Nasdaq rises 0.6% as SpaceX gains and Netflix falls despite earnings growth
Key Facts
The Nasdaq Composite rose about 0.6% in early trading on 21 October 2026, with SpaceX shares helping lead market gains, according to the Associated Press. The company's shares climbed 9.2% after it reported third-quarter results showing revenue growth and a swing to profit from the year-earlier period. Netflix shares moved in the opposite direction, falling 4.7% in the same early trading session despite earnings beating analysts' expectations. The streaming company's decline came as it lowered its annual advertising revenue outlook due to the slow rollout of some advertising product capabilities. The moves coincided with a business update from Supermicro raising revenue and gross margin estimates for its fiscal first quarter.
SpaceX reported revenue of $14.6 billion in the third quarter of 2026, according to its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Revenue rose 161% from $5.6 billion in the third quarter of 2025. The company reported a quarterly net profit of $4.4 billion. It had posted a net loss of $1.1 billion in the corresponding period a year earlier. This marks the company's first profit since its listing, alongside the increase in quarterly revenue, rather than the first profit in its operating history.
Within SpaceX's operations, the superintelligence segment generated about $7,560 million in revenue during the third quarter of 2026, according to the SEC filing. The business described in the company's filing includes artificial intelligence solutions and related infrastructure. The company cited "cloud services agreements" among the drivers contributing to revenue growth for these solutions during the period. Alongside that revenue, quarterly capital expenditure for the superintelligence segment totaled about $16,444 million, according to figures in the filing. The segment's capital expenditure thus exceeded its revenue in the same quarter, while the company as a whole reported a quarterly net profit.
Supermicro issued preliminary, unaudited estimates for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, which ended in September 2026. The company estimated revenue for the period at between $18.5 billion and $19.5 billion, according to its business update. Its previous guidance for the same quarter ranged from $14.5 billion to $15.5 billion, putting the new preliminary range above its earlier estimates. The revision also covered gross profit margin, which the company estimated at between 12.0% and 12.5%. That compares with previous margin guidance of between 10.4% and 10.8%, according to the company's statement. Supermicro attributed the margin improvement primarily to "customer and product mix," with the figures remaining preliminary estimates ahead of its full results.
In streaming, Netflix's letter to shareholders showed quarterly revenue of about $12.9 billion in the third quarter of 2026. The company's operating margin was about 34.6% in the same period, according to the letter filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Diluted earnings per share rose to $0.87 from $0.59 in the third quarter of 2025. Earnings exceeded analysts' expectations, according to the Associated Press, as the company announced a revision to its annual advertising outlook. Netflix put its revenue forecast for the business at about $2.7 billion for 2026, after previously expecting about $3 billion.
Netflix attributed the reduction in its advertising revenue forecast to "a slightly slower-than-expected rollout of some advertising product capabilities," according to its shareholder letter. The reason identified by the company concerns the pace at which these capabilities become available within its advertising products during the year. For the final quarter of 2026, the company expects revenue of about $13.4 billion, according to guidance in the letter. For the next corporate reporting date among the companies covered here, Supermicro has scheduled its full results for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 for 3 November 2026. The earnings call is scheduled for 5 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time to review results for the period ended in September.