

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Josh Kohn-Lindquist has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Microsoft, and Oracle. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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