Semiconductors rallied ahead of the election, but the Texas governor’s race could affect data center approvals; software and Apple earnings also show revenue growth alongside pressure on orders and margins.
Third-quarter performance diverged across five companies: AMD and Arista’s fourth-quarter revenue guidance exceeded Wall Street expectations, while ALAB grew rapidly but faced rising expenses; BKNG saw slowing travel demand, and DUOL’s user growth outpaced monetization.
From 2024 to 2026, US department-store points of sale for comparable brands fell 15%, while street locations increased 6%. Bernstein believes brands still have room to enter affluent, underserved areas while streamlining overlapping points of sale.
Digitization allows a single outdoor location to carry more advertisements and opens up programmatic buying channels; however, rents, capital expenditure and competition for concession renewals limit returns. Bernstein maintains its Market Perform ratings on JCDecaux and Ströer.
In the third quarter of 2026, Kweichow Moutai’s revenue returned to year-on-year growth, with the improvement driven by its series liquor products and iMoutai, while traditional channels continued to decline. JPMorgan believes the full-year earnings consensus is achievable and maintains its neutral rating.
The additions offer exposure to aircraft engine capacity expansion, bond issuance and growth in Canadian wireless services; Boeing’s delayed cash flow and reduced growth expectations for T-Mobile were reasons for their removal.
Constrained coal supplies in Shanxi weighed on Daqin Line freight volume, while costs fell less than revenue. Third-quarter net profit attributable to shareholders fell 26% year on year. JPMorgan expects a recovery in the fourth quarter as coal mines resume production and winter stockpiling gets underway, but has cut its earnings forecasts and target price.
US real GDP grew at an annualized quarter-on-quarter rate of 3.4% in the third quarter, but investment growth was concentrated in AI, while consumption also relied on a decline in the saving rate. JPMorgan expects growth to slow in the fourth quarter and judges that the Federal Reserve will raise rates in December.
Lingyi iTech’s net profit for the third quarter of 2026 exceeded JPMorgan’s forecast by 17%, as a higher share of high-margin smartphone components offset foreign-exchange pressure. The bank is positive on its premium smartphone, thermal management and robotics businesses, but has lowered its revenue forecasts for the next three years.
The downturn in European construction demand is spreading, while US growth is concentrated in offices and power. Morgan Stanley says building materials price adjustments are lagging cost increases, with brick and tile producers facing particularly pronounced pressure.
MetaX’s third-quarter revenue reached 1.5 billion yuan, exceeding Morgan Stanley’s forecast by 28%. However, concerns about rising HBM costs, limited penetration among major cloud service providers and relatively late shipments of the C700 led the bank to downgrade the stock to Underweight and cut its price target from 700 yuan to 380 yuan.
In the third quarter of 2026, ChangXin Technology benefited from higher DRAM volumes and prices, with its gross margin rising to 89.5%. But non-controlling interests were higher than the market expected, and net profit attributable to shareholders was below consensus. BofA is positive on multiyear growth while forecasting a subsequent decline in prices and margins.
JPMorgan expects optical communications demand to continue into 2027, but capacity expansion, product gross margins and valuations will differentiate the earnings performance of the three companies.
Morgan Stanley’s cost index is still up 6.8% year over year. Assuming unchanged spot prices and accounting for procurement and hedging lags, household and personal care costs are projected to keep rising in 2027, while food costs are expected to fall.
JPMorgan expects favorable third-quarter results and fourth-quarter guidance from Arista and believes deployments by large cloud customers and AI labs could support higher revenue growth in 2027; however, the company's share of the hyperscale cloud customer switch market continues to decline.
Bloomberg reports that Marvell is in advanced talks to acquire Lumentum, with deal terms yet to be disclosed. Evercore ISI expects demand for Lumentum’s optical devices and shipments of optical circuit switches to support its fiscal first-quarter performance in 2027.
The interest rate on relending for share buybacks and stake increases has fallen to 1%, as the support facility becomes permanent and covers leading technology companies. HSBC Qianhai believes the policy will help establish a market floor, but margin-financing outflows and technology portfolio adjustments continue to constrain stabilization.
Former U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said voters care most about the cost of living and that inflationary pressures could resurface if Democrats obstruct energy policy and push for higher taxes.
Dan Weiskopf, senior portfolio manager at Tidal Financial Group, says a Democratic sweep of Congress could bring greater scrutiny of AI spending, but Washington’s appetite for AI remains strong, and once investors allocate to tech stocks, it is hard to get out.
