> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.sharespective.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Afternoon Fade - URL: https://www.sharespective.com/sharespective-2026-10-01/ - Published: 2026-09-30T21:15:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-30T21:14:59.000Z - Description: Micron's quarterly revenue is nearly five times what it was a year ago. - Author: Shaun Botha - Tags: Daily | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/02/71/0271df32-cec6-421f-9f13-b06ab90e54c1/content/images/2026/08/mark-light-3.png) | SharespectiveWall Street, before morning tea | Daily newsletterThu 1 Oct 2026 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------ | | ![Today's edition](https://storage.ghost.io/c/02/71/0271df32-cec6-421f-9f13-b06ab90e54c1/content/images/2026/08/kicker-1.png)The Afternoon Fade**Plus:** Micron's quarterly revenue is nearly five times what it was a year ago. | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | **Good morning.** American inflation came in cooler than anyone had forecast on Wednesday, and Wall Street handed back the rally it earned within a few hours. The S&P 500 closed 0.25% lower and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 443 points. The bond market is the reason. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 5.29% anyway, its highest since 2007, and the NASDAQ Composite was the only one of the big three to finish up. Micron's results, out after the bell, were the day's real news. In company news, Northrop Grumman fell 4.19% after losing the US Navy's next fighter jet to Boeing, which gave up an early gain and closed 0.87% lower itself. Elsewhere, Mattel dropped 4.24% after Ynon Kreiz said he will step down as chairman and chief executive. Finally, Moderna lost 5.35% after Citigroup cut it to sell. Four hours of optimism. ### Market snapshot | S&P 5007,651.54**▼ 0.25%** | ​ | NASDAQ26,861.06**▲ 0.24%** | ​ | NZX 5013,834.39**▲ 1.10%** | | -------------------------- | - | ---------------------------------------- | - | ---------------------------- | | ​ | | | | | | ASX 2008,789.30**▲ 0.92%** | ​ | United TherapeuticsUS$541.89**▲ 12.55%** | ​ | LiquidiaUS$30.26**▼ 57.19%** | The US levels are Wednesday 30 September's closes in New York. The NZX 50 and ASX 200 are Wednesday's local closes, taken before trading opened here on Thursday. The United Therapeutics and Liquidia rows are that session's closing price and move. | ​ | ECONOMY | | - | ------- | ## Inflation came in cooler than expected and the bond market took no notice Prices rose 3.4% over the year to August on the measure the Federal Reserve watches. Economists had expected about 3.7%. Core prices, which leave out food and energy, held at 3.0% and rose 0.2% in the month against a 0.3% forecast. **Some of that improvement is new arithmetic.** The Bureau of Economic Analysis has changed how it prices legal services, computer software and portfolio management. July's core reading has since been revised down to 3.0% from the 3.3% first reported. Energy did what the war in Iran was always going to make it do. Petrol prices rose 4.4% over the month and energy goods and services 2.3%. Wall Street liked the headline for about four hours. The S&P 500 was up 0.58% by late morning and closed 0.25% lower at 7,651.54\. The Dow gave up 443.87 points, or 0.86%. The 10-year Treasury yield went the other way, rising to 5.29%, the most it has paid since 2007\. Traders still cut the odds of a quarter-point rise on 27-28 October to about a third, from roughly 70% on Tuesday. | Our viewone softer month does not settle this, and some of it came from a change of method rather than cheaper goods. I'd want a second month at 3.0%, on both methods, before calling it a trend. | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ​ | SEMICONDUCTORS | | - | -------------- | ## Micron's quarterly revenue is nearly five times what it was a year ago Micron reported its fourth quarter after Wednesday's close. Revenue was US$54.23 billion against the US$51.07 billion analysts expected, and adjusted earnings came in at US$33.42 a share. The shares had finished the session barely changed at US$1,065.11. **So how much of that is profit?** Micron kept 87 cents of every sales dollar after paying to make the chips. Memory has spent most of its history as a commodity business where nobody keeps anything close to that. The comparison is what makes it strange. The same quarter a year earlier brought in US$11.32 billion. Full-year revenue was US$133.19 billion against US$37.38 billion, and operating cash flow was US$89.68 billion. The guidance is bigger again. Micron expects US$61.5 billion of revenue this quarter, give or take US$1.5 billion, where analysts had US$57.02 billion. Sanjay Mehrotra, the chief executive, said he expects an even stronger fiscal 2027. | The catchmemory cycles have always turned on supply rather than demand, and Micron put US$27.37 billion into plant and equipment last year with more to come. Our read is that fiscal 2027 looks close to sold out and fiscal 2028 is the one nobody can see yet. | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ​ | PHARMACEUTICALS | | - | --------------- | ## One patent ruling took 57% off Liquidia and put 13% on United Therapeutics A federal court in Delaware ruled on Wednesday that Liquidia's inhaled lung drug Yutrepia infringes a United Therapeutics patent. Liquidia closed at US$30.26, down 57.19%. United Therapeutics closed at US$541.89, up 12.55%. **The fight is over one use of one drug.