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Luke Kawa & David Crowther

ASML rises on revenue beat and rosy topline outlook, outweighing slightly softer margins

Dutch semi equipment giant ASML’s strong start to the year looks set to continue after the company’s solid revenue beat, rosy 2026 guidance, and strong order book outweighed softer margins in the final quarter of the year. For Q4, the company reported:

Net sales: €9.718 billion (estimate: €9.57 billion). A 1.6% beat.

Adjusted earnings per share: €7.34 (estimate: €7.56). A 3% miss.

The guidance told a similar story, with stronger topline and a marginally softer margin outlook.

For the full year 2026, ASML management expects total net sales to be between €34 billion and €39 billion, with a gross margin between 51% and 53%. Consensus estimates, as of 4 a.m. ET this morning, were expecting €35.1 billion, with an anticipated gross margin of 52.9%. At the midpoints of those ranges the guidance is solidly above on revenue, and a bit below on margin.

For the current quarter, ASML said sales would range from €8.2 billion to €8.9 billion, with the same gross margin profile as the full year (between 51% and 53%). Even the low end of that revenue guidance is above the Street’s forecasts, with Q1 consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg showing €8.1 billion in revenue.

The strength of demand for the company’s highly sought after extreme ultraviolet lithography machines was underscored in its bookings, one of the most closely watched figures in the industry, which came in at €13.2 billion in Q4 — a blowout compared to the €6.8 billion analysts were expecting.

The company also announced that it would be cutting about 1,700 jobs in the Netherlands and the US, representing about a 4% cut to its workforce, per Bloomberg.

ADRs of Europe’s largest publicly traded company pushed higher immediately after the print, although they have since pared some of those gains, currently up around 4.4% as of 4:25 a.m. ET. That upward jolt adds to a strong start to 2026, with the stock up 36% heading into this report. The longevity and magnitude of the AI boom is spurring massive capex spending not just by hyperscalers, but also from the chip companies that supply the brains behind this build-out.

ASML and other semicap companies offer equipment that enables chip companies to make more chips. The Dutch company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography occupies a particularly important chokepoint in chip development by etching designs onto tiny wafers.

Back in July, ASML rattled investors by warning that growth in 2026 couldn’t be guaranteed. These results, backlog, and guidance suggest that those fears won’t come to pass, to put it mildly.

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Matt Phillips

GE Vernova, cornerstone of AI energy trade, dips after Q4 profit trails estimates

GE Vernova, which makes turbines used in power plants and has been a cornerstone in the AI power trade, is falling after posting a mixed bag of Q4 results on Wednesday morning.

  • Adjusted EBITDA of $1.16 billion fell short of the $1.25 billion estimate from analysts polled by Bloomberg, dragged down by a loss in its wind business.

  • Total revenue came in at $10.96 billion vs. the $10.21 billion consensus expectation from analysts polled by FactSet.

  • GE Vernova gave full-year 2026 sales guidance of between $44 billion and $45 billion vs. a consensus expectation of $42.13 billion.

  • New orders of $22.2 billion vs. expectations for $18.28 billion.

GE Vernova is up some 400% over the last two years. But the majority of those gains were booked by August 2025. Since then, the shares have been largely rangebound, and are down a bit after this morning’s report.

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J. Edward Moreno

Starbucks jumps after same-store sales beat estimates in Q1

Starbucks rose 8% in premarket trading after it reported financial results on Wednesday that beat Wall Street estimates on same-store sales for its fiscal Q1, with management projecting better than expected results for that key metric for the full fiscal year.

For the last three months of 2025, Starbucks reported:

  • $9.9 billion in revenue, higher than the the $9.6 billion analysts were penciling in.

  • Same-store sales growth of 4%, significantly higher than the 2.3% analysts polled by FactSet were expecting. This marks the second consecutive quarter where that key metric was positive.

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.56, less than the $0.59 the Street was penciling in.

