Charles Schwab Corp (NYSE: SCHW) said on Thursday that clients brought a record $190.4 billion in core net new assets to the Westlake, Texas-based brokerage in the third quarter, up 38% from a year earlier. The inflows helped lift quarterly revenue 17% to a record $7.2 billion, while GAAP earnings per share rose 29% to a record $1.62.

Core net new assets measure money clients move into Schwab, excluding large one-time flows such as acquisitions. The record came as markets weakened late in the quarter. Total client assets slipped 1% in September after $144.4 billion of net market losses, though Schwab still gathered $67.5 billion in core net new assets that month, up 46% from a year earlier.

Excluding $151 million of pre-tax acquisition-related costs and amortization of acquired intangible assets, adjusted earnings per share rose 29% to $1.69 from $1.31 a year earlier. Net income rose 23% to $2.9 billion, and the adjusted pre-tax profit margin widened to 54.8% from 51.3%.

"During the third quarter, clients opened 1.2 million new brokerage accounts and entrusted Schwab with $190.4 billion in core net new assets," President and CEO Rick Wurster said in the earnings release. He put the annualized growth rate of those inflows at 5.8%.

#Lending and Trading Lift Schwab Quarterly Revenue to a Record $7.2 Billion

Net interest revenue, Schwab's largest source of income, rose 14% to $3.48 billion, which the company attributed to higher lending balances and growth in long/short strategies. Net interest margin widened to 3.04% from 2.88% a year earlier. Bank loans rose 35% to $72.3 billion, and margin loans reached $187.9 billion, including $60.7 billion tied to long/short strategies used by independent advisers.

Schwab provides brokerage, banking, wealth management and custody services to individual investors and independent registered investment advisers. It had 40.3 million active brokerage accounts and $13.33 trillion in client assets at the end of September.

Asset management and administration fees rose 14% to $1.9 billion. Trading revenue rose 16% to $1.2 billion as daily average trades climbed 44% to 10.7 million. Expenses grew 9%, slower than revenue.

"Deeper client engagement across Schwab's platform continues to broaden and strengthen our revenue model," Chief Financial Officer Mike Verdeschi said in the release.

Trading activity cooled from the second quarter, however. Daily average trades fell 10% from 11.9 million, trading revenue slipped 5% from the prior quarter, and revenue per trade fell 20% from a year earlier to $1.69. Bank deposits declined 2% from the end of June to $244.1 billion.

#Schwab Rolls Out AI Assistant and Single Stock Futures as Advice Flows Grow 55%

Net flows into Schwab Wealth Advisory, its personalized advice service, rose 55% from a year earlier, and managed investing net flows grew 22%. Balances on the Pledged Asset Line, a credit line secured by a client's investment portfolio, rose 59% to $37.3 billion.

"As investing plays an increasingly central role in people's financial lives, clients continue to turn to Schwab for our broad set of wealth, trading, and banking capabilities," Wurster said in the release.

During the quarter Schwab introduced Charley, an AI assistant that gives U.S. retail clients conversational access to its tools, and partnered with Anthropic to offer Claude for Financial Advisors to the independent advisers it serves. It also announced single stock futures on its thinkorswim trading platform and plans to add more digital assets to Schwab Crypto.

Schwab bought back 4.7 million shares for $0.5 billion in the quarter, and its quarterly dividend of 32 cents was 19% higher than a year earlier. Its preliminary consolidated Tier 1 leverage ratio stood at 8.9%, or 7% on an adjusted basis.

#Schwab Expects About 800 Basis Points of Operating Leverage in 2026

At its Fall Business Update for investors on Thursday, Schwab said it expects to deliver about 800 basis points of positive operating leverage for full-year 2026, meaning revenue growth outpacing expense growth by roughly 8 percentage points. The company said its 2027 outlook will be shaped by the economy, interest rates, market sentiment and client engagement.

Schwab also presented a longer-term financial framework that targets high-single-digit to low-double-digit revenue growth and mid-teens growth in earnings per share.

Results remain sensitive to interest rates and client behavior. Schwab estimated that each 25-basis-point move in the federal funds target rate would shift annualized net interest revenue by about $250 million to $300 million. Balances in its bank deposit account program, which places client cash at outside banks, fell 13% from a year earlier.

Management said it plans to keep investing in growth while generating positive operating leverage, though interest rates, client cash allocation, market volatility and regulatory developments remain key risks to that outlook.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TWSE: 2330) (NYSE: TSM) reported third-quarter net income of NT$763.06 billion on Oct. 15, an increase of 68.7% from the same quarter a year earlier. The Hsinchu, Taiwan-based company released the results for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2026.

TSMC manufactures chips that other companies design, a business model known as a pure-play foundry. Chip designers use its factories to produce processors for products ranging from smartphones to data center servers, and the company's quarterly results are followed closely across the semiconductor supply chain.

