Durable Goods Data Beats Expectations

We kick off a new week of trading with a week of marquee earnings reports from several members of the “Magnificent 7,” including Apple AAPL, Microsoft MSFT, Meta Platforms META and Tesla TSLA, among many others. We also have a new Fed meeting starting tomorrow and delivering an update of monetary policy Wednesday afternoon, which is almost certainly going to bring about no change from its current range of 3.50-3.75%.

Durable Goods Orders Stronger for November

This morning, we see a continuing current of stronger-than-expected economic reports from the delay due to the federal government shutdown in calendar Q4 last year. This morning, it’s Durable Goods Orders for November, which came in at +5.3% — 80 basis points (bps) higher than anticipated and a big jump from the slightly revised -2.1% the previous month. This is the strongest monthly print since the outlier +16.5% reported back in May of last year.

Subtracting volatile Transportation orders (think new airplanes), we’re still well up from the prior month: +0.5% from the downwardly revised +0.1% in October. Non-Defense, ex-aircraft — a proxy for “normal” business investment (think copiers, business furniture, etc.) — came in at an encouraging +0.7%, more than double the +0.3% expected. This is the highest print since +1.0% back in September of last year.

Shipments doubled expectations, as well: +0.4% versus +0.2% projected. It does come down from the +0.8% reported the prior month, but is still indicative of a growing economy. These sorts of numbers do likely tamp down any expectations for Fed rate cuts this week, but are welcome from the point of view of strengthening business activity and bolstering the stock market.

Marquee Earnings Reports Coming This Week

Next week and the week after, we expect to see a higher number of total Q4 earnings reports than we do this week, but between now and Friday, we see some of the biggest market movers putting out quarterly results. In fact, four of the “Mag 7” companies report this week alone, although none of them are performing in positive territory year to date.

Apple is the worst-performing of these stocks thus far in 2026, and is expected to put out fiscal Q1 results Thursday afternoon, after the closing bell. Estimates are for +10.4% earnings growth year over year and +10.6% on revenues. As the iPhone market continues to mature on a global level, Apple moves closer to its institutional status on the market, no longer a high-tech growth stock.

Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)-rated Microsoft reports fiscal Q2 earnings on Wednesday afternoon after the market closes. Working on a streak of 13-straight quarterly earnings beats, the software giant and AI hyperscaler is expected to grow +20% on its bottom line, year over year, and +15% on revenues. Microsoft shares have bounced off near-term lows mid-last week, and are up marginally again ahead of today’s open.

Meta Platforms also looks for +20% growth on its top line when it reports Q4 earnings Wednesday afternoon, as well. Earnings, however, are a different story, expected only up +1.6% from a year ago. However, Meta is riding a 12-straight quarterly earnings beat streak, so we look for this low bar to be cleared. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) with a Value-Growth-Momentum grade of A.

Tesla is the only one of the Mag 7 stocks expected to produce negative growth numbers on both top and bottom lines Wednesday afternoon for Q4. Earnings are anticipated to come in -38.4% from a year ago, on -2.3% in revenues. The stock, however, continues to be a bet on the future, even as the EV maker sits on 10K unsold Cybertrucks, worth about $800 million.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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