Nvidia and Micron account for 34% of expected third-quarter S&P 500 profit growth

Ten companies account for roughly two-thirds of expected S&P 500 third-quarter profit growth

FactSet expects companies in the S&P 500 to report a 30% increase in third-quarter earnings from a year earlier. A Dow Jones Market Data analysis found that Nvidia and Micron alone account for 34% of that expected profit growth.

The same analysis found that only 10 companies account for roughly two-thirds of the expected profit growth. Broadcom and Meta Platforms were among them, and other companies in the group included oil-and-gas giants that benefited from higher energy prices caused by the conflict in Iran.

Walden Siew’s Wall Street Journal report said much of Wall Street’s optimism about the stock market rested on a surge in corporate earnings. The report added that the profit growth was being driven by a handful of AI giants. It said FactSet’s forecast was boosting investor confidence that the good times could keep rolling so long as businesses kept printing money. The WSJ CFO Journal team comprises reporters Kristin Broughton, Jennifer Williams and bureau chief Walden Siew.

The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline had changed 44.2% since the start of the Iran war, the report said. The raw Federal Reserve Economic Data S&P 500 series put the index at 7,757.17 on Oct. 26, the report’s publication date.

The report also covered Audi’s first U.S. factory. Chief Executive Gernot Döllner joined President Trump on stage at a midterms rally in Georgia on Saturday evening to announce the automaker’s first U.S. factory. The $4 billion project in Macon is expected to create around 4,500 jobs.

Patrick George, the Wall Street Journal’s Detroit bureau chief, reported that Audi sells thousands of luxury cars in the United States without building a single one there, but that was about to change. The report described the Macon plant as the latest move by a global automaker to focus on American buyers as sales fall off elsewhere in the world.

In a Sunday interview, Döllner said the plant would give Audi greater flexibility to navigate trade barriers such as Trump’s tariffs, which clipped about 1.2 billion euros, or $1.3 billion, from the company’s profits last year. Döllner said the factory was also intended to address Audi’s broader “structural competitive problem in America.” “The tariff situation was not the only issue,” he said.

As of Oct. 26, the broader underemployment rate stood at 7.6%, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data. The measure includes discouraged workers and involuntary part-time workers.

The earnings findings remained prospective: FactSet’s 30% figure reflected what analysts expected companies to report, while Dow Jones Market Data’s 34% and roughly two-thirds shares referred to expected third-quarter profit growth.