#TSMC Third-Quarter Revenue Climbs 50.9% to NT$1,494.24 Billion

Consolidated revenue reached NT$1,494.24 billion in the third quarter, up 50.9% from NT$989.92 billion a year earlier. TSMC prepared all figures under TIFRS, Taiwan's version of international financial reporting standards, on a consolidated basis.

Diluted earnings per share rose 68.7% to NT$29.43, compared with NT$17.44 in the third quarter of 2025. Each American depositary receipt unit, the form in which TSMC shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange, earned US$4.60.

Measured in US dollars, third-quarter revenue was $46.72 billion, up 41.2% year over year. The gap between growth in New Taiwan dollars and growth in US dollars reflects exchange rate movements between the two currencies over the period.

Compared with the second quarter of 2026, revenue rose 17.6% in New Taiwan dollars and 16.2% in US dollars. The sequential increase followed second-quarter revenue of NT$1,270.38 billion.

Net income rose 8% from the second quarter, a slower pace than revenue growth over the same period. Income before tax increased 5.6% quarter over quarter to NT$911.04 billion, and net profit margin for the third quarter was 51.1%.

#Chips Made at 7 Nanometers and Below Account for 79% of TSMC Wafer Revenue

TSMC groups its manufacturing by process size, measured in nanometers. Smaller numbers refer to newer processes that place more transistors on each chip. The company defines 7-nanometer and smaller processes as advanced technologies, and these made up 79% of wafer revenue in the quarter.

The 3-nanometer process was the largest single contributor, accounting for 33% of total wafer revenue. It was followed by the 5-nanometer process at 28% and the 7-nanometer process at 10%.

The 2-nanometer process, TSMC's newest, accounted for 8% of total wafer revenue in the third quarter. The company identified this process as a source of growth heading into the final quarter of the year.

Gross margin, the share of revenue left after direct production costs, was 66.4% in the quarter. Gross profit rose 68.6% from a year earlier to NT$992.38 billion.

Operating margin was 58.7%. Income from operations, which subtracts operating expenses such as research and administration, increased 75% year over year to NT$876.45 billion.

"Our business in the third quarter was supported by strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies," Wendell Huang, Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer, TSMC, said in the earnings release. Leading-edge, in TSMC's usage, refers to its most advanced manufacturing processes.

In advanced contract chipmaking, TSMC competes directly with the foundry business of Samsung Electronics and with Intel's foundry unit. Both offer advanced manufacturing processes to outside chip designers, placing them in the same direct category as TSMC.

#TSMC Guides Fourth-Quarter Revenue Between US$52.3 Billion and US$54.3 Billion

TSMC said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of between US$52.3 billion and US$54.3 billion. The midpoint of that range, US$53.3 billion, would be about 14% higher than third-quarter US dollar revenue of $46.72 billion.

The company expects gross margin of between 65% and 67%, based on an assumed exchange rate of 31.8 New Taiwan dollars per US dollar. That range brackets the 66.4% gross margin reported for the third quarter.

Operating margin is forecast at 56.5% to 58.5%, using the same exchange rate assumption. The top of that range sits slightly below the 58.7% operating margin the company reported for the third quarter.

Huang said TSMC expects its fourth-quarter business "to be supported by continued strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies, including the steep ramp-up of our 2-nanometer technology." A ramp-up refers to the period in which a new process moves from early output to higher-volume production.

The company noted that its third-quarter figures have not been approved by its Board of Directors. Its margin forecasts depend on the stated exchange rate assumption, so movements in the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar could affect reported results.

Management expects continued demand for its most advanced processes and the 2-nanometer ramp-up to support fourth-quarter revenue of up to US$54.3 billion, though currency movements, the pace of new production, and broader chip demand remain key risks to that outlook.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) raised its 2026 guidance on October 13 after reporting third-quarter sales of $25.4 billion, up 5.9% from a year earlier. The New Brunswick, New Jersey company now expects full-year reported sales of $101.2 billion at the midpoint, up from $101.1 billion in its July 29 forecast.

The update comes as the healthcare group manages the loss of U.S. exclusivity for its immunology drug Stelara, which has faced biosimilar competition since 2025. The company is also working through talc litigation and a planned separation of its Orthopaedics business, both of which it lists among the risks to its outlook.

#Talc Charge Cuts Johnson & Johnson Quarterly Profit to $0.09 a Share

Net earnings fell to $210 million, or $0.09 per diluted share, from $5.2 billion, or $2.12 per share, a year earlier. The company said the result reflects a one-time charge for its proposed talc litigation resolution, along with costs tied to its Firefly Bio acquisition and Sail Biomedicines collaboration.

Litigation-related pre-tax charges totaled $5.5 billion in the quarter, according to the company's non-GAAP reconciliation. Johnson & Johnson has faced thousands of lawsuits alleging that its talc-based powder products caused cancer, claims the company has denied.

Adjusted earnings per share, which exclude special items and intangible amortization, fell 7.5% to $2.59 from $2.80. The company said the adjusted figure also reflects the impact of the Firefly Bio and Sail Biomedicines deals.

Research and development expense rose 26.7% to $4.7 billion in the quarter, compared with $3.7 billion a year earlier.

