Pfizer on Tuesday reported second-quarter results that topped estimates and hiked the low end of its revenue outlook, citing an expected $1.5 billion bump in sales from its non-Covid products.

The company is now expecting full-year revenue to total $60.5 billion to $62.5 billion, which compares to a previous outlook of $59.5 billion to $62.5 billion. That sales range would still be roughly flat or down slightly compared with 2025 revenue of $62.6 billion.

Pfizer said it cut its full-year revenue expectation for its Covid products – the vaccine Comirnaty and antiviral pill Paxlovid – to $4 billion, down from around $5 billion previously. 

“Low COVID-19 incidence could continue to limit Paxlovid utilization,” Pfizer’s incoming interim CFO Cecile Guegan said during the company’s second quarter earnings call. “Our plan also assumes the majority of Comirnaty sales will occur toward year-end, consistent with the vaccination season.”

The pharmaceutical giant reiterated its full-year adjusted profit outlook of between $2.80 and $3 per share. 

Pfizer also announced additional savings of $2.5 billion from two separate cost-cutting programs, which will be achieved starting in 2027 and through 2029.

“With our strong performance through the first half of the year and our ongoing productivity enhancement discipline, we remain confident in our business,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on the call.

Here’s what the company reported for the second quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: 

• Earnings per share: 77 cents adjusted vs. 68 cents expected
• Revenue: $15.03 billion vs. $14.41 billion expected

Pfizer reported revenue of $15.03 billion for the first quarter, up 3% from the same period a year ago. Sales increases for key products, including its blood thinner Eliquis and targeted cancer drug Padcev, helped to counteract struggles in its Covid business.

Eliquis in particular blew past estimates for the quarter, raking in $2.43 billion in sales, up 19%. Analysts were expecting revenue of $2.08 billion, according to StreetAccount.

Recently launched and acquired products also delivered $3.2 billion in revenue during the quarter, Guegan said during the call.

“Our commercial performance has also helped mitigate the impact of currently low COVID infection levels,” she said.

The company booked a net loss of $248 million, or 4 cents per share, for the period. That compares with net income of $2.91 billion, or 51 cents per share, during the second quarter of 2025. 

The quarterly loss largely reflected a $4.3 billion non-cash impairment charge after Pfizer lowered its revenue expectations for certain products, primarily following disappointing late-stage trial results for its drug sigvotatug vedotin in previously treated non-small cell lung cancer.

The charge also reflected the removal of revenue projections for its sickle cell disease drug Oxbryta after recent discussions with the FDA. Pfizer pulled that product from the market in 2024.

Excluding certain items, including restructuring charges and costs associated with intangible assets, Pfizer posted earnings per share of 77 cents for the quarter.

The company also announced the second phase of a multi-year initiative to slash costs, which targets around $1.5 billion in savings through 2029. That phase focuses on what the company called product portfolio enhancements, network structure changes and additional operational efficiencies. 

 The first part of that effort is on track to deliver $1.5 billion in savings by the end of 2027. 

Pfizer announced an additional $1 billion in savings from a separate cost-cutting program, which will be achieved from 2027 to 2029. That adds to the previously announced $5.7 billion in cost savings the company will achieve through the program by the end of the year. 

The pharmaceutical giant is looking to longer-term investments in its pipeline, including its recent $10 billion acquisition of the obesity biotech Metsera, to counter waning Covid product sales and declines from older drugs. Investors are focused on several crucial data releases from Pfizer this year, including data on a combination regimen that includes its GLP-1 injection and an amylin asset.

Wayfair shares surged nearly 30% Tuesday, trading at $115.97 as of 11:54 a.m. Eastern time, after the online home goods retailer posted second-quarter results that topped Wall Street expectations, a rally that analysts say was significantly amplified by a wave of short sellers being forced to cover their bets.

The stock’s dramatic move came after Wayfair reported earnings before the market opened Tuesday, delivering its strongest quarterly performance in years and prompting a sharp reassessment of the company’s growth trajectory among investors who had spent much of 2026 skeptical of the retailer’s prospects.

A quarter that beat on every major metric

Wayfair reported adjusted second-quarter earnings of 95 cents per share, comfortably topping the analyst consensus estimate of roughly 89 to 90 cents. Revenue rose 7.5% year-over-year to $3.52 billion, ahead of the Street’s expectation of $3.47 billion, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.

On a GAAP basis, the company reported a net loss of $1 million, or 1 cent per share, compared with a profit of $15 million, or 11 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. After adjusting for nonrecurring charges such as equity-based compensation, however, the company’s earnings picture looked considerably stronger, reflected in the 95-cent adjusted per-share figure that beat estimates.

