To The Moon

BlackRock managed a small gain after attracting $205 billion of new money. ASML and Morgan Stanley both exceeded profit expectations but declined with technology and financial stocks. Bank of America suffered the sharpest drop after a regulatory penalty compounded an underlying earnings miss.

$BlackRock(BLK)$ Record inflows provide rare shelter

BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager and the owner of the iShares ETF franchise.

Third-quarter revenue rose 19% to $7.75 billion, beating the roughly $7.5 billion consensus. Adjusted EPS jumped 38% to $15.93, well above the $14.13 estimate.

Clients added $205 billion during the quarter, including $134.5 billion into iShares ETFs and $78.2 billion into fixed-income products. Assets under management reached a record $15.49 trillion, up from $13.46 trillion a year earlier.

The shares rose as much as 5% before closing only 0.7% higher on Oct. 14 as the broader market sold off. Investors rewarded the breadth of the inflows and management’s expectation that demand for private-market and yield-oriented investments will keep expanding into 2027.

$Bank of America(BAC)$ A $1.2 billion penalty exposes a weaker quarter

Bank of America is a diversified lender with major consumer-banking, wealth-management and trading operations.

Revenue increased 3% to $29.96 billion, missing the $30.58 billion estimate. Reported EPS was 91 cents. Excluding a regulatory settlement that reduced earnings by 17 cents per share, adjusted EPS of roughly $1.08 still fell short of the $1.10 consensus.

The penalty stemmed from deficiencies in the bank’s anti-money-laundering and sanctions-monitoring systems. Bond-trading revenue also fell about 17%, while investment-banking fees weakened.

Shares sank 4.7%, their worst session in about 18 months. Management maintained its expectation for roughly 8% net-interest-income growth in 2026 and at least that pace in 2027, but the outlook did not offset concerns about compliance costs and weaker capital-markets performance.

$ASML Holding NV(ASML)$ Strong AI demand runs into a broad chip selloff

ASML makes the lithography machines used to produce advanced semiconductors and is the sole supplier of EUV systems.

Third-quarter sales reached a record €11.66 billion. Revenue was slightly below the dollar-based consensus, while earnings equivalent to about $14.50 per ADR comfortably beat the $12.17 estimate. Gross margin climbed to 57.5%.

ASML projected fourth-quarter revenue of €14.2 billion to €15.2 billion and full-year sales of €44 billion to €45 billion. Customers are already discussing orders for 2029 and 2030, and management warned that planned production for 2027 and 2028 may not satisfy demand.

The ADRs fell 3.9%. A modest sales miss and a nearly 4% decline in the semiconductor index outweighed the bullish capacity outlook, particularly after ASML’s strong year-to-date rally.

$Morgan Stanley(MS)$ Equity traders deliver, but the stock follows the market lower

Morgan Stanley combines investment banking and trading with one of the largest U.S. wealth-management platforms.

Net revenue climbed 12% to $20.34 billion, topping the $19.93 billion forecast. EPS of $3.03 also beat expectations of $2.93.

Equity-trading revenue surged 41% to $5.8 billion, and wealth-management revenue reached a record $9.07 billion. Total client assets across wealth and investment management rose to $10.5 trillion. Fixed-income trading was the weak spot, falling about 7%.

Morgan Stanley kept its full-year outlook unchanged. The stock closed 2.8% lower as hotter inflation pressured the market and investors looked past the headline beat to softer bond trading and subdued investment-banking growth.

Today’s discussion:

If you had to buy one after the sell-off, which would you pick?

• 🅰️ ASML — Betting on long-term AI chip demand.

• 🅱️ Morgan Stanley — Betting on Wall Street trading and wealth management.

• 🅲 Neither — I'd wait for a better entry point.