Household Durables

Microsoft has partnered with LG Electronics to embed its Voice Live speech-to-speech AI agent directly into home appliances, unveiling the system at the Microsoft Industry Summit in Seoul. The agent runs on LG's ThinQ ON smart home hub, which uses Athom Homey OS, supports over 200 brand integrations, is Matter-certified, and functions as a Thread Border Router for a broader ecosystem of over 750 certified devices. Unlike the legacy speech-to-text-to-speech pipeline, Voice Live uses direct speech comprehension and allows users to interrupt and redirect a command mid-response. LG plans to release Voice Live as a firmware update for existing ThinQ ON users within 2026, at a hub launch price of approximately $172 in Korea, undercutting subscription rivals such as Google Home Premium Advanced at $20 per month and Amazon Alexa Plus at $19.99 per month. LG is also targeting nursing facilities, hotels, offices, and retail stores with its ThinQ Pro platform, while risks remain around Microsoft's lack of a unified consumer smart home strategy and LG's hardware execution.

Lennar Corporation declared a quarterly cash dividend of US$0.50 per share for both Class A and Class B stock, payable on October 22, 2026. Earlier in 2026 the company introduced Venue at Leaf Creek, an active adult community in Douglassville, Pennsylvania, featuring more than 300 homes and resort-style amenities. The launch reflects Lennar's push into lifestyle-oriented, amenity-rich communities aimed at active adult buyers in a scenic yet well-connected location. The maintained dividend signals continued capital returns even as earnings and margins have softened this year, while the company's narrative projects $40.8 billion in revenue and $2.7 billion in earnings by 2029, requiring 8.5% yearly revenue growth and about a $1.4 billion earnings increase from $1.3 billion today. Some of the most optimistic analysts expected Lennar's revenue to reach about US$40.6 billion and earnings US$2.5 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway bought $53.9 million of Lennar shares in the last three days of September, lifting its stake in the U.S. homebuilder to roughly 11%, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday. From Sept. 28 through Sept. 30, the conglomerate acquired 656,302 class A common shares and 4,108 class B common shares, bringing its total holdings to 26.0 million class A shares and 553,000 class B shares, a position valued at about $2.16 billion. That roughly 11% stake sits just under Vanguard's 11.2% holding, Bloomberg News reported. The buying follows Berkshire's $6.8 billion acquisition of Taylor Morrison Homes in July and adds to its ownership of Clayton Homes, a smaller investment in NVR and a sprawling real estate brokerage business. Berkshire, now run by CEO Greg Abel and overseen by Chairman Howard Buffett, is piling into real estate as climbing mortgage rates pressure the sector; Lennar shares have dropped 22% and the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF has dipped 12% year to date, lagging the S&P 500's 12% gain.

Casio America has unveiled the MRGD5000 Blue Sapphire, a new MR-G luxury timepiece that is the first G-SHOCK watch to achieve a shock-resistant structure using components made with blue sapphire crystal. The watch uses Casio's proprietary MR-G Multi-Guard Structure, with a bezel and case assembled from multiple separate components without the screws that can cause sapphire crystal to crack, and it will be available in a limited edition of only 20 pieces worldwide. Six of the 20 MRGD5000 Blue Sapphire timepieces, valued at $80,000 each, will arrive in the U.S. with staggered availability between December 2026 and June 2027. Casio also announced two additional blue sapphire crystal timepieces: the MRGB5000SA, a 500-piece limited edition MR-G priced at $6,600, and the GMWB5000SB, a full-metal G-SHOCK priced at $770, both available beginning in November 2026 at gshock.com, the G-SHOCK Soho Store, and select retailers. The MRGD5000 also features blue sapphire crystal set into the screw-lock case back, engraved with an individual serial number for each of the 20 limited-edition pieces, and a module incorporating Gallium Tough Solar.

Berkshire Hathaway has increased its stake in major U.S. homebuilder Lennar, raising its holding to 10.9%. According to filings submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Berkshire acquired about $212.4 million worth of shares over the three trading days from September 17 to 21, and about $136.4 million worth over the three trading days from September 23 to 25, bringing its holdings as of September 25 to 25.9 million shares valued at roughly $2.1 billion. That marks a 93% increase from the 13.4 million shares it held as of June 30, nearly doubling its stake in the second-largest homebuilder in the United States. The purchases began the day after Lennar announced its third-quarter 2026 results on September 16. In those results, revenue fell 8.6% year over year to $8.05 billion, while net income of $284 million was roughly half the $591 million reported a year earlier; new orders dropped about 9%, deliveries fell 3%, and the gross margin on home sales declined to 15.8% from 17.5%. Behind the weakness is rising U.S. mortgage rates, with the average 30-year fixed rate in the third week of September, as published by the Mortgage Bankers Association, at 7.12%, the highest level in about two years since May 2024.

Aoni Electronics announced on the evening of September 30 that its wholly owned subsidiary Aoni Intelligent Technology Zhongshan Company signed a procurement contract with Company C to purchase GPU computing card products, with a total contract value of 1.821 billion yuan including tax. Earlier, on September 24, the company announced at midday that Aoni Intelligent signed a procurement contract with Company B to purchase GPU computing card products, with a total contract value of 232.26 million US dollars, equivalent to approximately 1.556 billion yuan. The company stated that the above contracts are major contracts in the ordinary course of Aoni Intelligent's business, do not require review by the company's board of directors or shareholders' meeting, and do not constitute a related-party transaction or a major asset restructuring. Aoni Electronics said that if the contracts are performed smoothly, they are expected to have a positive impact on the company's operating results for the performance year, with the specific impact amount and reporting period depending on the fulfillment of the orders, while also cautioning that the contracts may not be performed on schedule or in full due to changes in the macroeconomic environment, industry policy adjustments, or force majeure. Financial reports show that in 2025 Aoni Electronics achieved operating revenue of 946 million yuan, with a net loss attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 157 million yuan. In the first half of 2026, operating revenue was 907 million yuan, up 215.44 percent year on year, and net profit attributable to the parent company was 16.8146 million yuan, up 126.22 percent year on year.

