The Q3 2026 earnings season enters its second peak week with 2,465 companies expected to report. With 60% of S&P 500 companies reporting, blended EPS growth rose to 30.2% from 29.5% the prior week, and revenue growth rose to 13.1% from 12.7%. Heavy AI capex pushed free cash flow negative at Alphabet and Meta, and Alphabet missed on both revenue and earnings despite Google Cloud growing 103%. Microsoft faced skepticism over returns as infrastructure spending squeezed operating leverage, while Amazon faces risk as AI agents reshape product discovery. Caterpillar beat estimates with a 96% surge in backlog but fell after its report, and nine S&P 500 companies confirmed outlier later-than-usual earnings dates, which academic research links to possible bad news.
Summary written by Upside AI from the original article. Read the source for full details.
Read the original on Yahoo Finance ↗
Keywords
earningsS&P 500AI investmentcurrencies
Open a keyword to see other news on the same topic.
Related tickers and likely impact
AAPL
• NeutralApple Inc.
Relevance: low
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Information Technology |
| Industry | Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals |
| Market cap | $5.1T |
| Close on 10/30/2026 | 344.79 |
| Change that session | -1.18% |
QQQ
• NeutralInvesco QQQ Trust
Relevance: low
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | ETF |
| Close on 10/30/2026 | 690.49 |
| Change that session | -3.47% |
SPY
• NeutralSPDR S&P 500 ETF
Relevance: low
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | ETF |
| Close on 10/30/2026 | 755.71 |
| Change that session | -1.77% |
Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.
Related news
- Alphabet Raised $41 Billion in One Quarter to Pay for AI
Alphabet spent $51.355 billion on capital expenditures in Q3 2026, up 114.4% year over year, while operating cash flow of $42.290 billion did not cover that spending, leaving free cash flow at negative $9.065 billion. The company raised about $41.4 billion, including $12.371 billion from common stock sales under an at-the-market program and $28.996 billion of new debt, and repurchased no stock, compared with $11.504 billion a year earlier. Long-term debt rose to $125.102 billion from $46.547 billion at the end of 2025, and interest expense climbed to $967 million. Management kept 2026 capex guidance at $195–205 billion and expects capex to increase significantly in 2027. Google Cloud revenue rose 103% to $30.709 billion, but Alphabet shares fell 9.97% to $292.50 in after-hours trading.
- Cash Flow Takes Center Stage in the AI Race
Oracle shares rose nearly 11% in the 28/10 session after the company said it plans to limit external fundraising and expects free cash flow to turn positive in the second half of fiscal 2028. Microsoft reported $18.6 billion in third-quarter free cash flow, nearly $10 billion above expectations, despite spending $45.2 billion on expanding computing infrastructure, while Azure revenue rose 48%. Alphabet shares fell nearly 10% as investors saw the company still burning cash, with free cash flow at negative $9.1 billion, even though Google Cloud revenue more than doubled to over $30.7 billion. Google Search revenue grew 12%, below the expected 14.7%, raising concerns that AI is taking share from this core business. CFO Anat Ashkenazi said capital investment will rise significantly next year, while Jeremy Saltzberg of Check Capital said the AI race is for big players and that anyone without $150 billion to invest next year should not consider joining.
- Meta Stock Falls Following Launch Of $35 Billion Stock Offering
Meta Platforms plans to raise up to $95 billion through equity offerings, its largest ever, to fund its AI infrastructure buildout, and the stock fell about 2% during the day. The plan includes public offerings of about $35 billion in common and preferred stock, plus a separate share sale program of up to $60 billion that will start after its non-voting Class C shares begin trading, expected in the first quarter of 2027. Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom have also shown interest in buying up to $5 billion of Class A shares in total. Meta has committed about $825 billion in future spending, mostly on data centers and AI, while its third-quarter free cash flow was negative $2.12 billion, the first negative quarter in over a decade, even as revenue reached $64.6 billion, up 26%. William Blair said investors will keep questioning the financing and possible future raises, but views the raise as a sign of Meta's confidence in long-term AI returns, though the path may not be linear.
- Can You Make Money Off NVIDIA Stock Now?
NVIDIA (NVDA) closed at $213.66 on October 29, 2026, 10.7% below its highest close of the past year on October 6. Since January 2010, the stock has dropped 20% or more within 30 trading days 12 times, and in nine cases it traded higher about a year later; at the median, $10,000 invested on those dates grew to about $15,900. Fiscal Q2 2027 revenue reached $96.2 billion, up 105.9%, but cash from operations was only 25.0% of revenue, down from 61.7% the prior quarter, as days of sales outstanding rose to 60. Management expects fiscal 2028 revenue to grow about 70%, with AI labs backed by NVIDIA's balance sheet making up roughly a quarter of its business. The company is expected to report fiscal Q3 2027 results in November 2026, and the article highlights cash from operations against revenue as the number to watch.
