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- 🗞️ TSM's Profit Surges 40%
🗞️ TSM's Profit Surges 40%
Big Moves Decoded: CRM, KVUE, and HPE
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Market Performance
S&P 500: 6,629.07 ⬇️ 0.60%
Nasdaq: 22,562.54 ⬇️ 0.50%
Dow Jones: 45,952.24 ⬇️ 0.70%
TSM’s AI Boom Continues
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) crushed expectations with a 39% profit surge in Q3, driven by insatiable demand for AI chips.
The chipmaking giant reported revenue of $33.10 billion and net income of $14.74 billion, both beating analyst estimates handily.
TSMC is the backbone supplier for AI giants like Nvidia and Apple, producing the most advanced chips that power today's generative AI models.
The company's high-performance computing division, which includes AI applications, now accounts for 57% of total sales, up from previous quarters.
CEO C.C. Wei didn't mince words: "Recent developments in AI market continue to be very positive... our conviction in the AI megatrend is strengthening."
TSMC raised its full-year revenue growth forecast to the mid-30% range and increased its capital expenditure floor to $40 billion.
TSMC's cutting-edge 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer chips are experiencing "high utilization" due to strong orders from AI GPU customers.
Our Takeaway
TSMC's results confirm the AI infrastructure buildout is real and accelerating, not slowing.
For investors concerned about AI hype, these numbers demonstrate that actual revenue and profits are being generated through the semiconductor supply chain.
This is a watershed moment showing AI demand has legs well into 2026 and beyond.
The Real Traders Aren't on CNBC
Your current options for finding stock trades:
Option 1: Spend 4 hours daily reading everything online
Option 2: Pay $500/month for paywalled newsletters and pray
Option 3: Get yesterday's news from mainstream financial media
All three keep you broke.
Here's where the actual edge lives:
Twitter traders sharing real setups (not TV personalities)
Crowdfunding opportunities before they go mainstream
IPO alerts with actual timing
Reddit communities spotting trends early
Crypto insider takes (not corporate PR)
The problem? You'd need to be terminally online to track it all.
Stocks & Income monitors every corner where real money gets made. We send you only the actionable opportunities. No fluff, no yesterday's headlines.
Five minutes daily. Walk away with stock insights you can actually act on every time.
Stocks & Income is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be used as investment advice. Do your own research.
Market Overview 📈
Stocks reversed course on Thursday afternoon, closing lower despite earlier gains.
The culprit? Regional banks Zions and Western Alliance plunged after revealing credit quality issues.
Zions tumbled 13% after taking a major charge for bad loans to a couple of borrowers, while Western Alliance dropped 11% after alleging borrower fraud.
The Financial Select SPDR Fund fell 2.8%, heading for its worst day since April.
The banking industry has been on edge following recent bankruptcies of auto industry-related companies, raising questions about lending practices in the opaque private credit market.
As JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned earlier this week, "When you see one cockroach, there are probably more."
Adding to market jitters, trade tensions between the U.S. and China escalated again.
President Trump threatened a 100% additional tariff on Chinese goods and even floated a cooking oil trade ban, keeping investors on edge.
The ongoing government shutdown, entering its third week, continues to create uncertainty, with crucial economic data releases from federal agencies indefinitely delayed.
The volatility index spiked to its highest level since May, while the 10-year Treasury yield fell below 4% as investors sought safety.
Small-cap stocks bore the brunt of the selloff, with the Russell 2000 dropping 2.1%—significantly worse than the broader market.
Stock Moves Deciphered 📈
🧑💻 Salesforce (CRM) ⬆️ 4%
Salesforce stock jumped after the enterprise software giant offered an optimistic 2030 outlook and raised its growth expectations.
The company now expects over $60 billion in revenue by 2030, exceeding the $58.37 billion analyst consensus, and forecasts organic revenue growth above 10% annually from fiscal 2026 through 2030—a significant acceleration from recent sub-10% growth rates.
🚚 J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT) ⬆️ 22%
The trucking giant surged on pace for its best day since January 1998, jumping over 22% after crushing Q3 expectations.
J.B. Hunt reported earnings of $1.76 per share on revenue of $3.05 billion, easily topping analyst estimates of $1.46 EPS and $3.03 billion in revenue.
Operating income from the firm's intermodal segment rose 12% as efficiency improvements and network balance enhancements took hold.
