Microsoft on Wednesday forecast cloud business growth and total sales for the second fiscal quarter that would exceed Wall Street expectations, driving its shares up over 5% in after-hours trading. This followed Microsoft's first-quarter cloud revenue surpassing expectations, with Azure cloud computing business growing 48% and free cash flow reaching $18.6 billion, $10 billion higher than analysts' forecasts. The company expects Azure growth of 49% to 50% in the second fiscal quarter, higher than analysts' projected 47.6%; total sales are anticipated to be between $96 billion and $97.1 billion, exceeding the expected $95.6 billion.