Perhaps most notably, Wayfair reported its strongest post-pandemic U.S. revenue growth, with domestic sales rising nearly 9% year-over-year, a performance the company attributed to continued market share gains and growing momentum across its specialty and premium home goods brands.

Cash flow reaches its best level since 2020

Wayfair’s improved sales performance translated directly into stronger cash generation, with free cash flow reaching $301 million during the quarter, the company’s strongest cash flow performance since 2020. That figure marked a significant milestone for a company that has struggled with profitability and cash burn for much of its history as a public company.

Looking ahead, Wayfair told analysts on its earnings call that it expects sales momentum to continue into the current quarter, guiding toward “high single-digit” percentage revenue growth, well above the roughly 5% growth rate analysts had been modeling, according to LSEG. The company also guided toward a gross margin between 29.5% and 30.5% for the coming quarter.

Executives credit market share gains

Speaking with CNBC following the results, Wayfair’s chief financial officer, Kate Gulliver, attributed much of the company’s growth to taking market share primarily from traditional brick-and-mortar furniture and home goods retailers, even as the broader U.S. housing market has remained largely stalled. That dynamic, Gulliver suggested, has allowed Wayfair to continue expanding its customer base despite a challenging environment for big-ticket home purchases tied to a sluggish housing market.

In a separate statement accompanying the results, Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah pointed to the company’s continued success attracting higher-spending shoppers through Perigold, its luxury-focused home goods brand, as another contributor to the quarter’s strength.

A short squeeze adds fuel to the rally

While Wayfair’s underlying results were strong on their own, analysts noted that Tuesday’s outsized stock move was likely magnified by elevated short interest heading into the report. According to data cited by Benzinga, roughly 18.38% of Wayfair’s publicly traded float, or approximately 14.75 million shares, had been sold short ahead of the earnings release, an exceptionally high level of bearish positioning for a stock of Wayfair’s size. When the earnings beat sent shares sharply higher, many of those short sellers appeared to rush to cover their positions, buying back shares to limit losses and pushing the stock’s gains even further in what traders commonly describe as a short squeeze.

A stock already showing signs of momentum

Tuesday’s surge builds on a stretch of improving performance for Wayfair shares heading into the report. Despite being down roughly 6% for 2026 prior to Tuesday’s rally, the stock had already climbed about 70% since hitting a 52-week low on May 19, and was up roughly 45% over the trailing 12 months even before Tuesday’s move. Technical analysts had also pointed to the stock’s 30-day moving average recently crossing above its 200-day moving average, a signal some traders interpret as a sign of shifting momentum, for only the second time in roughly two years.

Ahead of the report, Piper Sandler had maintained an Overweight rating on Wayfair with a $115 price target, citing the company’s physical store expansion strategy as a key driver behind what the firm projected could be roughly 20% annual sales growth, a target that appeared broadly consistent with Tuesday’s results.

A company still working toward sustained profitability

Despite Tuesday’s strong quarter, Wayfair’s longer-term financial history underscores the scale of the turnaround still underway at the company. Since going public in 2014, Wayfair has posted an annual GAAP profit only once, in 2020, when it earned $1.86 per share on $14.15 billion in revenue during a pandemic-driven surge in home goods spending. The company is not expected to return to that level of annual revenue until 2028. Its operating margin, which stood at 2.5% during that 2020 peak, had fallen to just 0.14% by 2025, illustrating how far the company’s profitability has drifted from its best-ever year even as revenue has grown in absolute terms.

With Tuesday’s earnings beat and raised near-term guidance now in hand, investors will be watching closely in the coming quarters to see whether Wayfair can sustain its recent market share gains and translate them into more consistent profitability, particularly given the company’s continued exposure to a housing market that remains far from fully recovered. The scale of Tuesday’s short squeeze also raises questions about how much of the stock’s gain reflects genuine confidence in Wayfair’s turnaround versus temporary technical pressure from short sellers unwinding their positions, a distinction that is likely to become clearer as trading settles in the days ahead.

India’s markets regulator on Tuesday proposed allowing depository receipts to be issued against units of real estate investment trusts (REITs) and infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs), in a ‌move aimed ⁠at ⁠attracting more foreign capital to these sectors.

Here ​are more details:

The Securities and Exchange ​Board of India proposed aligning the rules for depository receipts issued against ​REITs and InvITs ⁠with those ‌applicable to equity depository ​receipts.

​Depository receipts are foreign-currency-denominated instruments ⁠issued by a foreign institution against ​securities held with a domestic ​custodian, allowing investors to trade those securities in an overseas market.

REITs and InvITs listed in India already accept foreign investment, ‌subject to government and central bank rules.

