Sales at Azure, the closely watched cloud computing division, grew 48% to $33.2 billion during the quarter ending in September, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Microsoft forecasts second-quarter sales of up to $97.1 billion and Azure growth of 49%-50%, as strong cloud demand and lower-than-expected spending lift shares. Microsoft's Azure growth target, Alphabet's cloud momentum and capex plans in focus as both report after US market close on October 28.