Jon Sindreu

The plane maker’s purchase of Spirit AeroSystem, a supplier it spun off in 2005, exemplifies a realization dawning on corporate America: Outsourcing isn’t all it was once cracked up to be.

Polarization has for years left the country's politics stuck in an unpopular middle ground, and the latest elections won't change that. But it does serve to lower the key risks that financial markets were worried about.

Artificial intelligence-related stocks are set to deliver stellar second-quarter results, but the S&P 500 laggards need to catch up faster from here in order to meet the market’s expectations.

Earnings growth across the S&P 500 is expected to hit 8.8% this quarter. That would be the best outturn since early 2022, confirming companies have left behind the period when inflation eroded profit margins.

Delta Air Lines’s warning that summer earnings won’t live up to expectations has dragged its stock down about 5% today, and peers with it. The Atlanta-based carrier reported second-quarter results, including adjusted earnings-per-share of $2.36. What investors have had a hard time swallowing is the downgrade to Delta’s guidance for the July-to-September period.

An overhaul that attracts companies like Shein could help a flagging London Stock Exchange, but the main issue is that U.K. equities are dirt-cheap.

Investors are buying small-cap and “old economy” stocks in a way reminiscent of 2016. It won't necessarily pan out.

It also said that this summer’s airfares would be “materially lower” than last year’s. The prospect of a cutthroat holiday season dragged down the stocks of Ryanair’s budget peers **easyJet** and **Wizz Air**, and to a lesser extent, those of British Airways-owner **IAG**, **Air France-KLM** and Germany’s **Lufthansa**. Coupled with higher labor, maintenance and fuel expenses, weak pricing has affected all carriers this year, particularly low-cost ones that can’t offset narrower “basic economy” margins by selling premium cabins. Ryanair was one of the few players that had managed to deliver solid returns for investors.

Deutsche Bank became a punching bag for investors on Wednesday, as it often used to be before Chief Executive Christian Sewing took over in 2018. This was the result of a €1.3 billion, or about $1.4 billion, litigation provision related to the takeover of Postbank in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The Postbank issue should have been mostly priced in, since it was telegraphed ahead of time.

On the one hand, investors had to digest a 46% drop in second-quarter earnings compared with the same period last year, and guidance all but confirming that Southwest will lose money during the high summer season. On the other, Chief Executive Bob Jordan tried to lift expectations longer term with sweeping changes to the carrier’s offerings. The overhaul, prompted by an activist campaign led by Elliott Investment Management, is probably a step in the right direction.