#Johnson & Johnson Raises 2026 Guidance as Tremfya Sales Rise 68%

The company raised its adjusted EPS guidance by $0.06 to $11.10 at the midpoint, within a range of $11.05 to $11.15. Its estimated reported sales range now stands at $101 billion to $101.4 billion.

Innovative Medicine sales rose 7.7% to $16.8 billion. The company attributed the growth to Tremfya, Darzalex, Carvykti, Tecvayli, Rybrevant, Erleada, Spravato and Caplyta.

Tremfya, an immunology treatment, generated sales of $2.4 billion, up 68.3% from a year earlier.

Darzalex, a multiple myeloma therapy, posted sales of $4.2 billion, up 15.4%.

Stelara sales fell 54.4% to $716 million. The company estimated the decline reduced Innovative Medicine growth by about 690 basis points.

MedTech sales rose 2.5% to $8.6 billion. The company said growth came mainly from electrophysiology products, its Shockwave heart devices, contact lenses and trauma products.

U.S. sales grew 9.1% to $15 billion, while international sales rose 1.5% to $10.4 billion.

Chief Executive Joaquin Duato pointed to the Ottava authorization and Phase 3 multiple myeloma data in his remarks. "This progress, together with strategic investments in high-growth areas, gives us clearer line of sight to double-digit growth by the end of the decade," Joaquin Duato, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Johnson & Johnson, said in the earnings release.

Year-to-date free cash flow was about $15.1 billion through the third quarter, compared with $14.2 billion a year earlier, according to the company's estimate.

#FDA Authorizes Johnson & Johnson's Ottava Surgical Robot

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted De Novo market authorization in July for Ottava, which the company describes as the world's first table-integrated soft tissue robotic system. The system enters a surgical robotics market where Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci platform is widely used.

The FDA also approved Imaavy for warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia, a condition in which the immune system attacks the body's own red blood cells.

Separately, the agency granted priority review to Rybrevant Faspro for advanced head and neck cancer. Priority review is an FDA designation that shortens the agency's target review period.

Johnson & Johnson does not provide GAAP forecasts, saying it cannot reasonably predict the outcome of legal proceedings, acquisition-related expenses and other items. The talc resolution remains a proposal, and the company cites patent expirations, competition and the Orthopaedics separation among factors that could cause results to differ.

Management projected 2026 adjusted operational sales growth of 6.4% to 6.8%, though talc litigation, biosimilar competition for Stelara and the planned Orthopaedics separation remain key risks to the outlook.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) on October 13, 2026, raised its full year 2026 earnings outlook and now expects adjusted net earnings of at least $20.50 per share. The company said the forecast incorporates its experience through the third quarter 2026.

On a GAAP basis, UnitedHealth now expects full year earnings of at least $19.50 per share. GAAP refers to standard US accounting rules, while the adjusted figure excludes items such as the amortization of acquired intangible assets and gains or losses tied to business sales.

The updated outlook follows third quarter adjusted earnings of $4.69 per share, compared with $2.92 in the third quarter 2025. GAAP diluted earnings were $4.56 per share, up from $2.59 a year earlier.

The release lists the Department of Justice's legal actions concerning UnitedHealth's participation in the Medicare program among the factors that could cause results to differ from expectations. It also cites changes in Medicare, the CMS star ratings program and risk adjustment data validation audits, which review the diagnosis data used to set government payments.

#UnitedHealth Medical Care Ratio Falls to 88.4% in Third Quarter

UnitedHealth's medical care ratio, the share of premium revenue spent on patient care, was 88.4% in the third quarter, compared with 89.9% a year earlier. The company attributed the decline to medical cost management, benefit design changes and pricing.

The ratio included $610 million of net favorable prior period reserve development related to 2026 dates of service. This means UnitedHealth's earlier estimates of claims owed for care delivered this year proved higher than the amounts now expected.

Earnings from operations were $6.6 billion, compared with $4.3 billion in the third quarter 2025. The company said the increase was driven by execution across both its UnitedHealthcare insurance unit and its Optum health services unit.

Consolidated revenue was $112.7 billion, compared with $113.2 billion a year earlier. Revenue in the second quarter 2026 was $112 billion.

The operating cost ratio, which measures administrative costs against revenue, was 12.8%, compared with 13.5% in the third quarter 2025. The company said efficiency gains were partly offset by increased spending on technology, processes and staff.

"Our third quarter results reflect the discipline and execution our teams are bringing to every part of our business," Stephen Hemsley, Chief Executive Officer, UnitedHealth Group, said in the earnings release.

#Optum Health Posts $735 Million Operating Profit as Revenue Falls 10%

UnitedHealthcare earned $2.8 billion from operations in the quarter, up from $1.8 billion a year earlier, on revenue of $86.3 billion. The unit served 48.3 million people, compared with about 50.1 million at the end of the third quarter 2025.

The number of seniors served through Medicare Advantage, including programs for complex populations also covered by Medicaid, has contracted by 935,000 since year-end 2025, according to the release.