📉 Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) ⬇️ 10%
HPE shares tumbled about 10% after the cloud services provider issued disappointing fiscal 2026 guidance.
The company expects adjusted earnings between $2.20 and $2.40 per share with revenue growth of just 5% to 10%—below Wall Street expectations.
The weaker outlook overshadowed positive announcements, including a 10% dividend increase for fiscal 2026 and a $3 billion boost to share buyback authorization.
Headlines You Can't Miss 👀
📊 Charles Schwab posted record Q3 revenue of $6.14 billion, up 27% year-over-year, with total client assets jumping to $11.59 trillion.
🏭 Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index plummeted 36 points to -12.8 in October, its worst reading since April, signaling economic weakness.
🔌 American Electric Power secured a $1.6 billion Department of Energy loan to upgrade nearly 5,000 miles of transmission lines across five states.
💰 SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF tumbled nearly 5% amid credit quality fears, now down 16% from its November 52-week high.
📈 31 stocks in the S&P 500 hit new 52-week highs on Thursday, including Alphabet, DoorDash, Walmart, AMD, and Micron.
💎 Ether traded below its key $4,000 resistance level following U.S.-China trade tensions and recovering from last weekend's record $19 billion crypto liquidation event.
🏦 Treasury yields are unlikely to fall much further from current levels despite recent drops, according to Capital Economics analysts.
⚡ Utility stocks continue making new highs and remain resilient, with the S&P 500 utilities sector up over 22% in 2025—on track for best year since 2014.
Trending Stocks 📊
✈️ United Airlines (UAL) ⬇️ 5.6%
United posted Q3 earnings that beat expectations but fell short on revenue, causing shares to slip over 5.5%.
While the carrier's summer profit outlook exceeded estimates—forecasting Q4 earnings of $3.00 to $3.50 per share versus the $2.86 consensus—third-quarter revenue disappointed.
Despite expanding capacity 7% year-over-year, unit passenger revenue fell 3.3% domestically and 7.1% internationally as flight oversupply weighed on fares.
📉 F5 (FFIV) ⬇️ 11%
The Seattle-based cybersecurity provider plunged over 11% after disclosing that a nation-state actor gained unauthorized access to its systems.
Sources told Bloomberg the breach was potentially catastrophic, raising serious concerns about F5's security infrastructure and potential customer data exposure.
The incident comes at a particularly sensitive time for cybersecurity companies as enterprise clients increasingly scrutinize vendor security practices.
🍼 Kenvue (KVUE) ⬇️ 11.65%
Kenvue, the Johnson & Johnson consumer health spinoff, crashed after facing its first U.K. lawsuit claiming its talc-based baby powder causes cancer.
The legal action represents a major overhang for the company, which was spun off partially to shield J&J from ongoing talc litigation.
Investor concerns center on whether this U.K. case opens the floodgates for international lawsuits beyond U.S. borders, potentially exposing Kenvue to massive liability claims.
What’s Next?
Key market and macro news 👇
🏦 American Express (AXP) reports Q3 earnings with consensus EPS of $3.96, representing 13.47% year-over-year growth. The financial services giant has beaten analyst expectations every quarter this year, most recently by 5.7% in Q2.
💰 Truist Financial (TFC) announces Q3 results with expected EPS of $0.99, up 2.06% from last year. The regional bank missed consensus earnings in Q2 , raising concerns about performance amid sector stress.
🛢️SLB Limited (SLB) releases Q3 earnings with consensus EPS of $0.67, down 24.72% year-over-year. The oilfield services company faces headwinds from crude oil prices hitting nearly five-year lows below $60 per barrel.
🏠 Housing Starts data for September is expected to be released today with a forecast of 1.31 million units (seasonally adjusted annual rate). The data will provide insight into residential construction activity amid mortgage rates near 6.27%.
👷♂️ Building Permits for September expected at 1.35 million units, up from 1.31 million previously. The increase would signal continued confidence in housing demand despite elevated mortgage rates and economic uncertainty.
📱Industrial Production for September is expected to rise 0.1%, matching the previous month's gain. The data will be closely watched, given weak manufacturing activity, with the Philadelphia Fed index plunging to -12.8 in October.
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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. The newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell assets or make financial decisions. Please exercise caution and conduct your own research.