Caterpillar slashes outlook; FedEx takes off; Apple to sign up for Google's cloud services

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Caterpillar (CAT) shares were sharply lower in early trading after the biggest maker of construction and mining equipment cut its sales and profit outlook for the first quarter. The company citing the slump in commodity prices and the slowdown in China.

FedEx (FDX) delivered a beat on both its top and bottom lines for the holiday quarter, as growth in online shopping helped boost revenue. The company also raised its profit outlook for the current year and said it would continue to increase capital spending to meet the growing demands of e-commerce.

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Williams-Sonoma (WSM), the home-goods retailer reported earnings and revenue that missed analysts' estimates due to a drop in same-store and e-commerce sales in its Pottery Barn brand. The company also gave a disappointing outlook for the current quarter.  

Alphabet (GOOGL), Google's parent company is in focus following reports that Apple (AAPL) signed a contract worth between $400 million and $600 million to use Google's Cloud Platform. Apple currently uses Amazon's (AMZN) and Microsoft's (MSFT) cloud services, but intends to end its reliance on all its rivals in the next few years, as it builds its own data centers, according to Re/Code.