SpaceX SPCX and Tesla TSLA have formed special committees to discuss a potential merger, Elon Musk said Tuesday. Musk’s comments came toward the end of SpaceX’s quarterly earnings call in which executives said revenue more than doubled from a year earlier, and signaled more robust growth in the months ahead. Revenue reached $14.6 billion in the third quarter, jumping more than 160% from the same time last year and coming in stronger than analysts polled by FactSet had forecast. A big driver of the increase has been from its investments in artificial intelligence, which the company expects will cement it as a leading provider of advanced computing power. Overall the company reported a profit of $4.4 billion. Capital expenditures hit $19.6 billion for the quarter, up from $6.9 billion the prior year. Musk focused on the AI business, which he recently renamed “SpaceX Super Intelligence.” Revenue for the unit surged nearly 830% to $7.6 billion. The segment grew from its February acquisition of xAI and includes revenue from renting data center space out to other AI companies, as well as subscriptions to its chatbot Grok and the virtual assistant GrokBot, which came from its $60 billion Cursor acquisition. Musk made big promises for where the data-center business is going. By the end of next year, he said the company could run around 13 gigawatts of computing power, while adding the number could rise to 23 gigawatts if everything goes right. The company hit 1.7 gigawatts in operation in the third quarter. SpaceX shares rose more than 7% in after-hours trading.

Amid a weak market environment, the Swiss stock market stood out positively on Tuesday. Roche (+2.6%), Novartis (+1.9%), and Nestlé (+0.7%) gained ground, with defensive heavyweights providing support to the Swiss stock market. The SMI climbed 0.8 percent to 14,478 points. Meanwhile, Swiss watch exports surged last month, providing a boost to the luxury sector. Among sector stocks, Richemont and Swatch rose by 0.4 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. Things continued to go poorly for all AI-related stocks. ABB was a particularly notable exception, plunging 5 percent. Despite a very strong order intake, earnings per share fell significantly short of expectations. Berenberg put the discrepancy between the actual figure and expectations at 17 percent. RBC did, however, praise the joint venture with Mitsubishi Electric. A positive report from Vontobel lifted Lonza by 1.9 percent. Weaker third-quarter results from Solvay weighed on the chemical sector, with Clariant declining by 1.3 percent. Following strong financial results and an improved outlook, Comet (+4.7%) bucked the generally negative trend in the technology sector. After reporting its financial results, Huber+Suhner jumped 4.1 percent.

Europe
European stock markets closed mostly lower on Tuesday. The Stoxx Europe 600 index shed 0.1% to 638.90 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 dropped 0.3%, while the SBF fell 0.4%. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 declined by less than 0.1%, and the FTSE 100 ended virtually unchanged in London. SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC (-3.3%): The electrical equipment manufacturer announced Tuesday that it had completed a capital increase of approximately 6 billion euros to finance the acquisition of PTC. In early October, Schneider Electric confirmed having reached an agreement to acquire the U.S.-based engineering software company for an enterprise value of $23.7 billion. SOLVAY (-3.9%): The chemical company issued a profit warning on Monday evening regarding its 2026 full-year results, amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. VIRBAC (+2.4%): The veterinary pharmaceutical company reiterated its financial targets for 2026 on Monday evening, after posting strong revenue growth in the third quarter, driven in particular by growth in North America.

United States
U.S. stocks were mixed, as generally strong earnings offset worries about the sustainability of the debt-fueled artificial-intelligence boom. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 529.85 points, or 1.02%, to 52495.88. The broad S&P 500 gained 21.84 points, or 0.28%, to 7712.57, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite edged down 6.07 points, or 0.02%, to 26424.82. CoreWeave shares inched up 1.7% to $62.13 during another volatile session. At their low of the session, shares of the cloud-computing firm were down by 6.4%. CoreWeave has borrowed billions of dollars to fund a data-center buildout and investors are concerned it has overextended itself at a time when interest rates are rising rapidly. CoreWeave agreed to buy rival customer-engagement platform Braze for about $5.66 billion including debt. Braze jumped 52% to $45.57. Shares of diversified manufacturer 3M rose 5.8% to $171.37 after the maker of Post-it notes and a broad range of other goods boosted its full-year earnings projection, a sign that its investments in AI technology may be paying off. General Motors shares fell 6.8% to $77.09 after the Detroit auto maker said rising commodity and logistics costs weighed on third-quarter earnings. Northrop Grumman shares surged 4.6% to $534 after the defense contractor forecasted 5% to 7% sales growth in 2027. Oil services company Halliburton HAL reported quarterly earnings and revenue growth, benefiting from elevated oil prices. Shares rose 1.8% to $33.59. Toy maker Hasbro shares jumped 11% to $109.52 after it boosted growth projections for the year, as demand for collectible cards and other lucrative items rose ahead of the holiday shopping season.

Asia
Asian indexes diverged for the Wednesday trading session. The Kospi climbed 2.7 percent in Seoul. In Tokyo, the Topix gained 0.9 percent. In Shanghai and Hong Kong, however, the leading indices declined by 0.3 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. Brent crude rose 1.4 percent to $110.35 during Asian trading hours. In Seoul, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix jumped by 5.0 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively; in Tokyo, Advantest and Renesas each gained 1.2 percent, Murata Manufacturing rose 1.7 percent, Kioxia added 1.8 percent, and shares of technology investor SoftBank Group increased by 1.6 percent. Following the poor stock market debut of data center company Elice Group on Tuesday in Seoul, its stock soared by 30 percent on the second day of trading. Nevertheless, the stock is still trading 10 percent below its offering price.

Bonds
Long-dated U.S. government debt yields slipped on Tuesday, as a downtick in oil prices moderated some inflation expectations. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note declined 0.019 percentage point to 5.116%. The yield on the 30-year bond fell 0.047 percentage point to 5.425%. However, the yield on the policy-sensitive two-year Treasury added 0.026 percentage point to 4.785%.

Analysis
Roche Rating: Oddo upgrades to Outperform (Underperform) - Target price 440 (300) CHF
DKSH Target Price: Kepler Cheuvreux upgrades to 80 (72) CHF - Buy
Swiss Re Target Price: Royal Bank of Canada increases to 120 (115) CHF - Underperform

Produced by MBI Martin Brückner Infosource GmbH & Co. KG on behalf of Swissquote. All news is acquired with journalistic accuracy. No liability is assumed for delays or errors.