Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Gap: All essential ingredients of the corporate uniform your millennial HR rep dons when delivering bad news in a chipper tone.

But Gap, the retail behemoth behind those brands, announced some very good news today.

Gap shares soared 12.84% after the company reported a stellar third quarter—and an even rosier outlook.

• Earnings per share came in at $0.72, outpacing the $0.58 analysts expected to see.
• $3.83 billion in revenue rose 2% year over year and beat the $3.81 billion analysts forecast.
• Gap said it expects its fiscal 2024 sales will rise between 1.5% and 2%, far ahead of the 0.4% growth analysts were anticipating.
• Management boosted operating income forecasts from the 50% it previously expected to around 60% in the fiscal year.

The brand breakdown: Athleta sales grew by 4%, while Banana Republic’s sales rose 2%, and Old Navy and the Gap brand’s sales each jumped 1%.

What’s even more impressive is how well the company performed in spite of hurricanes closing stores and driving store sales down about 2%, CEO Richard Dickson told CNBC in an interview.

A Hallmark-ready turnaround story

Dickson has led a renaissance for the retailer since he became CEO in August 2023. He has focused on doubling down on the identity of each brand under the Gap umbrella, as well as focusing on celebrity partnerships.

The result: Sales have grown for the past four quarters straight, and the stock is up 19.05% year to date.

In a note today, Morgan Stanley equity analyst Alex Straton explained that this recent quarter was “further evidence that the new management’s brand reinvigoration/turnaround strategies are proving successful.” She maintained her “overweight” rating on the stock.

While this quarter was undeniably good, Dickson also has high expectations for the holiday season. “Holiday is off to a strong start and we remain focused on executing with excellence in the fourth quarter,” he said in a statement.

So even if you’re more of a H&M or Zara fan, you might want to dress your portfolio in Gap.—LB

🟢 What’s up

• Ross Stores rose 2.19% after beating earnings estimates but missing sales forecasts last quarter, with shoppers spending less thanks to inflation.
• MicroStrategy tumbled big time yesterday after a short seller report highlighted the risk inherent in betting it all on bitcoin, but the stock recovered 6.19% today.
• Super Micro Computer continues to recover from the brink of defeat, rising another 11.62% as investors beg the tech company’s forgiveness for ever doubting it.
• Data analytics company Elastic sprang 14.77% higher today on a strong earnings report highlighted by rising demand from customers building AI applications.

What’s down

• Tax-filing company Intuit sank 5.68% after reporting strong earnings last quarter but forecasting weaker results this quarter.
• Reddit dropped 7.18% after a one-two punch from shareholders: Tencent Holdings sold a chunk of its stake in the social media company, while Advance Magazine Publishers is selling its stake but, through some financial trickery, is keeping control of the shares.
• Palo Alto Networks may have beaten earnings expectations yesterday afternoon, but the cybersecurity stock fell 3.61% after shareholders weren’t impressed by its full-year guidance.

The IT guy who was always telling you about this shady new investment called bitcoin over crummy breakroom coffee a few years ago is about to be very, very rich.

Just in case you haven’t heard: Bitcoin is inches away from $100,000. Regarded by many as the promised land, this achievement would mark a new milestone in the crypto’s climb from Silk Road’s favorite way of selling illicit goods to a strategic part of the country’s financial health.

In the past, bitcoin’s volatility has made traditional investing analysis difficult. Many a Wall Street pro has attempted to read the crypto tea leaves to predict the next move, and few have been able to anticipate the wild pops and drops that have marked bitcoin’s history.

But, as the team at Bespoke Investment Group pointed out, this time it’s different. A cup-and-handle pattern is a well-known technical indicator that usually means a bullish outbreak higher is on the way. And with every crypto trader in the world watching bitcoin’s price inch upward, there’s definitely going to be some celebratory buying once it breaks above $100k. So, if you’ve got $99,999 lying around somewhere, maybe now’s finally the time to buy bitcoin.

You’ve probably been so busy either celebrating bitcoin’s ascension or kicking yourself for not investing sooner that you’ve all but forgotten there were other things happening this week.

Nvidia investors can’t decide how they feel about earnings. You’d think that sales climbing 94% year over year to reach $35.08 billion would be enough to satisfy even the most scrupulous among us. But shares still declined 3.22% today, as shareholders looked for any sign that the AI darling had finally flown too close to the sun—even though it got a bump right after dropping the news on Wednesday. While Nvidia’s results still hit it out of the park last quarter, its growth rate wasn’t quite as high as previous quarters, spooking investors.

Amazon and Anthropic keep cozying up. Amazon announced today it’s investing another $4 billion in Open AI rival Anthropic—bringing its total investment in the startup behind the Claude LLM to $8 billion. The partnership is about more than just money: “Anthropic is now naming AWS its primary training partner, in addition to continuing to be its primary cloud provider, and will use AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips to train and deploy its future foundation models,” they companies wrote in a blog post announcing the investment.

Trump’s presidency will bring even more degeneracy to retail trading. Options trading is set to explode during Trump’s presidency, due to tariffs, geopolitical instability, and a lack of policy clarity, Bloomberg reported. Options plays like zero-day-to-expiry options (0DTE) on ETFs have already made retail trading more volatile, and as these strategies grow in popularity, expect the already wild world of day trading to get even wilder.

There you have it. Take the weekend off to relax, recharge, and try not to think too much more about bitcoin.—LB

• How much money do you need to make a year to consider yourself “financially successful?” Boomers say $100,000. Gen Z says $600,000.
• Sports stars are flexing their financial muscles more than ever.
• Consumer sentiment rose less than expected last month, with the report revealing deep divides between optimistic Republicans and pessimistic Democrats.
• The services sector just hit a 32-month high of economic growth, while the manufacturing sector sank to a 23-month low.
• There are 431 female billionaires in the world. Here’s how they’re spending their money.
• Healthcare stocks are looking cheap after the presidential election, which means this could be a buying opportunity to grab these 15 undervalued stocks.

Next week is short and sweet, with Thanksgiving here in the US shutting down the stock market on Thursday and cutting the trading day short on Friday.

That’s why there’s only a handful of reports to watch—though the catch is that they’re all squeezed into just two days.

On Tuesday we’ve got some real estate reports, including the S&P Case-Shiller home price index and new home sales, as well as a look at consumer confidence.

And on Wednesday it’s a veritable cornucopia of data, including initial jobless claims, durable goods orders, the first revision of last quarter’s GDP, and the big one: PCE.

As for earnings, all of those announcements are also condensed into two days:

Monday: Bath & Body Works, Zoom, and Agilent Technologies.

Tuesday: Best Buy, HP, Dell Technologies, CrowdStrike, Analog Devices, Abercrombie & Fitch, Macy’s, Burlington Stores, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Kohl’s, and Manchester United.

The holiday home stretch has arrived and Thanksgiving is near! You’ve just got to power through a few short days of work to get to parades, football, and two full hours of pedigreed schnauzers prancing around for your enjoyment.