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The U.S. Commerce Department released its core personal consumption expenditures price index for September — a month late because of the government shutdown — but investors don’t seem to mind. Pre-shutdown, the primary inflation gauge used by the Federal Reserve when deciding whether to raise or lower interest rates showed prices rising only 2.8% in September — not the 2.9% that was expected.
With inflation cooler than expected heading into the shutdown in September, and the likely depressive effect the shutdown itself had on the economy in October, chances are when October data comes out it will show continued moderation in inflation rates, and give the Federal Open Markets Committee a green light to continue cutting interest rates next week.
Unsurprisingly, the Voo is up on the news — 0.2%.
Victoria’s Secret & Co. (NYSE: VSCO) reported a $0.27 per share loss for Q3, yet still managed to beat earnings by 32 cents, because Wall Street expected it to do so much worse. Revenue for the quarter was $1.47 billion, about $60 million more than expected.
This best news is that Victoria’s Secret raised guidance for the full fiscal year, and now expects FY2025 earnings to range from $2.40 to $2.65, with sales of more than $6.4 billion.
Victoria’s Secret stock is up nearly 17% in response.
S&P 500 component company Ulta Beauty (Nasdaq: ULTA) beat earnings last night, by 62 cents. The cosmetics company earned $5.14 per share in Q3, and reported stronger than expected revenue as well, $2.9 billion.
Live coverage has ended. The full story is below.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
As Friday dawns, today’s big news is that Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX | NFLX Price Prediction) will buy streaming service HBO Max, as well as the Warner Bros. studio belonging to Warner Bros. Discovery (Nasdaq: WBD). Netflix stock is down nearly 4% on the news, and Warner Bros. stock is up more than 4% — but the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is shrugging off the news as a non-event, and still flat premarket.
Netflix will pay $72 billion for the Warner Bros. assets, but the deal is not expected to close for another 12 to 18 months — and a lot could happen between now and then, up to and including federal antitrust intervention forbidding the deal to happen at all. (In the event the deal falls through, Netflix will have to pay Warner Bros. Discovery a $5.8 billion “breakup fee.” Conversely, if Warner Bros. chooses to call off the sale, it will need to pay Netflix $2.8 billion.)
In the meantime, Warner Bros. will proceed with plans to spin off the parts Netflix is not buying, including cable networks TNT and CNN, as “Discovery Global.”
That spinoff should happen in Q3 2026.
Assuming the Netflix deal is allowed to proceed, the company will pay Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in shares of Netflix common stock for each share of Warner Bros. Discovery they hold.
Later today, the government is expected to publish data from September (its release was delayed by the government shutdown) on consumer spending and income, as well as the personal consumption expenditures price index.
It’s unclear how the market might weigh this news, given it will be at least 30 days out of date, and won’t contain much information at all about how the government shutdown affected these numbers.
In earnings news, S&P 500 component company Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) beat earnings by four cents last night, reporting fiscal Q4 2025 profit of $0.62. Revenue for the quarter missed targets, however, coming in at only $9.7 billion, and guidance for fiscal Q1 2026 looks similarly weak, with revenue of no more than $9.4 billion where Street analysts have been expecting $9.9 billion.
HPE stock is down about 7% premarket on the news.
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Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
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