Optum Health revenue fell 10% to $22.9 billion. The company said it served fewer patients under value-based care, arrangements in which providers are paid based on patient outcomes and costs, in markets where it lacked enough presence to sustain its clinicians.

Optum Health earnings from operations rose to $735 million from $41 million a year earlier. The company attributed the change to operational discipline and medical cost management in its value-based care markets.

Optum Rx, the company's pharmacy benefits business, reported earnings from operations of $1.7 billion, compared with $1.5 billion a year earlier. Adjusted scripts fell to 393 million from 414 million, which the company linked to membership declines at UnitedHealthcare and other customers.

Optum Insight, the data and technology unit, reported revenue of $5.5 billion, up 3% from a year earlier. Its earnings from operations rose to $1.3 billion from $920 million.

#UnitedHealth Flags Commercial Costs and Medicaid Funding as Pressures

On the earnings call, Tim Noel, who leads UnitedHealthcare, said commercial medical cost trends are running above the company's initial expectation of 11%. He cited costs tied to the No Surprises Act dispute process, greater cost intensity from clinicians and high-cost specialty drugs.

The No Surprises Act is a federal law intended to protect patients from unexpected medical bills. Noel said arbitration awards under its dispute process can approach nearly 6% of total medical spending in some regions.

Noel said UnitedHealth continues to view 2026 as a trough year for core Medicaid margins, which it now expects to be moderately better than negative 1%. He said the main variable remains the timing and adequacy of state funding.

UnitedHealth's debt-to-capital ratio was 41.7% as of September 30, 2026, compared with 41.2% at the end of the second quarter. The company said it continues to target approximately 40% by year-end.

The company repurchased $5 billion of its stock and paid $6.2 billion in dividends through the first nine months of 2026. Chief Financial Officer Wayne DeVeydt said the company expects dividends to exceed $8 billion by year-end.

Management said it views the lower end of its 13% to 16% long-term growth target as a more reasonable starting point for 2027 and plans a fuller update in December, though elevated medical cost trends, government program funding and the Department of Justice's legal actions remain key risks to that outlook.

CoreWeave Inc (NASDAQ: CRWV) shares fell about 16% on Wednesday, October 14, as yields on its bonds due 2032 approached 15%, highlighting growing investor concerns about its debt burden [1]. Those bonds were sold in June with a 9.625% coupon and now trade at roughly 79.5 cents on the dollar [2]. In plain terms, an investor who bought $100,000 of the bonds at face value would now see a market value of roughly $79,500, excluding interest received.

CoreWeave rents out AI computing power to customers such as Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI. It borrows heavily to buy chips and build data centers, then uses customer payments to cover interest and repay the debt. That works as long as borrowing stays affordable and customers keep paying.

#Why Lenders Are Getting Nervous

The cost of that borrowing is climbing fast. CoreWeave’s interest bill jumped to $640 million in the second quarter from $267 million a year earlier, and it lost $626 million even as revenue more than doubled to $2.58 billion. It also faces about $4.4 billion of debt payments for the rest of 2026 and $6.2 billion in 2027.

D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria estimates CoreWeave borrows at around 9% but earns only a small return on what it builds. When that gap exists, borrowing more to grow destroys value rather than creating it. The higher market yield does not change interest payments on CoreWeave's existing fixed-rate bonds, but it signals that raising new debt or refinancing existing obligations could become much more expensive.

The timing was awkward. On the same day, co-founder Brannin McBee told the Financial Times that CoreWeave wants investment-grade ratings for its chip-backed loans, potentially opening access to funding from life insurers. Lenders currently treat CoreWeave as a junk borrower, and a yield near 15% makes that goal much harder to reach.

#CoreWeave Says the Market Has It Wrong

CEO Mike Intrator told staff the market was acting irrationally. He pointed to a backlog of about $104 billion in contracted future revenue and said it can carry the company’s debt [4]. He also blamed weak debt deals at rivals for dragging CoreWeave into the story, and promised to address the concerns on the next earnings call.

That backlog is real money, but it arrives over several years and only once CoreWeave delivers the computing power it has promised. Investors are weighing that future income against heavy borrowing needs today.

#The Same Strain Shows Up at Zenith Arc

CoreWeave isn’t alone. In August, a project called Zenith Arc sold $2.25 billion of green bonds to build a 149 MW data center in Oklahoma. Jane Street, the trading firm and also a CoreWeave customer, has agreed to lease the site for 15 years and has guaranteed the rent.

Even with that backing, the bonds have slipped from about 99.5 cents to around 91 cents, lifting the yield from roughly 9% to 11.3%. The project also faces a construction setback. Local officials denied a required floodplain development permit, raising questions about whether the site can meet its targeted late-2027 opening date. The data center isn’t built yet, and S&P rates Jane Street BB, below investment grade. Repayment rests on one tenant and on construction finishing on time, although Zenith set aside part of the money raised to cover interest until rent begins.

