MORNING NEWS

Palantir shares rose as much as 13% in after-market trading after the company lifted its full-year outlook and reported accelerating growth in its U.S. commercial sales. Revenue nearly doubled in the second quarter, the technology company told investors Monday. Executives now expect between $8.15 billion and $8.16 billion in full-year revenue, including U.S. commercial revenue growing at least 134% to $3.42 billion.

America’s largest oil companies reported a blockbuster quarter after the Iran war caused a historic dislocation in global markets that sent energy prices soaring. At ExxonMobil, profits more than doubled from a year earlier to their highest level since 2022, while Chevron CVX reported its highest quarterly earnings on record.

Holcim posted slightly higher revenue and virtually the same operating profit in the first half of the year. With an acceleration in the spring, the building materials group thus made up for the slow start in the first quarter. Holcim has now raised its full-year guidance. Overall, revenue in the first half of 2026 rose by 0.7 percent to 7.93 billion Swiss francs, as Holcim announced on Friday.

Microsoft reported robust cloud growth and a boost in the number of paid artificial-intelligence subscribers, as investors remain fixated on whether the tech giant’s data-center spending will pay off.

Roche faced significant headwinds from exchange rates in the first half of 2026. Consequently, the key financial metrics in the reporting currency, the Swiss franc, are below the prior-year figures. On Thursday, the pharmaceutical company reaffirmed its previous targets for the full year. In the first six months, Roche generated sales of 30.4 billion Swiss francs. While this represents a 2.0 percent decline in the reporting currency (Swiss francs), it translates to a 6.0 percent increase at constant exchange rates. The company has thus met its own target, which is based on constant exchange rates. As usual, the larger Pharmaceuticals division contributed the lion’s share of group revenue, with 23.6 billion (-1.0%). In the Diagnostics business, Roche generated revenue of 6.7 billion (-3.0%).

Following a strong first half of 2026, Lonza has lifted its full-year margin forecast. The contract pharmaceutical manufacturer reported revenue of 3.4 billion Swiss francs, representing 16 percent growth in local currency—driven by a favorable phase distribution and a low prior-year base. Core EBITDA rose 27 percent to 1.2 billion Swiss francs, and the corresponding margin improved by 4.4 percentage points to 34.8 percent, the company announced on Wednesday. As a result, both core EBITDA and the core EBITDA margin exceeded analysts’ expectations, while revenue was roughly in line with estimates.

Despite generic competition, Novartis returned to a growth trajectory in the second quarter. Management has confirmed its previous outlook for the full year. According to a press release issued Tuesday, second-quarter revenue totaled $14.4 billion. This represents a 3 percent increase compared with the same period last year. At constant exchange rates (CXR), revenue increased by 1 percent. In the first quarter, Novartis had still reported a decline due to the launch of generic versions of key blockbuster drugs.

South Korea’s Samsung Biologics confirmed on Monday having made an all-cash bid of 1.46 billion Swiss francs ($1.8 billion) for Switzerland’s PolyPeptide Group, which specializes in peptide-based active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Docmorris accelerated its growth in the second quarter. The Swiss online pharmacy benefited from a strong increase in sales of prescription drugs in Germany. The company confirmed its full-year EBITDA target. External sales rose by 15 percent to 310 million Swiss francs.

Roche is launching a new diagnostic test for the hepatitis D virus. According to the company, the test, called Cobas HDV, is the first fully automated high-throughput test for this disease. It is designed to enable reliable detection of the virus and monitoring of treatment success, as the diagnostics and pharmaceuticals company announced on Tuesday.