S&P 500 companies posted a 51% year-over-year jump in earnings per share in Q2 2026, lifting growth over the past four quarters to 26%. Major technology firms including Amazon and Meta are expected to spend about $800 billion on capital expenditures this year, up 94% from 2025. Memory-chip makers are seeing gross margins near 80%, and Goldman Sachs estimates S&P 500 earnings could fall by about 10% if overall chip gross margins drop from roughly 70% to the 15-year average of 55%. Large technology companies also generated more than $150 billion in private-investment gains during the quarter, contributing roughly 12% of S&P 500 EPS.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved Paramount’s request to allow up to 49.5% foreign ownership, a move tied to its proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount owns 28 television stations, requiring FCC approval to exceed the 25% foreign-ownership threshold. Shares fell more than 3% in the final minutes of Thursday trading, and the stock is down 43.87% over the past year.

The U.S. SEC issued an “Innovation Exemption” that allows platforms to trade certain tokenized U.S. stocks on blockchains for five years. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the move is intended to help bring U.S. capital markets into the digital age. Baird analyst Robert Bamberger said the exemption is a positive for Coinbase, making its asset-class offerings more comparable to Robinhood’s. Coinbase shares rose 12% on Friday afternoon to around $194, though Wall Street’s average target price of $201.31 implies about 4% upside.

The Lufthansa Group has exercised purchase options for an additional 20 Boeing 737 MAX 10 aircraft, with deliveries expected in the early 2030s. The move follows Lufthansa’s 2023 agreement to buy 40 737 MAX 8 jets, adding to Boeing’s order backlog. Boeing shares are down 8.65% over the past year. Wall Street analysts have a Strong Buy consensus on BA, with 17 Buys and one Hold and an average price target of $274.67, implying 39.04% upside potential.

CoreWeave (CRWV) shares fell 4.2% on Thursday, even as the AI cloud company said it continues signing new compute capacity contracts at higher prices. Investors focused on a $3 billion convertible debt offering and an at-the-market program to sell up to 35 million shares. Rosenblatt analyst John McPeake reiterated a Buy rating with a $250 price target, saying the additional $6.3 billion in financing would strengthen the balance sheet.

McDonald’s said it will raise its quarterly dividend by 4% to $1.93 per share, equivalent to an annualized dividend of $7.72. The stock will trade ex-dividend on December 1, with the payout scheduled for December 15. The increase marks the company’s 50th consecutive year of dividend hikes, placing it among fewer than 60 U.S. “Dividend Kings.”

Snap unveiled its $2,195 SPECS smart glasses and announced AI partnerships aimed at business users, sending the stock up 4.2% in after-hours trading. SPECS is open for preorder with a $200 refundable deposit, with shipments expected later this fall in the U.S., U.K., and France. Consumers will be able to try the glasses at Snap’s Firstlook location in Los Angeles starting October 1.

Salesforce CFO Robin Washington said at the company’s annual conference that its largest accelerated share repurchase ever is set to be completed in October. She said the program has delivered a return of more than 40%, with an expected average repurchase price of $182 a share and an expected share count reduction of more than 14%. Washington also reiterated confidence in Salesforce’s path to $63 billion in revenue in FY30, citing the company’s innovation “flywheel” and capital returns as key drivers.

Boeing secured multiple defense awards, including a modification to its KC-46 aerial refueling tanker contract that raises the ceiling to up to $19.1 billion. The change adds $13.4 billion to expand foreign military sales. The company also won a $562 million fixed-price incentive contract to begin Lot 1 low-rate initial production of the MQ-25A Stingray unmanned tanker, according to Navy Times.