The worry also spread to shares. Oracle, Nebius, DigitalOcean, TeraWulf and Hut 8 all fell sharply on Wednesday, as did Dell, which sells servers to many of these firms.

#What This Means for the AI Buildout

Neither CoreWeave nor Zenith has missed a payment. Investors who hold the bonds to maturity still get their money back, as long as the companies keep paying. Falling prices reflect fear, not default.

The bigger risk is cost. If lenders demand 11% to 15% to fund AI data centers, fewer new projects will make financial sense, even if demand for AI computing stays strong. The milestones to watch are CoreWeave’s next earnings call, whether Zenith secures its outstanding permit and whether the Oklahoma project stays on schedule.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wants SpaceX investors to learn a new phrase. In a note shared on October 13, he called the company’s Distributed Inference Cloud the part of the SpaceX story with the greatest growth potential, and one investors are largely ignoring [1]. He told clients to expect the idea, along with “physical AI swarms,” to break into the mainstream investor conversation within a year.

The concept is simpler than it sounds. Inference is the work an AI model does when it answers a question or makes a decision. Instead of doing all of that work in giant data centers, a distributed cloud spreads it across many smaller computers in the real world, such as robots, cars and satellites, all linked together.

#Why Robots Could Become Data Centers

Jonas laid out the numbers in an August note. Morgan Stanley expects roughly 2.2 billion robots of all kinds by 2040. If each carries computing hardware drawing about 500 watts, the combined power requirement would reach roughly 1.1 terawatts. Morgan Stanley argues that such devices could theoretically form a distributed computing network connected through Starlink. In theory, that would create a distributed network with a power footprint comparable to SpaceX's 1-terawatt ambition, although it would not necessarily deliver the same usable computing capacity as dedicated data centers.

The idea is not new to Tesla investors. Elon Musk has often talked about using idle Tesla cars, and computing units placed at Supercharger stations, as one huge shared computer. Tesla’s AI5 chip, intended for use in vehicles and Optimus robots, has a reported power requirement of about 250 watts, and Morgan Stanley expects that figure to rise. As SpaceX and Tesla work more closely together, Jonas thinks SpaceX shareholders will need to understand the same logic.

There is also a practical angle. Jonas noted growing corporate, regulatory and public pushback against new data centers. Spreading computing power across devices people already own, or across satellites in orbit, could ease some of that pressure.

#The Spending Comes First

The vision is long term, but the bill is arriving now. SpaceX’s first earnings report as a public company showed $18.4B of capital spending in the second quarter, with $15.8B of it going into AI infrastructure [3]. AI revenue was $2.6B, up sharply, and the company signed $14.1B of cloud service contracts.

The chart shows the gap clearly. In the second quarter, SpaceX spent about six dollars on AI infrastructure for every dollar of AI revenue, although capital expenditure represents investment in assets intended to generate returns over multiple periods. Management says new computing capacity can pay for itself in under a year because demand outstrips supply. SpaceX ended the quarter with 1.4 gigawatts of computing power and told investors it aims to pass 2 gigawatts by year end, while Musk floated a tentative target of 20 gigawatts by the end of 2027.

#What Could Go Wrong

The robot swarm math is a thought experiment, not a forecast of revenue. It assumes billions of robots get built, carry powerful chips, and can be safely and reliably linked into one network. Each of those steps carries serious technical, regulatory and commercial uncertainty, and 2040 is a long way off.

Investors are also still weighing the near-term costs. SpaceX shares are sensitive to AI-linked sentiment. The real tension is timing. Jonas is asking investors to value a network that barely exists yet, while the company spends heavily today to build the data centers that come first. Watch the next earnings report, due early November, for whether AI revenue starts closing the gap with AI spending. That will say more about this story than any 2040 projection.

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE: LEVI) raised its fiscal 2026 profit outlook on October 7, 2026, after reporting third-quarter net revenues of $1.6 billion, up 4% from a year earlier. The San Francisco company now expects adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.54 to $1.56, up from its earlier range of $1.46 to $1.52.

The results cover the quarter ended August 30, 2026, and exclude the Dockers business, which Levi Strauss now reports as discontinued operations. On an organic basis, which removes currency effects and certain other items, net revenues rose 5%.

The quarter included refunds of tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 federal law that gives the president powers to regulate trade during a declared national emergency. Levi Strauss said the refunds reduced cost of goods sold by $79 million and added $5 million of interest income.

#Tariff Refunds Lift Levi Strauss Third-Quarter Margins

Operating margin was 13.8% in the third quarter, compared with 10.8% a year earlier. Adjusted EBIT margin, a company measure that excludes taxes, interest, restructuring and certain other charges, rose to 15.5% from 11.8% in the same period of 2025.

The company said tariff refunds contributed 490 basis points of operating margin expansion, of which about 160 basis points were spent back on the business. After that redeployment, the net benefit from the refunds was 330 basis points.

Levi Strauss said the redeployed funds included additional promotion and marketing. That spending added $25 million of expense in the quarter, with $19 million affecting gross margin and $6 million recorded in selling, general and administrative costs.