** Both companies sell inhaled treprostinil. The patent covers treating pulmonary hypertension in patients whose lungs are also scarred, a condition doctors shorten to PH-ILD. The court upheld two of its claims and struck out four. Liquidia will appeal. In the meantime it plans to take PH-ILD off Yutrepia's label, which leaves the drug approved for the other form of the disease and hands the disputed slice of the market back to United Therapeutics. The regulator cleared Yutrepia for both uses in 2025, after years of trying. Patent 11,826,327 took one of them away again on Wednesday, and Liquidia's case now rests on the appeal. | What to watchthe injunction. United Therapeutics has asked the court to restrict Yutrepia's availability while matters proceed, and the two sides file proposed judgments within a week. That document decides what Liquidia can sell for however long the appeal takes. | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ### Newsworthy numbers | ​ | ​ | ​ | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | - | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | 90,000private-sector jobs America added in September on ADP's count, against the 70,000 economists expected. August, it turns out, was worse than anyone was told at the time, at a revised 36,000. | ​ | US$20bnthe opening value of the contract Boeing won to build the US Navy's next carrier-based fighter, beating Northrop Grumman. It is the second fighter programme Boeing has won in two years. | | ​ | | | | ​ | ​ | ​ | | 4.0%Australia's annual inflation rate in August, up from 3.5% in July. The trimmed mean held at 3.6%, and bets on a Reserve Bank rise in November fell to about 20%. | ​ | 48%Hallenstein Glasson's gain over the September quarter, the best on the NZX 50, with the shares touching an all-time high. Fonterra Shareholders' Fund units and SkyCity both added 24%. | ### Worth a read | ​ | | | -- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 01 | **[Even a small rise in annual KiwiSaver fees will see them top $1 billion next year](https://www.interest.co.nz/personal-finance/140197/even-small-rise-annual-kiwisaver-fees-will-see-them-top-1-billion-next-year?ref=sharespective.com)** — Gareth Vaughan on the $978.2 million members paid in the year to March, up 12.6%. A 2.2% rise takes the bill past a billion, and investment managers took $926.9 million of it. | | ​ | | | 02 | **[JM Smucker says it sold $1 billion worth of Uncrustables in FY2026](https://sherwood.news/business/jm-smucker-says-it-sold-1-billion-worth-of-uncrustables-in-fy2026/?ref=sharespective.com)** — Crustless frozen peanut butter sandwiches were a $76 million product in 2006 and about $199 million in 2016\. The brand added more than three million households last year. | | ​ | | | 03 | **[Startup Tests Offshore Geothermal Power](https://spectrum.ieee.org/offshore-geothermal-energy?ref=sharespective.com)** — Julia Tilton on Endurance Energy, which has drilled into 250°C fluid beneath the seabed off Oregon to run an underwater turbine. Stanford's Roland Horne calls subsea geothermal "a slightly dingbat idea". | | ​ | | | 04 | **[A record-breaking X-ray flash may reveal the birth of a magnetar](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260930020252.htm?ref=sharespective.com)** — Eleonora Troja's group at Rome's Tor Vergata University tracked two neutron stars colliding more than 6 billion light-years away. The gamma-ray burst lasted about half a second; the X-ray flash behind it ran for nearly ten minutes. | | ​ | | | 05 | **[A Record of Breath](https://longreads.com/2026/09/30/preservation-oxford-american?ref=sharespective.com)** — Marci Wilding catalogues the belongings of a Mississippi judge who sat on the state's highest bench for 48 years, and works out which objects are worth keeping. What survives him turns out to be the smaller things. | ### Wrapping up Friday's American jobs report is the week's last real event, and it now carries the October rate decision on its own. A soft number would undo most of Wednesday's repricing, and a firm one would put the rise back on the table. Australia's August trade figures are due today, at 11.30​am in Sydney and 1.30​pm in Auckland. The next American results of any size are Constellation Brands and Lamb Weston on Tuesday 6 October, where the line to find is Constellation's beer shipment volumes. USD/AUD is at 1.43, the Aussie easing after Wednesday's inflation figures took the pressure off the Reserve Bank. USD/NZD is at 1.77 and the kiwi barely moved. The last quarter of the year starts tonight in New York. Back tomorrow. ​ General information and commentary only, not financial advice. It does not take account of your objectives, financial situation or needs, and reflects the author's own reading of public information at the time of writing, which may be wrong. Sharespective, its people and its clients may hold positions in the companies covered. Do your own research and talk to a licensed adviser.