Opinion: Microsoft gave Wall Street hope, but then the cloud forecast turned dark

Microsoft Corp. sparked a relief rally for the cloud Tuesday, then rained on that parade after less than two hours of joy.

Microsoft
MSFT,
-0.22%
reported slightly disappointing holiday-quarter results, but the Azure cloud-computing business topped Wall Street’s expectations and initially sent shares higher in after-hours trading. Other cloud businesses — including the only rival believed to have a bigger market share than Microsoft,…