Gross margin widened 450 basis points to 66.2%, compared with 61.7% a year earlier. Tariff refunds contributed 490 basis points of that expansion, of which about 120 basis points were redeployed, leaving a net refund benefit of 370 basis points.

Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations were $0.43 in the quarter, compared with $0.31 in the third quarter of 2025. Adjusted diluted earnings per share, which exclude restructuring charges and certain other items, were $0.48, compared with $0.34.

Tariff refunds contributed $0.16 of earnings per share, according to the company, and about $0.05 of that amount was redeployed into the business. The net refund benefit to earnings per share was $0.11, the company said in its third-quarter earnings release.

#Levi Strauss Wholesale Revenue Rises 6% as Direct Sales Trail

Wholesale net revenues, from sales through department stores and other retail partners, increased 6% to $882 million on both a reported and organic basis. The company said every region grew, with Europe and Asia posting the largest gains.

Direct-to-consumer net revenues, which cover the company's own stores and websites, rose 2% to $727 million. Comparable sales in that channel were flat, according to the company, after growing at a high-single-digit rate in the same quarter of 2025.

"While our direct-to-consumer business fell short of our internal expectations, we moved quickly to address the shortfall and are encouraged by the strength we are seeing heading into the holiday season, including in the U.S.," Michelle Gass, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co., said in the earnings release.

Asia net revenues rose 10% on an organic basis and 5% on a reported basis to $293 million. Operating income in the region increased 25% to $42 million.

In the Americas, the company's largest region, net revenues rose 4% on a reported basis to $839 million and 2% on an organic basis. U.S. net revenues fell 1% on a reported basis.

Europe net revenues increased 4% on a reported basis to $442 million and 5% on an organic basis. Beyond Yoga, the company's activewear brand, grew 9% to $36 million.

#Levi Strauss Lifts Profit Outlook and Plans $100 Million Buyback

Levi Strauss now forecasts adjusted EBIT margin of about 12.1% for the year ending November 29, 2026, up 70 basis points from the prior year. It also expects gross margin to rise 130 basis points, compared with an earlier forecast of a 10 basis point increase.

The company narrowed its revenue outlook, projecting organic growth of about 6% and reported growth of about 7%, which it attributed to foreign exchange. Its earlier forecast called for organic growth of 5.5% to 6% and reported growth of 7% to 7.5%.

The forecast includes about $60 million of tariff refunds that the company plans to redeploy for the full year, including roughly $35 million in the fourth quarter. Levi Strauss said the outlook assumes current tariff rates stay in effect for the rest of the year.

The company said it intends to enter into a $100 million accelerated share repurchase, where a bank buys a block of shares upfront and delivers them over time. Levi Strauss had $240 million remaining under its repurchase authorization as of August 30, 2026.

The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share, which it said is a 14% increase over the prior year. The dividend is payable on November 4, 2026, to shareholders of record on October 21, 2026.

The company said its outlook assumes no significant worsening in consumer pressures, inflation, supply chain disruptions, tariffs or currency movements. Its full-year adjusted earnings forecast also includes an estimated $0.04 headwind from a tax rate about 2 points higher than in 2025.

Management projected mid-single-digit direct-to-consumer growth in the fourth quarter and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.54 to $1.56 for the year, though consumer demand, tariff policy, currency swings and the recovery in its own stores remain key risks to that outlook.

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL) reported record September quarter adjusted revenue of $17.6 billion on Oct. 9, 2026, an increase of 16% from a year earlier. The Atlanta company said the gain came on flat capacity, with demand and yield growth, meaning higher average fares per mile flown, driving the increase.

The record figure excludes $2.6 billion in sales from Delta's refinery subsidiary, Monroe Energy, to outside customers. Including those sales, operating revenue under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) was $20.2 billion, up 21% from the September 2025 quarter.

#Delta September Quarter Revenue Rises 16% on Flat Capacity

Premium cabin ticket revenue rose 18% to $6.8 billion, ahead of main cabin ticket revenue, which grew 12% to a similar $6.8 billion. Delta said premium seats increased 6% in the quarter, while main cabin seats declined by a low single-digit percentage.

Total loyalty revenue rose 18%, according to the company. Delta said payments from American Express, which issues its co-branded SkyMiles credit cards, grew 15% in the quarter, and it expects those payments to exceed $9 billion for the full year.

Cargo revenue increased 29% to $301 million. Delta said the gain was split roughly equally between higher shipping volumes and higher prices, though cargo remains a small part of the business at under 2% of adjusted revenue.

Domestic unit revenue, which measures passenger revenue earned for each seat flown one mile, rose 16% on regional revenue of $10.6 billion. Delta said its domestic planes were about one percentage point fuller than a year earlier.

International unit revenue rose 12%. Latin America led with a 22% increase, while the Atlantic region, Delta's largest international market at $3.3 billion in quarterly revenue, grew unit revenue 11%. Pacific revenue rose 13% as the airline added 8% more capacity on those routes.

