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Posted November 11, 2025 at 10:45 am
Last week, AI-related companies reported mixed Q3 results. Palantir, Qualcomm, and AMD all exceeded top and bottom-line expectations and offered optimistic guidance; however, this did not necessarily translate to investor satisfaction.
Palantir’s stock took a nosedive in after-hours trading on Monday, despite the company’s strong Q3 results and raised guidance.1 This downturn was triggered by cryptic social media messages from “Big Short” investor Michael Burry. Burry disclosed significant bearish bets against both Palantir, buying over $900 million in puts, and Nvidia, with $187 million in puts.2
On Tuesday, AMD reported record revenues of $9.2 billion, solidifying its position as the primary alternative to Nvidia’s AI chips (GPUs). Despite these strong results and Q4 guidance, the stock experienced a more than 3% drop in after-hours trading. This decline was likely due to investors engaging in profit-taking, partly driven by concerns over AMD’s extremely high valuation.3
On Wednesday, Qualcomm’s stock rose over 2% in after-hours trading following their strong forward guidance.4 This comes just a week after the company announced its plans to develop AI chips, positioning it as a competitor to AMD and Nvidia.5
Shifting focus from AI to the consumer, McDonald’s recently offered a sobering assessment of lower-income consumers’ spending habits. On Tuesday, the fast-food giant reported third-quarter results, missing on both the top and bottom-line, but with impressive same-store sales of 3.6%.6 CEO Chris Kempczinski highlighted a “bifurcated consumer base” on the earnings call, “with quick-service restaurant traffic from lower-income consumers declining nearly double digits in the third quarter, a trend that’s persisted for nearly two years.” He went on to note, “In contrast, QSR traffic growth among higher-income consumers remains strong, increasing nearly double digits in the quarter.”7
With the addition of the aforementioned reports, the S&P 500 blended EPS growth rate stands at 13.1%, up from 10.7% the week prior. According to FactSet, this would be the ninth consecutive quarter of growth, and the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Revenues are now anticipated to grow 8.3% YoY, up from an expectation of 7.0% in the week prior.8
All of this commentary came as the labor market picture here in the US remains very murky. With the government shutdown stretching into its 38th day (at the time this article was written on Friday, November 7), the longest in history, we did not get the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Situation Summary as we typically do on the first Friday of the month. As such, all eyes were on ADP’s private payroll report on Wednesday. The latest report showed private payrolls rose 42,000 in October, more than expected.9
However, on Thursday, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas reported that job cuts for October totaled 153,074, a 183% increase MoM, and 175% higher YoY. It was the highest number for any October since 2003 and has been the worst year for layoffs since 2009.10
Along with results from big names such as Disney, Cisco, Tencent, we’ll also get a read on how some recent IPOs have been performing.
Monday, November 10
Tuesday, November 11
Thursday, November 13
Friday, November 14
Source: Wall Street Horizon. Source: Wall Street Horizon. Alibaba unconfirmed as of November 10, 2025.
This will be the last peak week of the Q3 earnings season with 2,697 companies expected to release results. Thus far, 89% of companies have confirmed their earnings date (out of our universe of 11,000+ global names), and 58% have reported.
Source: Wall Street Horizon
The mixed signals from last week have set the stage for a critical test of market sentiment. While the AI boom continues to produce record revenues, bearish bets and valuation concerns—like those seen with AMD and Palantir—are colliding with sobering warnings about a “bifurcated” consumer from restaurants and retailers. With the historic government shutdown obscuring the true state of the labor market, all eyes now turn to the upcoming earnings from a wave of recent IPOs. The performance of these newer, riskier companies, from Coreweave to Gemini, will offer a clearer picture on whether investors still have an appetite for growth amid such a deeply uncertain economic backdrop.
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Originally Posted on November 10, 2025 – Recent IPO Earnings in Focus the Final Peak Week of the Q3 Season
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This material is from Wall Street Horizon and is being posted with its permission. The views expressed in this material are solely those of the author and/or Wall Street Horizon and Interactive Brokers is not endorsing or recommending any investment or trading discussed in the material. This material is not and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any security. It should not be construed as research or investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security or commodity. This material does not and is not intended to take into account the particular financial conditions, investment objectives or requirements of individual customers. Before acting on this material, you should consider whether it is suitable for your particular circumstances and, as necessary, seek professional advice.
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