earnings

Industrial stocks grabbed the spotlight this week as Wall Street digested earnings reports from companies including Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT), 3M Company (MMM), RTX (RTX), and Honeywell Technologies (HON).

The industrial sector (XLI) has gained over 17.8% so far this

Netflix stock plunged 9% on Friday morning to $67.74 a share, after the streamer’s second quarter earnings report renewed concerns among investors and analysts about the streamer’s future growth.

The Los Gatos-based company on Thursday narrowed its 2026 forecast to $51 billion to $51.4 billion from $50.7 billion to $51.7 billion, causing equity analysts to cut their estimates. The stock reached a new 52-week low on Friday and is down 49% from a year ago.

“This outlook likely reinforces investor concerns,” wrote analysts from Guggenheim Securities in a research note on Friday, which has a “buy” rating on the stock.

Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its declining stock price.

Investors have been skittish about the amount of time people spend on the streaming platform. Netflix’s share of TV viewing time in the U.S. has steadily declined in recent months as YouTube has gained market share, according to Nielsen data.

Investors are concerned that if people spend less time watching Netflix, it could cause people to cancel their subscriptions and make it more challenging for Netflix to raise prices in markets like the U.S.

Netflix said engagement is healthy on its platform and its programs continue to draw large audiences with popular shows like crime drama series “I Will Find You.”

Netflix said subscribers watched more than 97 billion hours on the streaming service in the first half of the year, up 2% from a year ago.

“We are increasingly concerned that younger generations are less interested in long form content as their time migrates to ‘free’ social media platforms,” wrote Jeffrey Wlodarczak, CEO of Pivotal Research Group in a report on Friday, who has a hold recommendation on Netflix stock. “We believe this will result in slower subscriber growth and attempts by the company to offset this via more aggressive price increases and investment in content.”

Netflix executives in a Thursday earnings presentation emphasized that measuring engagement at the company goes beyond hours spent watching the streaming service.

“There is not a linear relationship between view hours and revenue and profit because all hours are not created equal,” said Greg Peters, Netflix co-CEO on an earnings presentation on Thursday. “All hours don’t provide the same kind of value to the business.”

The streamer said it plans to allocate just over 5% of its content spend on live programming this year. Live content has been a key driver for subscriptions, accounting for six of the top 10 new member sign-up days over the last five years, the company said, even though it makes up roughly 1% of overall watch time this year.

The company is also diversifying the content it offers on its platform, adding live sports games and video podcasts, in addition its large library of TV shows and movies.

Netflix revenue rose 13% to $12.6 billion in the second quarter. Net income was $3.4 billion, up 9% from a year ago.

The company said its advertising business is on track to reach $3 billion in revenue this year, double the amount in 2025.

Published on
13/07/2026 – 12:23 GMT+2

TSMC said on Monday that June revenue rose 67.9% year on year to NT$398.27 billion (€10.8bn), bringing the first-half of the year revenue to NT$2.4 trillion (€65.4bn), a 35.6% increase from the same period in 2025.

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Based on the company’s monthly revenue disclosures, second-quarter revenue amounted to roughly NT$1.27 trillion, ahead of the NT$1.264 trillion (€34.4bn) consensus forecast from 20 analysts surveyed by LSEG.

Monday’s release covers June revenue and cumulative first-half sales only.

TSMC will publish its full second-quarter earnings on Thursday, including net profit, gross margin, operating margin and updated financial guidance.

The road ahead

At its April earnings presentation, TSMC said it expects full-year 2026 revenue to grow by more than 30% in US dollar terms and projected capital expenditure of between $52 billion (€45.5bn) and $56 billion (€49bn) as it expands manufacturing capacity to meet AI-driven demand.

New fabrication plants are under construction or in preparation in Arizona, Japan and Germany, reflecting both the scale of customer demand and government efforts to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

Shares in TSMC rose about 1% following Monday’s revenue update.

Investors will now turn their attention to Thursday’s full earnings report for updates on profitability, margins, full-year guidance and the rollout of the company’s two-nanometre manufacturing technology, which is already attracting strong customer interest.

The AI engine

The company sits at the centre of one of the largest investment cycles in the semiconductor industry’s history.

Many of the world’s leading AI processors, including Nvidia’s GPUs and much of the custom AI silicon designed by Amazon, Google and Microsoft, are manufactured by TSMC in Taiwan.

At the company’s April earnings presentation, CEO Che-Chia Wei described AI demand as “extremely robust”, driven by the shift from chatbots that answer questions to agentic AI systems capable of taking actions.

That transition requires significantly greater computing power, increasing demand for the advanced chips TSMC manufactures.

Advanced technologies, defined as chips produced using process technologies of seven nanometres or smaller, accounted for 74% of wafer revenue in the first quarter.

TSMC’s three-nanometre technology alone contributed 25% of wafer revenue.

Reports have indicated that Nvidia has reserved roughly 60% of TSMC’s advanced chip-packaging capacity for 2026, highlighting continued supply constraints across the AI semiconductor market.

South Korean stocks soared by more than 5 percent Thursday, briefly topping the 9,000-point level again, driven by a tech rally ignited by U.S. chip giant Micron Technology’s expectation-beating earnings report. The Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 459.28 points, or 5.42 percent, to close at 8,930.30, following a 3.26 percent gain the previous day.

The index briefly topped the 9,000-point threshold, rising as high as 9,044.04.

Finishing at an all-time high of 9,114.55 on Monday, the KOSPI has remained in the 8,000-point range since it dived 9.99 percent Tuesday.

The index pulled off a strong start, with a buy-side sidecar issued shortly after the market opened, as Micron, the world’s No. 3 memory chipmaker, released its stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings, brushing off lingering concerns about the sustainability of an artificial intelligence (AI) rally.

Micron is a major beneficiary of the AI infrastructure spending boom along with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix thanks to rising demand for memory chips and high-bandwidth memory (HBM).

Trade volume was heavy at 449.3 million shares worth 50.4 trillion won (US$32.7 billion), with losers beating winners 588 to 289.

Institutions purchased a net 3.3 trillion won worth of stocks, while foreigners and individuals dumped a net 819.7 billion won and 2.5 trillion won, respectively.

“Micron’s strong financial report pushed up semiconductor shares here,” Kim Seok-hwan, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities, said. “Airline shares also rose as the Strait of Hormuz seemed to reopen and global oil prices dropped.”

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chipmaker, jumped 5.29 percent to 358,500 won, and No. 2 SK hynix surged 13.06 percent to 2.9 million won.

SK Square, the parent of SK hynix, advanced 5.56 percent to 1.9 million won, and Samsung C&T, which holds a stake in Samsung Electronics, soared 7.79 percent to 519,000 won.

Flag air carrier Korean Air vaulted 6.4 percent to 29,100 won, and Asiana Airlines mounted 6.2 percent to 7,710 won.

Brokerages were also strong as Samsung Securities rose 3.07 percent to 110,800 won, and Kiwoom Securities gained 7.48 percent to 337,500 won.

The Korean won was quoted at 1,542.7 won per U.S. dollar as of 3:30 p.m., down 0.9 won from the previous session.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year Treasurys fell 1.5 basis points to 3.757 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds declined 2.2 basis points to 3.992 percent.

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