#Delta’s Adjusted Fuel Expense Rises 62%

Adjusted fuel expense rose 62% to $4.1 billion. The average adjusted price Delta paid for jet fuel climbed 60% to $3.61 per gallon, compared with $2.25 a year earlier, partly offset by a 13 cent per gallon benefit from its own refinery.

On a GAAP basis, pre-tax income fell 40% to $1.1 billion, and net income dropped 47% to $756 million. Diluted earnings per share were $1.15, down from $2.17 in the September 2025 quarter.

On an adjusted basis, which Delta uses to exclude items it considers outside its core operations, pre-tax income rose 1% to $1.5 billion. Adjusted earnings were $1.72 per share, compared with $1.70 a year earlier, excluding a $218 million investment loss and $208 million in hedging adjustments.

"For the full year, we expect to generate a pre-tax profit of roughly $4.5 billion, absorbing a $6 billion increase in fuel costs," Ed Bastian, Chief Executive Officer, Delta, said in the earnings release. Delta's GAAP diluted earnings for the first nine months of 2026 were $3.15 per share, down from $5.80 a year earlier.

Chief Financial Officer Erik Snell said September quarter earnings were "in line with last year while absorbing more than $500 million of higher fuel costs compared to our guidance in early July."

Non-fuel unit costs, which track the cost of flying one seat one mile excluding fuel and certain other items, rose 7.3% to 14.03 cents. Delta attributed the increase mainly to higher crew and revenue-related costs, with capacity growth several points below its original plan.

Free cash flow, the cash left after capital spending, fell 44% to $463 million from $833 million a year earlier, as gross capital spending rose 27% to $1.4 billion. Delta said free cash flow for the first nine months of the year totaled $1.9 billion.

#Delta Guides for 20% Revenue Growth and Plans $2 Billion Debt Paydown

Delta forecast December quarter adjusted revenue growth of about 20%, with an adjusted operating margin of 7% to 9% and adjusted earnings of $1.15 to $1.65 per share. The outlook assumes an all-in fuel price of about $4.25 per gallon, above the $3.61 adjusted price in the September quarter.

For comparison, Delta reported adjusted earnings of $1.55 per share in the December 2025 quarter. Delta lowered its full-year adjusted earnings forecast to $5.10 to $5.60 per share from $6.50 to $7.50 and reduced its free cash flow outlook to about $2.5 billion from $3 billion to $4 billion.

Delta said it plans to pay down more than $2 billion of debt in 2026 and end the year with gross leverage of about 2.2 times, a measure of adjusted debt relative to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and aircraft rent. Adjusted net debt stood at $13.4 billion at quarter end, down $950 million from the end of 2025.

Preliminary FlightStats data cited by the company showed Delta led a group of six airlines, including American, United, Southwest, JetBlue and Alaska, in on-time arrivals and departures from July 1 to Sept. 30, 2026.

The company's guidance depends on fuel prices tracking the Oct. 2 forward curve. Delta listed fuel price increases, fuel supply disruptions, labor issues, severe weather, competitive conditions and unfavorable economic conditions among the factors that could cause actual results to differ from its outlook.

Management said it remains on track for low-single-digit non-fuel unit cost growth in 2027 and projected about 20% revenue growth for the December quarter, though fuel prices, labor costs and broader economic conditions remain key risks to that outlook.

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP) reported third-quarter 2026 net revenue of $25.3 billion, up 5.6% from the prior year, the company said October 8, 2026. PepsiCo also lowered its full-year core EPS growth outlook and narrowed its organic revenue growth guidance.

The results come as large food and beverage companies balance steady demand overseas against softer pricing power in North America, where shoppers have grown more selective about grocery spending.

#PepsiCo Posts Higher Revenue And Profit In The Quarter

Organic revenue, which excludes currency and acquisition effects, increased 3.1% in the quarter. PepsiCo said the gain reflected effective net pricing and a contribution from organic volume growth across its beverage and food businesses.

Operating profit rose 19% to $4.26 billion, with operating margin expanding 195 basis points to 16.9%. PepsiCo attributed the improvement partly to a favorable net impact from acquisition and divestiture-related items and gains on commodity derivatives.

Core operating profit, a non-GAAP measure, increased 3% to $4.28 billion, while core operating margin narrowed 35 basis points to 16.9%. Tariff refunds also contributed 4 percentage points to core operating profit growth. PepsiCo said productivity savings and pricing were offset by higher operating costs and increased advertising and marketing spending.

Diluted earnings per share rose 17% to $2.23, and core EPS increased 2% to $2.34. PepsiCo said both measures were driven primarily by operating profit growth.

#International Growth Offsets Pricing Pressure In North America

PepsiCo's North America convenient foods business reported improved revenue trends sequentially, helped by savory snacks volume growth and higher volume market share, though lower effective net pricing partly offset the gain.

The North America beverages business posted 5% net revenue growth, which PepsiCo attributed primarily to acquisitions completed in 2025.