The sales beat is a sign that CEO Brian Niccol's turnaround plan, which includes ideas like the "bearista cup" and extending seasonal drink periods, may be taking hold.

The company also shared its first financial outlook since suspending its forecast in October 2024. For its fiscal year ending in September, Starbucks guided for same store sales to rise by at least 3%, more than the 2.83% growth that Wall Street was projecting. Management also expects annual adjusted earnings per share in a range of $2.15 to $2.40, compared to the $2.35 analysts were penciling in.

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Luke Kawa

Intel jumps amid report it will play a role in manufacturing Nvidia GPUs in 2028, CFO purchases $250,000 in company stock

Intel is surging this morning amid one confirmed vote of executive-suite confidence in the company and a rumored one that could be much more significant:

Starting with the latter, Taiwanese industry outlet DigiTimes reports that Intel will play a role in Nvidia GPUs for the Feynman generation, the successor to the upcoming Vera Rubin generation, which is expected to be released in 2028. Specifically, the report claims that Nvidia will “partially utilize” Intel for the I/O die, or the part of the module that facilitates communication, as well as for about 25% of packaging. The remainder would be handled by TSMC, which is also slated to retain its role in manufacturing the Feynman architecture’s brains.

In September, Nvidia announced a $5 billion investment in Intel as part of of a pact to develop data center and PC products. This report, if confirmed, would make a significant enhancement of this partnership.

And as for the support from inside the house: a filing released after the close on Tuesday showed Intel chief financial officer David Zinsner bought nearly $250,000 in company stock on Monday. That purchase came amid the more than 20% tumble in the shares after management issued guidance for Q1 that came in below Wall Street’s view.

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J. Edward Moreno

Elevance Health beats estimates on earnings, slumps on underwhelming guidance

Elevance Health, already battered after the Trump administration proposed keeping payments to private Medicare plans flat in 2027, reported earnings results that beat Wall Street estimates but gave a disappointing full-year outlook.

For the last three months of 2025, Elevance Health reported:

  • $3.33 adjusted earnings per share, compared to the $3.10 analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.

  • $49.3 billion in revenue, compared to the $49.8 billion the Street was penciling in.

  • A medical cost ratio of 93.5%, right in line with estimates.

For full-year 2026, the company expects to report:

  • Annual adjusted earnings per share of at least $25.50, short of the $29.99 analysts are currently penciling in.

The report comes after the Trump administration said Tuesday it would seek roughly no change in rates for Medicare insurers, sending Elevance and a host of other major Medicare Advantage providers lower. The proposal complicates the turn-around story insurers like Elevance had been telling investors after taking a major hit in 2025 amid higher-than-expected medical costs.

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Claire Yubin Oh

Micron rises after rival SK Hynix posts record sales and profits

Micron shares are continuing their meteoric rise after South Korean competitor SK Hynix reported record earnings for the final quarter of 2025, underscoring the continued demand for the world’s three leading memory chip manufacturers — SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung — fueled by rampant AI capex spending.

Driven by demand for its high-bandwidth-memory (HBM) products, a higher-margin memory product essential for AI accelerators, the company posted a record 32.8 trillion won (~$22.6 billion) in revenue and 19.2 trillion won ($13.2 billion) in operating profit for the fourth quarter. The company’s shares were up more than 6% in trading in Korea.

SK Hynix also announced on Wednesday that it will commit at least $10 billion as it restructures a subsidiary to establish a new US-based company specialized in finding “new AI growth engines.” Management also continues to consider listing its shares in the US.

SK Hynix’s latest performance reflects the strong demand for HBM3E, its cutting-edge DRAM product, for which the Korean firm is the main supplier to big tech companies like Nvidia and Microsoft. Micron is second to SK Hynix’s dominance in the HBM space in market share.

Elsewhere in the AI memory and storage space, Seagate’s robust results and strong guidance is helping to lift sentiment further.

Micron, Western Digital and, Sandisk are soaring in premarket trading stateside, while Samsung shares popped up a smaller 2% at Wednesday’s close in Korea.

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