With nearly all S&P 500 (^GSPC) companies’ third quarter earnings reports logged, the index is tracking for an earnings growth rate of 13.4%, according to FactSet’s John Butters. While 83% of companies have reported a positive earnings surprise, it’s the revenue growth in Q3 that stands out.

Butters notes that S&P 500 companies are reporting the highest revenue growth rate in three years.

If it holds, the S&P 500’s current blended revenue growth rate of 8.4% in Q3 would be the highest mark since Q3 2022, when the index posted a revenue growth rate of 11%.

The Health Care, Financials, and Consumer Discretionary sectors have led the revenue growth trend, with companies such as Cardinal Health (CAH), Morgan Stanley (MS), Ford (F), Amazon (AMZN), and Tesla (TSLA), among many others, contributing significantly.

At the same time, earnings growth has slowed for the tech highfliers that have led the markets.

Now that Nvidia (NVDA), the last of the “Magnificent Seven” companies to report earnings, has issued its quarterly release, Butters writes that the Magnificent Seven reported earnings growth of 18.4% for the third quarter.

That’s the lowest earnings growth rate for this group of stocks (Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon, Meta (META), Tesla, and Nvidia) since Q1 of 2023.

“The weaker performance relative to analyst expectations and the lower earnings growth rate for the ‘Magnificent 7’ companies are mainly due to the negative EPS surprise reported by Meta Platforms ($1.05 vs. $6.72) for Q3,” Butters explained.

“Despite the lower growth rate relative to recent quarters, four of the ‘Magnificent 7’ companies (NVIDIA, Alphabet, Amazon.com, and Microsoft) are among the top seven contributors to earnings growth for the S&P 500 for the third quarter.”

Gap (GAP) stock climbed more than 9% in midday trading Friday as investors cheered on a strong quarter from the apparel company.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Gap CEO Richard Dickson described the company’s latest quarterly performance as a “playbook” that’s working.

Yahoo Finance’s Francisco Velasquez reports:

Read more here.

Gap (GAP) stock popped in extended trading after the apparel company topped earnings expectations and delivered an upbeat outlook.

The retailer reported earnings per share of $0.62, which surpassed estimates, and $3.9 billion in revenue as same-store sales grew 5% year over year. Wall Street was expecting $3.9 billion in revenue and $0.59 per share in earnings, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Gap’s three core brands — the namesake Gap brand, Old Navy, and Banana Republic — showed strength during the quarter, while athleisure brand Athleta was the clear laggard. Same-store sales at Gap rose 7% year over year, sales at Old Navy rose 6%, and sales at Banana Republic rose 4%. Athleta’s same-store sales, meanwhile, dropped 11%, as Gap said it’s applying a “reinvigoration playbook” to the brand.

Gap also raised the lower end of its full-year revenue forecast. It now sees 1.7% to 2% top-line growth, up from its previous guidance of 1% to 2%.

“The strength of our third quarter and quarter-to-date performance positions us well for the holiday selling season and gives us the confidence to increase our full year net sales outlook to the high end of our prior guidance range and raise our full year operating margin outlook,” CEO Richard Dickson said in a statement.

Intuit (INTU) stock modestly rose after hours following top- and bottom-line beats in its fiscal first quarter earnings report.

Profits grew to $1.59 per share on revenue of $3.9 billion. Analysts were expecting a earnings per share of $1.26 on revenue of $3.7 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Intuit also forecast better-than-expected fiscal second quarter revenue growth, a positive signal about its artificial intelligence-powered finance software offerings.

Reuters reports:

Read more here.

Bath & Body Works (BBWI) stock was hammered in late morning trading, falling over 23%, after the company cut its forecast and its new CEO acknowledged that the specialty personal care retailer is in need of some changes.

In the third quarter, net sales declined 1% year over year to $1.59 million, missing Wall Street’s estimates for $1.63 million in net sales, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Earnings per share of $0.37 also declined year over year and fell short of expectations for $0.39 per share.

The seller of soaps and body lotions also said it doesn’t expect much improvement this year, due to negative consumer sentiment. The company said it expects Q4 sales to be down in the high single digits versus last year. It also lowered its full-year net sales profit to a decline of low single digits from growth of 1.5% to 2.7% previously.

Full-year earnings per share are now expected to be at least $2.83. The Street was looking for guidance of $3.33.

On the company’s earnings call, Bath & Body Works CEO Daniel Heaf, who joined the company in May, said Bath & Body Works failed to adapt to changing consumer preferences and outlined a plan to turn the company around over the next couple of years, emphasizing that the strategic reset will take “time and focus.”

“Over the years, consumers have evolved,” Heaf said on the earnings call. “They seek greater efficacy, ingredient-led products, modern packaging, … storytelling, and elevated multichannel experiences. Our competitors have risen to meet those needs. We have not.”

While many retailers like Target (TGT) are delivering caveats to their third quarter results that the consumer remains pressured, Walmart (WMT) again distinguished itself as above the fray.

“[It’s] something we’re keeping an eye on, but overall, when you take the consumer in total, it still feels very consistent,” Walmart CFO John David Rainey told Yahoo Finance in an interview Thursday.

Rainey noted that consumers are still prioritizing value and convenience, which helped drive Walmart’s 4.5% same-store sales growth and higher profits in Q3.

That said, Walmart is seeing signs of the much-discussed K-shaped economy, where a growing divide is emerging between high-income households and low-income ones.

“What I will say, … if you dissect that a little bit and you look by income cohort, the disparity between the low income cohort and the upper income cohort has grown a little bit in more recent months,” Rainey said, adding that “it’s consistent with the macro data.”

The next test of consumer strength is now underway, as early Black Friday sales provide clues on the crucial holiday shopping season. There, Walmart is optimistic too.