PepsiCo said each of its international segments delivered strong net revenue growth in the quarter, aided by organic volume growth in Asia Pacific Foods, the International Beverages Franchise and Latin America Foods.

"Our third-quarter results featured strong net revenue growth, an acceleration in organic revenue growth with organic volume growth across both global beverages and convenient foods," Ramon Laguarta, Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo, said in the earnings release.

#PepsiCo Cuts EPS Outlook and Narrows Revenue Guidance

PepsiCo now expects full-year organic revenue growth of approximately 3%, narrowed from a prior range of 2% to 4%. The company also set its net revenue growth outlook at approximately 6%, versus a prior range of 4% to 6%.

PepsiCo cut its core EPS growth guidance to a range of 2.5% to 3.5%, down from a prior outlook of low-end growth of 5% to 7%. It also lowered core constant currency EPS growth guidance to 1% to 2%, from a prior low-end range of 4% to 6%.

PepsiCo said it now expects a foreign exchange translation benefit of approximately 1.5% to net revenue and core EPS growth, up from approximately 1% previously, along with a net benefit from acquisitions of approximately 1.5% to net revenue growth, up from approximately 1%.

The company also lowered its core annual effective tax rate guidance to approximately 21%, from a prior estimate of approximately 22%.

PepsiCo left its targets for capital spending, free cash flow conversion and shareholder returns unchanged in the updated guidance, including planned cash returns to shareholders of $8.9 billion.

Guidance revisions of this kind are common among large consumer packaged-goods companies partway through the fiscal year, as currency movements, acquisition timing and cost trends shift from original assumptions.

PepsiCo said additional structural cost reduction actions are being identified and will be implemented in the coming months to help fund investment and mitigate rising input cost inflation. The company said its guidance assumes current foreign exchange rates, which it cannot predict.

Looking ahead, Laguarta said PepsiCo remains focused on building on the strength of its international business while improving performance in North America through investment in innovation, brand building and marketplace execution. He pointed to rising input costs and planned structural cost actions as key factors the company is managing against its revised full-year targets.

Anthropic’s potential public debut is drawing a sharp challenge over what investors should pay for its growth. In an October 6 report, research firm New Constructs called it the “most ridiculous IPO of 2026,” arguing that a reported $2 trillion valuation demands extraordinary future profits [1].

The growth case deserves attention. Anthropic said its annualized revenue run rate crossed $47 billion in May, when it raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation [2]. Reuters reported on August 17, citing a person familiar with the matter, that Anthropic’s annualized revenue run rate exceeded $65 billion by the end of July. Businesses adopting Claude could provide a substantial recurring customer base. The question is how much of that spending can eventually become profit. Indeed, Reuters reported that nearly a quarter of 2025 revenue came from two customers, and many of Anthropic’s largest clients lacked long-term contracts and could reduce or stop spending.

#The $42 Billion Loss Needs Context

Reuters reported that Anthropic generated nearly $4.6 billion in revenue in 2025 and recorded a roughly $42 billion net loss, based on a prospectus it reviewed. About $34 billion of that loss reflected a financing revaluation charge, rather than spending to operate the business. Its operating loss was $8.06 billion [3].

That distinction matters. Treating the entire net loss as cash burned would exaggerate the operating burden. Even so, an operating loss larger than annual revenue leaves a demanding profitability challenge. The prospectus also disclosed $518 billion in future cloud, computing and infrastructure obligations, according to Reuters.

The more useful test is whether each additional dollar of customer spending becomes cheaper to serve. Revenue can expand rapidly while the business still needs substantial outside funding if computing costs and research spending rise alongside demand.

#Growth Does Not Set the Right Price

Annualized revenue also needs careful interpretation. A run rate projects a recent pace of sales across a full year. It is not revenue already earned over that year, and it does not establish profitability.

At a reported $2 trillion valuation, investors would be paying more than twice Anthropic’s May private valuation. Strong adoption could support a premium if customers keep using Claude, expand spending, and find it difficult to replace. Those outcomes remain central to the investment case.

New Constructs’ published analysis contains several valuation scenarios. One produces an estimated equity value of $144 billion, broadly consistent with the roughly $150 billion figure cited in coverage. That result depends on assumptions about growth, margins, investment needs, and future obligations. It is a bearish model outcome, rather than an independently established market value.

#Lower Prices Raise the Stakes

Pricing is already moving. On October 7, Anthropic introduced Claude Haiku 5.5 at a price 75% below its predecessor, according to Reuters [4]. Cheaper access could broaden adoption and make more business applications economical.

But lower prices make cost discipline more consequential. If serving customers becomes cheaper even faster, margins could improve. If usage grows without enough cost savings, rising sales could coexist with continuing losses.

New Constructs argues that competition from open-source models will weaken pricing power. The counterargument is that businesses may pay for reliability, security, integration, and support even when cheaper alternatives exist.

The next public filing should clarify recent margins, financing requirements, and how IPO proceeds would be used. Anthropic’s commercial momentum is substantial. The unresolved tension is whether that momentum can produce enough durable profit to justify the price public investors are asked to pay.