Corporate America: November 3, 2026 — AMD’s Data Center Nearly Doubles as Apple and Palantir Fall on Their Own Beats

5 min read

Advanced Micro Devices gave a midterm Election Day its headline after the close on Tuesday, forecasting fourth-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates as demand for its artificial intelligence chips accelerated, while two companies that had already reported record quarters, Apple and Palantir Technologies, spent the session falling on theirs. AMD closed up 3.65% in the regular session ahead of its numbers and rose more than 6% in extended trading after forecasting fourth-quarter revenue of about $17 billion, above the $16.23 billion analysts expected on LSEG data compiled by Reuters. Apple fell 1.90% and Palantir fell 1.65% in the regular session, both after beating expectations on Monday night, on a day tracked throughout on our Corporate America desk.

The pattern reached beyond technology. Pfizer fell 2.18% even after raising its full-year forecasts, and Marathon Petroleum fell 0.71% after pairing a profit beat with a $4.2 billion sale of two refineries to CVR Energy. Amgen and Block both raised their outlooks after beating estimates, while the day’s jobs news ran the other way, with Squarespace cutting about 19% of its workforce and Angi eliminating about 300 roles. It was another session for the test our Earnings Season Playbook sets out to watch: the quarter itself matters less than what management says comes next, and what that future costs.

Earnings: The Outlook Did the Talking

AMD’s third-quarter revenue rose 45% to $13.38 billion, beating estimates of $13.09 billion, and data-center revenue jumped 97% to a record $8.55 billion, above the $8.20 billion expected, Reuters reported. Adjusted profit came in at $2.09 a share against estimates of $1.95. The soft spot was the business closest to consumers: sales in the client and gaming segment fell 8% to $3.72 billion and missed estimates of $3.79 billion.

Apple’s fall came on the outlook, not the quarter. The company reported fiscal fourth-quarter sales of $114.48 billion on Monday, above analyst estimates of $113.39 billion, and profit of $2.10 a share, above the $1.99 expected, helped by iPhone sales of $57.58 billion that topped the $56.54 billion estimate, Reuters reported. Gross margin was 47.9% in the September quarter, but Apple warned that rising memory-chip costs would squeeze the December quarter, guiding gross margin to between 45% and 46%, and new Chief Executive John Ternus, delivering his first earnings report since taking over in September, described the memory-pricing environment as unprecedented. Palantir’s version of the same story was about bookings rather than costs. Third-quarter revenue rose 96% from a year earlier to $2.313 billion, adjusted earnings were $0.44 a share, and U.S. commercial revenue grew 148% to $984 million, passing U.S. government revenue for the first time, the company reported. Palantir raised its full-year revenue outlook to between $8.530 billion and $8.534 billion and forecast fourth-quarter revenue above estimates, yet investors focused on total contract value rising only 6% to $2.9 billion, after growth of 49% in the second quarter.

Health care and consumer finance supplied steadier beats. Pfizer reported total revenue of $16.58 billion, topping estimates of $15.87 billion, and raised its annual sales forecast to between $62 billion and $64 billion, from $60.5 billion to $62.5 billion, on strong demand for its cancer drugs and blood thinner Eliquis, Reuters reported. It now expects adjusted earnings of $2.95 to $3.05 a share, up from $2.80 to $3.00. Amgen said third-quarter sales rose 8% to $10.4 billion, above the $10.1 billion expected, with adjusted earnings up 14% to $6.45 a share, beating the $5.79 expected, and it raised its full-year outlook to $22.90 to $23.70 a share on revenue of $38.9 billion to $39.7 billion. Block raised its full-year gross profit outlook to $12.63 billion, from $12.51 billion, after Cash App gross profit surged 27% and Square gross profit rose 14%, Reuters reported; adjusted operating income rose to $923 million, or $1.13 a share, from $480 million, or 54 cents, a year earlier.

Deals, Jobs and a New Finance Chief

Marathon Petroleum supplied the day’s biggest deal alongside its own beat, in which its refining and marketing margin more than doubled to $45.70 a barrel. The Findlay, Ohio-based refiner agreed to sell its St. Paul Park refinery in Minnesota and its Mandan refinery in North Dakota to Carl Icahn-controlled CVR Energy for $4.2 billion, with Marathon receiving $3.45 billion and its midstream subsidiary MPLX receiving $750 million for related infrastructure, Reuters reported. The two plants have combined crude processing capacity of 177,000 barrels a day, the deal would lift CVR’s total capacity to about 384,000 barrels a day, and it is expected to close by the end of 2026. Commodities trader Trafigura agreed to invest $800 million in CVR and become the exclusive crude supplier to the acquired refineries, and Marathon said it plans to reinvest the proceeds primarily along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The jobs ledger was heavier than the hiring one. Squarespace confirmed it is restructuring and reducing its global workforce by approximately 19%, about 300 employees out of roughly 1,800, with product and engineering teams hit hardest, TechCrunch reported; affected employees are to receive at least 16 weeks of base pay and health benefits through May 2027. Angi announced on November 3 that it is reducing its global workforce by approximately 300 roles, mostly in middle management and support functions, expecting annual run-rate savings of $50 million to $60 million and restructuring charges of $18 million to $30 million. The larger, still unconfirmed story sits at Walt Disney, where Bloomberg News reported, via Reuters, that the company is considering cutting thousands of jobs and has asked some managers to target 20% in annual cost savings; Disney, which employed about 231,000 people at the end of fiscal 2025, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Leadership changed more quietly at Pfizer, which named Cecile Guegan as chief financial officer, effective November 1, succeeding Dave Denton, who left in August for the same role at Nike.

The one to watch is Wednesday, November 4. Uber Technologies, McDonald’s and CVS Health report before the open, and Qualcomm, Arm Holdings and Snap report after the close, according to the week’s earnings calendars, with Qualcomm and Arm giving the market its next read on whether AMD’s data-center story is an industry story or an AMD story. Investors also get October’s ADP private employment figures on Wednesday, ahead of Friday’s non-farm payroll report.

This is not investment advice. Corporate America is AI-assisted research produced with automated data checks; figures are verified against the cited sources at publication time.