“Holiday is off to a pretty good start,” Rainey said on the company’s earnings call. “Back-to-school tends to be an early indicator for how that goes, Halloween, likewise for Thanksgiving, and everything that we’ve seen so far makes us optimistic and encouraged about customers and members leaning into the seasonal events and holiday shopping period.”

Yahoo Finance’s Brooke DiPalma reports:

Read more here.

Nvidia’s earnings call is underway, and CFO Colette Kress said Blackwell sales continue to gain momentum while Ruben remains “on track” to ramp in the second half of 2026.

“We currently have visibility to a half a trillion dollars in Blackwell and Rubin revenue from the start of this year through the end of calendar year 2026,” Kress said.

She later added, “The GB300 crossed over GB200 and contributed roughly two-thirds of the total Blackwell revenue. The transition to GB300 has been seamless.”

Listen to the earnings call live here.

Nvidia (NVDA) stock continued to move over 4% higher, adding over $300 billion to the company’s market cap, as investors parsed the chip titan’s latest earnings report.

“I’m not sure what else you could ask for, at least on the print. It was a nice, solid beat and raise,” Bernstein senior analyst Stacy Rasgon told Yahoo Finance just after the release.

Further details on Nvidia’s visibility into future revenue will be in focus when the earnings call kicks off at 5 p.m. ET.

“The company is essentially completely being driven by data centers,” CFRA analyst Angelo Zino told Yahoo Finance’s Josh Lipton. “The fact that we remain supply constrained here, which we think will persist through 2026, and just based on the bookings that we saw here from the hyperscalers … means that it’s going to be a fairly supply constrained through of next year, and probably well through 2027 if not all of ’27.”

“That’s going to bode well for the data center revenue potential,” Zino said. “We think margins will be able to be sustained at that mid-70s level here for the foreseeable future.”

Nvidia (NVDA) stock jumped over 5% after the AI chip leader’s third quarter results beat analysts’ estimates on the top and bottom lines and offered a better-than-anticipated outlook.

“Blackwell sales are off the charts, and cloud GPUs are sold out,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement.

Yahoo Finance’s Daniel Howley reports:

Read more about Nvidia’s results here.

Palo Alto Networks (PANW) stock declined by 5% in extended trading despite an earnings beat for its fiscal first quarter.

The cybersecurity firm reported earnings per share of $0.93 on revenue of $2.47 billion, a 16% revenue increase year over year. Wall Street analysts were expecting earnings per share of $0.89 and revenue of $2.46 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Palo Alto Networks also announced it plans to acquire Chronosphere, an observability platform, for an undisclosed amount.

The world’s most valuable company reports earnings after the bell, and Wall Street’s high expectations have only raised the stakes.

“It’s all about the guidance for the next quarter for Q4, their fiscal Q4,” Intelligent Alpha Founder and CEO Doug Clinton told Yahoo Finance’s Josh Lipton about what to look for.

Clinton added that more specifically, investors will be watching “this $500 billion number that Jensen put out at GTC just a few weeks ago,” referring to CEO Jensen Huang’s prediction at the company’s GTC event that Nvidia will realize $500 billion in GPU sales through the end of 2026.

“If you kind of do the math on that, there’s like 10 percentage points in growth upside to where the Street’s at for revenue next year,” Clinton said. “And so I think we [will] start to see a little of that flow through on the guide, but then I think we also get some more commentary about what that’ll look like for next year.”

As far as risks go, Goldman Sachs senior equity analyst Jim Schneider implied they’re more to the upside.

“I don’t think we’re going to see many cracks this quarter,” Schneider said. “I think that people continue to look for elements of increased competition in the space,” he continued. “It seems like Nvidia still has a very, very strong hold competitively … so we don’t really see that slowing down anytime soon.”

The parent company of T.J.Maxx and Marshalls reported an earnings beat and improved outlook on Wednesday, lifting the stock nearly 3% in premarket trading.

TJX Companies (TJX) reported profits of $1.28 per share on net sales of $15.1 billion. Wall Street analysts were looking for earnings of $1.22 per share on revenue of $14.85 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Same-store sales increased 5% year over year, broadly growing across divisions. The company increased its inventory by $1 billion to $9.4 billion.

TJX also lifted its sales, profit margin, and earnings per share guidance for the full year.

Comparable sales are expected to be up 4%, while pretax profit margin is expected to be at 11.6%. TJX expects diluted earnings per share in a range of $4.63 to $4.66, which is above the raised guidance of $4.52 to $4.57 it provided in the second quarter.

“The fourth quarter is off to a strong start, the availability of merchandise continues to be outstanding, and we are excited about the deals we are seeing in the marketplace,” TJX Companies CEO Ernie Herrman stated.

Nvidia’s (NVDA) earnings report after the close on Wednesday will serve as a moment of truth for a market fixated on concerns about AI overbuilding, valuations, and growth.

The stock may be poised for a dramatic move after the results are posted.

On Tuesday morning, Reuters reported that Nvidia options implied a 7% move in either direction in the wake of its quarterly report. That could trigger a $320 billion swing in the chipmaker’s market value, which would mark its largest move in post-earnings. At last check, Nvidia’s market cap stood around $4.42 trillion.

With so many AI stocks tied to Nvidia’s fortunes, a significant swing in either direction could have wide-reaching impacts in markets.

“It’s a macro indicator at this point,” Empower chief investment strategist Marta Norton said to Yahoo Finance about Nvidia earnings. With expectations running high, Norton was skeptical about Nvidia’s ability to pull out an upside surprise.

“The concern is, even if they do blow it out, that investors are still going to be skittish, just because that’s the sentiment in the markets today,” Norton said. “So I think it is very critical. I’m not sure, though, even if it’s a strong report, that it’s necessarily going to tip the scales in favor of a market rally.”