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The major indices are broadly lower at midday on Monday. There's not much good news out there to celebrate. Renewed strikes between the U.S. and Iran have increased tensions in the Middle East. Oil prices are climbing again. Add to that, Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh hinted last week that rates might be heading higher as inflation stays stubbornly elevated. Crude oil is at $85 per barrel. The yield on the 10-year note is at 4.76%.

Labcorp operates one of the largest global clinical laboratory networks, providing both routine and specialty testing. It operates in Diagnostics Laboratories and Biopharma Laboratory Services (BLS) segments. BLS supports clinical trial activity for the biopharma industry in approximately 100 countries.

Earnings season is almost over, with about 97% of S&P 500 companies having reported as of Friday. Many knocked it out of the park, delivering earnings and revenue numbers that were well ahead of expectations. We always look at trends and, as usual, there are companies increasing guidance. Raising guidance is one of our Investing Themes for the second half of 2026. We view management's ability to raise guidance consistently as a catalyst for possible market-beating returns in the quarters ahead. It's even harder for companies to lift guidance during uncertain economic times, as vision is murky. This is true now, as the war in the Middle East drags on. As well, Wall Street has a new chairman of the Federal Reserve, one with a different view about forward-looking guidance (or in this case, a lack thereof). As many companies increased guidance during this earnings cycle, we put out two lists. The first was back on August 3 -- and now we offer up our second list, made up of companies in Argus' fundamental Universe of Coverage. Many of the names in this latest list are in the consumer space, as these companies tend to report at the end of earnings season.

While this week doesn't have the buildup of last week, there are some key happenings, including Friday's employment report. As well, Technology EPS continue to roll in with PANW, MDB, DELL, and CRDO reporting on Tuesday; AVGO, NTAP, SNOW, and HPE on Wednesday; and CIEN and ZS on Thursday. Software (IGV $109.50), led by cyber security and then cloud computing last week, has outperformed semiconductors (SMH) since late June. IGV gapped to recovery highs on Thursday with strong volume and is closing in on its September 2025 all-time high near $118. SMH remains in a correction as another strong report from Nvidia failed to reignite the former leaders.