Sunday, October 18, 2026
ASML reported record third-quarter net sales of €11.7 billion on Wednesday 14 October, toward the high end of its guidance, with a gross margin of 57.5 per cent. It guided fourth-quarter sales to €14.2 billion to €15.2 billion and 2026 sales to €44 billion to €45 billion. It does not disclose bookings, but its balance sheet moved.
Morgan Stanley reported third-quarter net revenues of $20.3 billion and earnings of $3.03 a share on Wednesday 14 October, up from $18.2 billion and $2.80 a year earlier. Equity revenue rose 41 per cent to $5.8 billion, while fixed income fell 7 per cent. Return on tangible common equity was 22.6 per cent, against 23.5 a year earlier.
Goldman Sachs reported third-quarter earnings of $17.01 a share on Tuesday 13 October, against an LSEG consensus of $13.02, on net revenue of $18.68 billion. Equities revenue rose 72 per cent from a year earlier to $6.44 billion, while fixed income was flat. Earnings per share were still 19 per cent below the second quarter.
Morgan Stanley reports third-quarter results at about 7:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday 14 October. The LSEG consensus, as cited by Reuters, is $2.94 a share against $3.46 in a record second quarter and $2.80 a year earlier. In September co-president Dan Simkowitz said "3Q is no 2Q." Goldman Sachs, reporting on Tuesday, showed revenue down 13 per cent from the second quarter in its comparable business.
TSMC's monthly sales figures, released on 8 October, put third-quarter revenue at a record of about NT$1.49 trillion, up about 51 per cent and above the top of its own guidance. It reports full results on Thursday 15 October, and analysts expect net profit of about NT$746 billion, a net margin near 50 per cent against 55.6 per cent in the second quarter. Fourth-quarter guidance has not yet been issued.
Goldman Sachs reports third-quarter 2026 results on Tuesday 13 October at about 7:30 a.m. ET, with its call at 9:30 a.m. ET. IG puts the LSEG consensus at $13.02 a share on $16.71 billion of revenue, and the StarMine SmartEstimate at $12.80. Nothing has been reported yet, and estimates for individual business lines differ by provider.
ASML will announce third-quarter results on Wednesday 14 October and has guided to net sales of €11.0 billion to €12.0 billion. China was €2.9 billion, or 16 per cent, of first-half sales, against management's full-year expectation of about 20 per cent. The company stopped publishing bookings this year, so Wednesday's release will carry no order figure.
Citigroup's head of US rates strategy told clients on Friday that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is likely to reduce long-dated auction sizes and replace the money with Treasury bills, a change that would be announced on 4 November. The bank says the 20-year bond could be cancelled outright.
Brent settled at $104.72 and West Texas Intermediate at $91.85 on Friday, both higher on the day and the week. Early losses on President Trump's remarks about Iran were erased as more Gulf of Mexico output shut ahead of Hurricane Isaias, while attacks on tankers hit a wartime high.
The office commercial mortgage-backed securities delinquency rate hit 13.2 percent in August 2026, the highest level since at least 2019. About $39 billion of office CMBS matures in the next twelve months, and $13.9 billion of that is not yet distressed but already showing warning signs.
A $219 million construction loan for a partial conversion at 100 Wall Street, $113 million for a 25-story Magnificent Mile conversion in Chicago, and $44 million for a Boston office redevelopment closed in September and October. The conversion pipeline is moving from concept to concrete, backed by a combination of tax incentives and capital that has found its price.
The federal government paid $1.36 trillion in gross interest on its debt in fiscal year 2026, up 11.5 percent from the prior year and more than Washington sent the states for Medicaid. At $3.73 billion a day, the cost of carrying the debt has become a top-five budget line by any measure.
The blended net profit margin for the S&P 500 reached 13.4 percent in the first quarter of 2026, the highest reading since FactSet began tracking the metric in 2009. Analysts project it will climb further through year end.
Gold settled at $4,113.80 on October 7, down 22.65 percent from its January record of $5,318.40. The metal has given back a fifth of its peak, and the forces that drove it there have not gone anywhere.
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 hit record highs this week even as the 10-year Treasury yield touched its highest level since 2002. Underneath the records, fewer stocks are doing the work, and high-yield credit spreads have widened since late September.
Oura's amended S-1, filed with the SEC on 21 September, offers 50 million shares at $40 to $44. Only 13.5 million of them come from the company. Of the roughly $532.6 million the company nets at the midpoint, $526.4 million is earmarked for tax withholding on employee stock. Forerunner Ventures is selling its entire 28.7 million-share position and will own nothing on day one.
On Monday the S&P 500 rose 1.5 percent, the Nasdaq closed at a record, crude fell more than 4 percent and the ten-year yield slipped. The two-year Treasury yield, the maturity most tied to the Fed, closed at 4.76 percent, exactly where it was on Friday and its highest close since July 2024.
Brent closed above $100 on Wednesday for the first time since May, and the same afternoon the US president said the war would end immediately after the 3 November election. A forward curve pricing an open-ended disruption has to guess at duration. It has now been given a date to disagree with, which is not the same as being given the truth.
Mortgage balances fell by $74bn in the second quarter, to $13.1 trillion. Households do not usually retire debt when the alternative uses of cash pay this well, and the composition of who is paying and who cannot refinance explains more about the housing market than any measure of affordability.
The funds rate has sat at 3.5 to 3.75 percent while the 30-year Treasury reached 5.31 percent last month, its highest in 19 years, and the 10-year went to levels last seen in 2023. A governor says he is inclined to hold. The long end is not arguing with him. It has stopped listening.