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๐ The AI Trade Gets Tested (BIG TIME)
& midterms are on everyone's mind...
Together with ProShares
Welcome to your new week.
Apple, Palantir, and AMD report days after Intel and Amazon sent the Nasdaq to its worst day since June, as Americans vote in the midterms. Anthropic moves closer to its IPO, the Bank of England is set for its first hike since 2023, and Friday's jobs report tests the case for a December Fed hike.
Letโs dive in.

Key Earnings Announcements:
Apple, Palantir, and AMD put the AI trade to the test after Friday's chip rout.

Monday (11/2): Apple, Estรฉe Lauder, Marriott, ON Semiconductor, Palantir, Realty Income, Roku, Tempus AI.
Tuesday (11/3): AMD, Amgen, Apollo, Arista Networks, Booking Holdings, Eaton, Fiserv, Pfizer, Shopify, Super Micro Computer.
Wednesday (11/4): AppLovin, Arm, CAVA, Circle, CVS Health, Datadog, McDonald's, Novo Nordisk, Qualcomm, Uber.
Thursday (11/5): Airbnb, Atlassian, Celsius, Cigna, Cloudflare, Molson Coors, Unity.
Friday (11/6): Charter Communications, Humana, Moderna, Oklo, Under Armour.
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What Weโre Watching:
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

AMD (+135.7% YTD) reports Tuesday after the close, with shares ending Friday at $504.80 after falling 10.9% as Intelโs weak outlook sparked a broader chip selloff. Consensus calls for roughly $13.1 billion of revenue, up 42% year over year. After more than doubling this year, expectations are no longer about whether AMD can participate in the AI buildout โ they are about how quickly its next generation of AI systems can turn massive customer commitments into revenue.
Last quarter, revenue rose 50% to a record $11.5 billion, led by a 107% surge in Data Center revenue to $6.7 billion. Client revenue grew 23% to $3.1 billion, while Gaming fell 31%. Adjusted EPS reached $1.66 with a 56% gross margin. Since then, AMD has signed Anthropic for up to 2 gigawatts of Helios systems, while initial Helios racks are already installed and being tested at Meta.
This quarter, the Q4 outlook matters almost as much as the Q3 result. Helios deployments are only beginning to ramp, with OpenAI expected to bring systems online this quarter and deployments accelerating through 2027. Watch Data Center growth, gross margin, and whether management sticks with its expectation for Data Center revenue to more than double again next year. Intelโs warning around PC demand also puts extra attention on AMDโs Client outlook. If Helios ramps on schedule, Fridayโs selloff may look more like an expectations reset. If deployment timing slips, a stock up more than 100% this year leaves little room for patience.
"We enter the second half with strong momentum as EPYC demand accelerates, Instinct deployments scale and Helios begins to ramp."

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Stock Performance, 5-Year Chart, Seeking Alpha
Palantir (PLTR)

Palantir (+32.4% YTD) reports Monday after the close, with shares ending Friday at $184.11 after falling 6.3% in the tech selloff. Consensus calls for roughly $2.18 billion of revenue, up 85% year over year and already above Palantirโs own guidance. At nearly 100 times forward earnings, a normal beat probably is not enough. Monday is about whether Palantir can keep growing fast enough to pull 2027 expectations higher.
Last quarter was Palantirโs fastest growth on record. Revenue surged 93% to $1.94 billion, U.S. commercial revenue jumped 149% to $764 million, and U.S. government revenue grew 90% to $809 million. Adjusted free cash flow reached a record $1.22 billion, a 63% margin, while U.S. commercial contract value more than doubled. Management raised its full-year revenue outlook to roughly $8.15 billion, or 82% growth.
This quarter, U.S. commercial growth and the Q4 guide matter most. Wall Street already expects about $2.46 billion of Q4 revenue, above what Palantirโs current full-year guidance implies, so expectations are running ahead of management before the report even begins. Another major beat with accelerating bookings could keep 2027 estimates moving higher. Anything closer to an ordinary beat risks disappointing a stock where extraordinary growth is already assumed.
"I am driving the business to grow at a rate equal or above to what we have in U.S. commercial for the next 18 months, which is a very high goal."

