Mid-Morning Look: October 21, 2026

Mid-Morning Look

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

U.S. stocks opened higher, led by a bounce in tech/Ai stocks after SpaceX (SPCX) earnings/comments as well as updated upside guidance for AI server company SMCI, both giving lifts to semis/neoclouds…but the bounce was brief as futures pair gains. Industrials (XLI), technology (XLK) and Energy (XLE) early sector leaders while Communications (XLC) leads the declines after NFLX earnings results weigh on shares, along with Healthcare (XLV) pulling back from record highs and Consumer Staples (XLP) also notably lower. Alphabet (GOOGL) slips 2.1% on weaker ad-trend commentary. Treasury yields are little changed, with the 10-year down 3 basis points to 5.08% and the 30-year off 2.6 basis points to 5.399%, the dollar index essentially flat at 101.67, gold adds $10.30 to $4,152.90 an ounce and bitcoin gains 0.9% to $83,723. A heavy slate of Q3 earnings is otherwise driving single-stock action: AT&T tumbles as fiber ARPU pressure overshadows its raised EPS outlook, Abbott Laboratories falls after trimming its full-year comparable sales growth view even as it unveiled plans to spin off its nutrition business, and Intuitive Surgical drops on decelerating U.S. procedure growth. Oil prices rose by more than $1 as attacks on Gulf shipping and no signs of diplomatic progress to end ‌the Iran war fueled supply disruption fears, with the Brent benchmark hovering near 5-month ‌highs. Tonight earnings from META, TSLA, LRCX, TXN, IBM, SAP in the tech space dominate.

• Life Science & Tools sector: TMO Q3 slightly ahead of consensus, with Q3 organic revenue growth above expectations (+6% vs +4.3% consensus). Products and services revenue came in above estimates while life sci was slightly below; DHR shares fall after Q3 revs rose 9% y/y to $6.55B, just below the $6.56B overall consensus as its diagnostic and life sciences segments ($2.88B and $1.87B in revs respectively) failed to offset weakness in its biotech segment ($1.8B vs. est. $1.87B); sees Q4 adj core revenue ex: respiratory revenue to increase in the 4% to 5% range y/y vs Q3 growth of 5.5% (shares of other comps were volatile on results/guides including AVTR, A, WAT, ILMN, MTD
• Waste sector: UBS upgraded shares of CLH from Neutral to Buy (tgt to $375 from $325) driven by potential earnings upside from capital deployment and improvement in fundamentals. The firm also downgraded CWST from Buy to Neutral (tgt to $95 from $122), reflecting a reduction in its earnings outlook driven by lower assumed M&A activity. UBS now expects management to focus on smaller acquisitions, reducing its cumulative 2026-30E EBITDA/share forecast by 7%.

• COF +3%; reported PPNR beat and materially better than-expected; Domestic Card’s NCO rate was 3.98% (below consensus), and the company released $225mn of reserves, including a $250 million release in Domestic Card.
• CRWD +4%; along with gains in other security software stocks CHKP, ZS, OKTA, FTNT, S and others after the WSJ reported Ai just found a bug that puts up to 70% of the world’s websites at risk. Ai Tools helped find one of the most severe online bugs ever. Cyber experts are racing to patch it before hackers use Ai to exploit it.
• ROIV +4%; announced positive results from phase 3 trials evaluating a treatment for non-infectious uveitis; said brepocitinib met the primary endpoint for two phase 3 trials, with a once-daily 45 mg dose showing a statistically significant benefit in time to treatment failure vs. a placebo.
• SMCI +13%; jump after guides Q1 revs at $18.5B-$19.50B vs. guidance of $14.5B-$15.50B primarily due to increased demand for AI platforms and sees Q1 gross margins estimated at 12.0%-12.5% versus guidance of 10.4%-10.8% (DELL, HPE rise in sympathy)
• SPCX +10%; reported $14.6B in revenue for Q3, (+161% YoY) vs. est. $12.72B and $4.4B in net income, buoyed by a surge in its AI business and steady growth at its Starlink satellite-internet unit. Connectivity and Super Intelligence (SI) revenues jumped 69% and 830% y/y, respectively.
• UAL +2%; climbs after guiding Q4 unit revenue growth to accelerate from Q3’s 15.9% to 20%+ y/y, even as Q3 EPS of $2.54 came in at the low end of guidance on higher fuel costs.

• CMG -4%; after TD Cowen downgraded on concerns that Chipotle’s October sales are shaping up to miss the Q4 inflection point it had previously expected.
• IART -7%; as lowers FY26 adjusted EPS view to $2.30-$2.40 from $2.40-$2..00; lowers FY26 revenue view to $1.634B-$1.654B from $1.654B-$1.695B (est. $2.38/$1.66B); FY26 revenue guidance represents a reported growth of (0.1%)-1.2% and organic growth of (-0.3%) to (0.9%).
• ISRG -2%; posted +14% worldwide da Vinci procedure growth modestly bettering consensus of +13.4% and system installations coming in considerably ahead (546 vs the Street’s 476) but U.S. procedures disappoint, where +10% growth once again fell short of buy-side consensus of ~+12%.
• NFLX -3%; shares fell as Q3 EPS $0.87 vs. est. $0.82 (beat) and revs of $12.874B were mostly in-line with consensus on better operating Income $4.46B, but guided q4 revenue guidance to $13.44B vs. est. $13.52B (below), EPS to $0.67 vs. est. $0.73 (below) while FY26 FCF outlook cut to about $12B and FY26 Ad revenue outlook cut to about $2.7B from about $3B.
• PEGA -2%; after announced disappointing Q3 results, with EPS of $0.35 (consensus $0.47) on revenue of $393M (consensus $422M), a growth of 3% Y/y (consensus 11%) as cloud revenue of 219M (consensus $230M) was a 19% Y/y increase (consensus 25%).
• T -4%; Q3 EPS $0.65 top est. $0.60 as revs rose 5.3% y/y to $32.3B vs. consensus $31.65; added 379,000 net monthly bill-paying wireless subscribers during Q3, vs. the 383K consensus; now expects annual adj EPS of about $2.40, compared with its prior forecast of $2.25-$2.35; fiber ARPU fell 4% in Q3 due to introductory pricing, discounts for bundled Wireless/Broadband customers.
• TKNO -30%; announces pricing of $40M public offering of common stock, an 8M share Spot Secondary priced at $5.00.