U.S. Futures Rise as Earnings Lift Risk Appetite

SpaceX was the standout headline, with shares jumping 8% after the company said third-quarter revenue surged 161%. That kind of growth is exactly what equity markets want to see from the next generation of infrastructure winners: real cash flow expansion, not just narrative. Elon Musk also said SpaceX and Tesla had formed special committees to discuss a merger, a development that pushed Tesla up 1% in after-hours trading and added another speculative layer to an already crowded AI and innovation trade.

The broader message from the earnings season is that investors are still rewarding companies that can prove pricing power, demand visibility and operating leverage. 3M’s more than 5% rally after it raised full-year profit guidance helped power the Dow to a nearly 530-point gain in regular trading, while names tied to the AI buildout such as Seagate Technology and CoreWeave also attracted buyers.

That is important for the market’s near-term direction because Goldman Sachs Research’s Christian Mueller-Glissmann said earnings support, lighter positioning and lower valuations could help equities into year-end even as AI concerns, Middle East tensions and election uncertainty keep volatility elevated. In other words, the rally does not need perfect macro conditions if corporate profits keep surprising to the upside.

The upcoming catalyst is Meta Platforms, which reports Wednesday after the bell, alongside Tesla, IBM and Southwest Airlines. Meta’s results will be watched not just for ad growth, but for how aggressively management is still spending on AI and whether investors continue to tolerate the capex binge. For investors, the opportunity remains in the enablers of that spending cycle — compute, storage, networking, defense and industrial suppliers — while the risk sits with overextended AI winners that cannot convert hype into earnings.

The market is sending a clear message: when profits confirm the story, stocks can still rally hard. The next leg higher likely belongs to companies that turn AI, reindustrialization and strategic capex into real revenue growth, not just promises.