Palantir (PLTR) Stock Performance, 5-Year Chart, Seeking Alpha

Investor Events / Global Affairs:
Anthropic readies its roadshow, the Bank of England's first hike in three years, and the midterms.
Anthropic Readies Its Roadshow

Source: Bloomberg
Anthropic made its IPO filing public on October 26 and can begin marketing shares to investors as soon as November 10. It plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, with The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reporting a target debut the week of November 16 at a valuation of up to $2 trillion.
The prospectus shows revenue of $16.3 billion in the first half of 2026, up 1,300% from a year earlier, including $11.6 billion in the second quarter alone. The $80.7 billion net loss is mostly a $72.4 billion accounting charge on convertible notes. On an adjusted basis, Anthropic earned $1.6 billion in operating income.
Concentration is the risk. The top five customers made up about 25% of revenue in the first nine months of 2026, and nearly half of sales ran through cloud marketplaces from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Watch for an amended filing with the share count and price range, which typically lands before the roadshow begins.
"Our aim is to help humankind chart a safe course through this technological evolution, open new frontiers of discovery, and bring forth an age of miracles."
Bank of England's First Hike in Three Years

Source: The Wall Street Journal
The Bank of England announces its decision Thursday at 7 a.m. ET, with Governor Andrew Bailey's press conference 30 minutes later. Economists polled by Reuters expect a quarter-point hike to 4%, the first increase since August 2023, in a 7โ2 vote after September's 6โ3 vote to hold.
Energy is forcing the move. U.K. inflation hit 3.5% in September, above the Bank's July forecast of 3%, as the Iran war keeps energy prices high. The Bank has warned inflation could top 4% early next year, and Bailey has said it can't wait for conclusive proof that higher costs are feeding into wages and prices.
The bigger question is how far it goes. Markets are pricing several more hikes in 2027, which would take Bank Rate as high as 5%. Watch whether the vote split, the new Monetary Policy Report, or Bailey pushes back on that path. A hawkish BoE would add to pressure on global bond yields with the Fed expected to hike in December.
"At some point, even a committee that would probably rather sit tight has to make good on at least some of what is priced (in the market). That time is now."
Midterm Elections

Source: AP
Americans vote Tuesday, with all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats on the ballot. Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, so Democrats need a net gain of four to take control. Polymarket gives Democrats a 95% chance of winning the House and a 72% chance of winning the Senate.
A Democratic sweep would mean divided government for the rest of President Trump's term. CNBC notes that could bring an unwind in defense spending, more pricing pressure on drugmakers, and new rules for data centers, a direct risk for tech companies spending heavily on AI. History is on the bulls' side: November has been the Nasdaq's best month in midterm years, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.
Investors aren't expecting much of a reaction, with the market still focused on AI and earnings. Watch the closest Senate races, any delayed counts that push results past Wednesday, and defense and health care stocks for the first read on policy risk.
"But I think at the end of the day, there's just so many other macro themes that are so much more important right now."

Major Economic Events:
ISM services and the October jobs report test the case for a December hike.

Monday (11/2): S&P Global manufacturing PMI (final); September construction spending; October ISM manufacturing.
Tuesday (11/3): Election Day; September factory orders; September durable goods orders (final); September JOLTS job openings.
Wednesday (11/4): MBA mortgage applications; October ADP employment; September trade balance; S&P Global services and composite PMIs (final); October ISM services.
Thursday (11/5): Initial and continuing jobless claims; third-quarter productivity and unit labor costs (preliminary).
Friday (11/6): October jobs report; University of Michigan consumer sentiment (preliminary); September consumer credit.
What Weโre Watching:
October ISM Services

ISM's services survey lands Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET. Services make up more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, and the index has signaled growth for 27 straight months. Monday's manufacturing survey comes first, with factories back in expansion all year after contracting through 2025.
September's headline slipped to 54.9 from 55.4, but prices told the bigger story. The prices index rose to 74.0, its highest since July 2022, as fuel costs and tariffs pushed expenses higher. Business activity cooled to 56.5, while the employment index returned to growth at 50.1 for the first time in three months.
Prices paid matter more than the headline. Another reading above 70 would strengthen the Fed's case for a December hike, while a slip in the employment index would be an early warning before Friday's payrolls.
Economists expect the following:
ISM Services PMI: 55.0 vs. 54.9 prior
"Tariffs and fuel cost impacts were the most cited issues impacting respondents' supply chains; in fact, fuel costs were mentioned twice as often as any other single issue impacting performance."
October Jobs Report

The October jobs report lands Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET. It is the last payrolls report before the Fed's December 9 meeting, after the Fed held rates at 3.75%โ4.00% last week while two officials dissented in favor of a hike.
September was weak. Employers added just 29,000 jobs, well below forecasts, and revisions cut 60,000 jobs from July and August. Unemployment rose to 4.2% as more people joined the labor force, and wages grew 3.0% from a year earlier, the slowest pace since May 2021 and below inflation.
A second soft month would test the Fed's hawkish lean, but the unemployment rate matters more than the headline. Wage growth is the other number to watch heading into the holidays, and Tuesday's JOLTS and Wednesday's ADP reports offer early reads.
Economists expect the following:
Nonfarm payrolls: +55,000 vs. +29,000 prior
"Wage growth fell to a new 5-year low and is being wiped out entirely by inflation. That stings heading into the holidays."

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