The proposed rules would give overseas ⁠investors an additional route to invest and trade REITs and InvITs units in foreign currency through depository receipts, SEBI said.
SEBI has sought public comments on the proposals by August 25.

Available for over a year

How amid the tents and the rubble Gaza is developing once again as an unlikely tech hub.

Even before the 7 October 2023 attack and the subsequent war between Israel and Hamas, NGOs, with the backing of Google, had sought to develop tech start-ups in the Gaza strip. The digital economy was one of the few areas in which young Gazans in particular could seek to earn money for their families.

During the two years of war they struggled for food and water. Forced to move from place to place, most of them lost their homes, their work, sometimes their laptops and plenty lost family members. Now 80% of Gazans are unemployed and have no income. Many of them live amid the rubble in tents. Stable electricity and internet are difficult to come by. And yet co-working hubs have begun to pop up, giving well educated graduates a chance to work remotely for foreign companies as coders, software engineers and app developers. With Israel controlling what comes in and out of Gaza, they still face significant obstacles, not least finding decent internet, electricity and spare parts for their laptops. And with near-daily bombings continuing, Gaza’s wider recovery remains uncertain. Yolande Knell reports on how its tech workers give a glimpse of a brighter, possible future, open to the world beyond Gaza’s borders.

(Photo: A man sits on a chair outside and is typing on the keyboard of a laptop on his lap. Behind him is a small tree and shrubs and rubble from destroyed apartments bathed in sunlight. He has short brown hair and wears a maroon long-sleeved shirt and jeans)

Producer: John Murphy
Studio engineer: Gareth Jones
Programme co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Penny Murphy

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India’s oldest exchange BSE Ltd reported a 62% year-on-year (YoY) rise in consolidated net profit attributable to shareholders for the June quarter, helped by strong growth in revenue from operations and higher investment income. The exchange posted profit attributable to shareholders of the holding company at Rs 874 crore for the quarter ended June 2026, compared with Rs 539 crore in the same quarter last year.

Revenue from operations rose 63% to Rs 1,566 crore from Rs 958 crore a year earlier. Investment income also rose sharply to Rs 135 crore from Rs 79 crore, while other income stood at Rs 5 crore against Rs 7 crore in the year-ago period.

BSE’s profit before tax rose 66% to Rs 1,164 crore from Rs 701 crore in Q1FY26. Profit before contribution to the core settlement guarantee fund stood at Rs 1,177 crore, up 72% from Rs 685 crore a year earlier.

The company made a Rs 26 crore contribution to the core settlement guarantee fund during the quarter. Profit before tax and share of profit of associates stood at Rs 1,144 crore. Tax expense for the quarter stood at Rs 291 crore, compared with Rs 175 crore a year earlier.

Total expenses rose 49% to Rs 537 crore from Rs 359 crore in the same quarter last year. Employee benefit expenses increased to Rs 87 crore from Rs 70 crore. Technology expense rose to Rs 61 crore from Rs 50 crore.

Clearing and settlement expenses increased to Rs 90 crore from Rs 55 crore. Regulatory contribution rose to Rs 193 crore from Rs 116 crore. Other expenses stood at Rs 63 crore, compared with Rs 41 crore a year earlier. Depreciation expense increased to Rs 43 crore from Rs 27 crore.

Oil prices fell to a three-week low on Tuesday as senior US officials raised hopes of a deal with Iran to reopen the key Strait of Hormuz waterway.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent both announced talks had progressed to allow shipments to potentially resume as soon as this week.

The cost of a barrel of brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, fell by almost 5% to under $80 on the news of supply disruptions potentially being eased.

But the failure of previous negotiations in recent months to de-escalate the conflict between the US and Iran have led to a volatile oil market, with drivers ultimately being hit by higher fuel prices at the pumps.

On Tuesday, along with the drop in Brent crude, US West Texas Intermediate prices were down more than 5%, to $76 a barrel. Both contracts dropped to their lowest levels since 13 July.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there had been progress made in discussions on getting more ships through the Strait with Iran and Oman.

“There’s been progress made in those talks, but not finality yet. We’re hoping that will happen very shortly,” he told reporters at the State Department.

Bessent said a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could be agreed as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.

There was a “chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the strait and move towards a more normalized position in this conflict,” he told CNBC.

“It would be freedom of movement,” he added, when asked whether Iran would be allowed to charge for ships passing through.

While senior figures in the US government have announced talks have been progressing, no details of what a potential deal may look like have been released.

The Strait of Hormuz has been a central point in negotiations between the US and Iran. Before the conflict began in late February, the waterway handled about one-fifth of global daily oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.