- Update: Amazon Slumps Pre-Bell After Q3 Earnings Fall Amid Higher Revenue While Free Cash Outflow Hits $42.4 Billion
- Microsoft Reports Strong Earnings and Positive Free Cash Flow
Microsoft's Azure cloud segment posted revenue growth of 48%, beating expectations of 44.3%. The headline also highlights the company's positive free cash flow.
Related markets
Latest news
- Marvell to buy Lumentum in all-stock deal, a massive bet on AI connectivity
Marvell said it will acquire optical component maker Lumentum in an all-stock, fixed-ratio deal with an implied enterprise value of $115 billion, aiming to meet growing connectivity demand from AI infrastructure. Each Lumentum share will be exchanged for 4.5 Marvell shares, so the deal's value will move with Marvell's share price, and it is expected to close in the first half of 2028. Chairman and CEO Matt Murphy said AI infrastructure is shifting toward optical connectivity, and the acquisition lets Marvell combine electrical and optical technologies. The move follows Marvell's multibillion-dollar purchase of Celestial AI earlier this year, and comes as its market value has more than tripled over three years. Lumentum's stock has more than doubled in 2026, while Marvell shares fell 3% and Lumentum about 4% before the bell.
- Ho Chi Minh City urges businesses to announce 2027 Tết bonuses in November
The Ho Chi Minh City Federation of Labour asks grassroots unions to urge employers to publicly announce their Tết Đinh Mùi 2027 bonus plans by 30/11/2026, and to pay bonuses or partial advances from November or December 2026 where possible. Unions are also asked to monitor full and on-time wage payments, including overtime, night and holiday pay, and to request that January 2027 wages be paid early or advanced. Workers facing wage arrears, job losses, serious illness or workplace injuries will be reviewed to propose Tết support. Employers that pay wages late, have prolonged social insurance debts, or risk closure or bankruptcy must be reported immediately. Industrial park unions must submit a preliminary report by 3/12/2026 and a second-round report by 15/1/2027, and each must list 2 employers for supervision by 30/12/2026.
- NYT: President Putin thwarts Western attempts to isolate Russia
The New York Times says Russian President Vladimir Putin is defeating Western efforts to isolate him through a rapid series of diplomatic engagements in the Russian capital last week, according to Moscow bureau chief Paul Sonne. The article cites a call with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, visits by African leaders to Russia, and engagement with the US government as evidence. It contrasts this with weakening US–Ukraine relations, highlighting Ukraine's vulnerability ahead of what is expected to be the worst winter of the war, nearly five years into the conflict. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the West promotes the idea of “international isolation”, but Russia continues to take an active part in international forums and expand its foreign relations.
- The Midterms Are Tomorrow. Here's What History Says Defense Stocks Do in the 6 Months After a Midterm -- and the 2 I'd Buy First
The 2026 midterm elections are tomorrow, and polls and prediction markets suggest Democrats could control both the House and Senate from January 2027. The author notes that defense stocks under Democrat-controlled Congresses have historically not been as dire as the sector's recent price moves imply, though the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA) is 18.4% below its 52-week high. During the period when Democrats held the House, Senate and presidency from 2021 through 2022, ITA gained 22.1%. Program-specific contractors could be vulnerable if spending on items such as the Golden Dome, fighter jets or tanks is delayed, while GE Aerospace and RTX have some buffer from their commercial aerospace exposure. The author argues that selling stocks based on election results is a major mistake, noting that large defense backlogs tied to readiness, rearmament and replenishment are bipartisan.
- Marvell Could Be Making a $115 Billion Mistake With Lumentum Purchase
Marvell stock fell on Monday after the company agreed to acquire Lumentum at a value of $115 billion. The article provides no further details on the deal.
- AI is breaking the search business model
In the Loop host Ejaaz Ahamadeen argues that AI is undermining the traditional search business as people increasingly ask AI chatbots instead of searching on Google. AI tools lack Google-style search ad revenue and belong to firms such as Anthropic and OpenAI, which affects companies beyond the AI sector. Reddit reported record earnings, yet its shares fell around 26% in early trading because search ad revenue drove less traffic to its site. Reddit is also starting to require account login to access content, fearing AI will replace it as AI models are trained on its data without payment.
Get the briefing on Telegram or Zalo
Join the Upside Telegram channel or Zalo group for the Vietnam stocks and gold briefing at 8:00 and 19:00 (Vietnam time) on trading days, plus a weekly wrap on Saturday morning.