TomTom has expanded its collaboration with Microsoft, bringing its location intelligence to AI agents built on Microsoft Fabric and Microsoft Foundry through Microsoft's new IQ Sharing preview. With their data connected to OneLake, Azure and Fabric customers can build agentic products that understand real-world context, TomTom said in an announcement dated Sept. 30, 2026. TomTom's location intelligence is built on Overture and open standards, supporting interoperability with compatible open datasets so customers can combine operational data with geographic context. Leo Sei, SVP for Product, UX and Marketing at TomTom, said AI agents will only be useful to enterprises if they can understand the real-world context behind business decisions, while Dipti Borkar, Vice President for Microsoft IQ and OneLake at Microsoft, said the integration lets that context be shared with joint customers. TomTom's location intelligence is now available on Microsoft Marketplace and is Azure MACC eligible, and TomTom will showcase a preview of the IQ Sharing capabilities at FabCon Europe 2026 in Barcelona.

Aoni Electronics has once again signed a major procurement contract for computing power. On the evening of September 30, Aoni Electronics announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Aoni Intelligent Technology (Zhongshan) Co., Ltd. signed a procurement contract with Company C to purchase GPU computing card products, with a total contract value of 1.821 billion yuan including tax. Earlier, the company announced at midday on September 24 that Aoni Intelligent signed a procurement contract with Company B to purchase GPU computing card products, with a total contract value of 232.26 million US dollars, equivalent to approximately 1.556 billion yuan. The company stated that this contract is a major contract in the daily operations of Aoni Intelligent, does not require review by the company's board of directors or shareholders' meeting, and does not constitute a related-party transaction or major asset restructuring. The contract takes effect from the date both parties sign and seal it. Aoni Electronics said that if the contract is fulfilled smoothly, it is expected to have a positive impact on the company's operating results for the performance year, while also cautioning that if major changes in the external macro environment, adjustments to industry policies, or other unforeseeable or force majeure factors occur during performance, the contract may not be fulfilled on schedule or in full. Financial reports show that in 2025, Aoni Electronics achieved operating revenue of 946 million yuan, with a net loss attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 157 million yuan. In the first half of 2026, the company's operating revenue was 907 million yuan, up 215.44 percent year on year, and net profit attributable to the parent company was 16.8146 million yuan, up 126.22 percent year on year.

Aoni Electronics announced after market close on September 30 that its wholly owned subsidiary Aoni Intelligent Technology (Zhongshan) Co., Ltd. signed a procurement contract with Company C to purchase GPU computing card products, with a total contract value of 1.821 billion yuan including tax. This is the third major computing power procurement order disclosed by the company recently: on September 22, it signed a 1.67 billion yuan contract with Company A, and on September 24, it signed a contract with Company B worth 232 million US dollars, equivalent to about 1.556 billion yuan. The announcement said that the counterparty names and some contract terms are trade secrets and have been exempted from disclosure in accordance with regulations. Both Company B and Company C are operating normally with good credit standing and have no related-party relationship with the company. The company stated that the contract is a major contract in its daily operations and does not require review by the board of directors or shareholders' meeting. If smoothly fulfilled, it is expected to have a positive impact on the operating results for the performance year. In the first half of this year, Aoni Electronics achieved operating revenue of 907 million yuan, up 215.44 percent year on year, and net profit attributable to the parent company of 16.8146 million yuan, turning from loss to profit compared with the same period last year. Among this, revenue from high-performance computing equipment business was 508 million yuan, up 1,625.53 percent year on year.

Aoni Electronics announced on September 30 that its wholly-owned subsidiary Aoni Intelligence signed a procurement contract with Company C to purchase GPU computing card products, with a total contract value of 1.821 billion yuan including tax. The contract takes effect from the date both parties sign and seal it. The counterparty's name is exempt from disclosure due to commercial confidentiality and has no related-party relationship with the company. Aoni Electronics stated that the semiconductor industry as a whole faces common challenges of tight raw material supply and rising costs. If the contract is fulfilled smoothly, it is expected to have a positive impact on the company's operating results in the performance year. This is the second major computing power contract signed by Aoni Electronics' subsidiary in a short period. Previously, on September 24, the company announced that Aoni Intelligence signed a procurement contract with Company B to purchase GPU computing card products, with a total contract value of 232.26 million US dollars, equivalent to approximately 1.556 billion yuan. Aoni Electronics is engaged in a dual-track business of audio-video intelligent terminals and AI inference computing power, continuously building a trinity model of on-device intelligence, edge inference, and cloud computing power. In terms of performance, the company achieved total operating revenue of 907 million yuan in the first half of this year, up 215.44 percent year on year, and net profit attributable to the parent company of 16.8146 million yuan, up 126.22 percent year on year. As of the close on September 30, Aoni Electronics' stock price was 68.13 yuan per share, with a total market value of 11.149 billion yuan.

In its interim results for the fiscal year ending January 2027, announced on September 10, Sekisui House revealed that its rental housing management business posted the largest segment operating profit at 41.745 billion yen, generating more than 20 percent of consolidated operating profit and establishing itself as a core business. Interim consolidated results showed revenue of 1.965644 trillion yen, down 2.5 percent year on year, while operating profit rose 16.0 percent to 180.37 billion yen, ordinary profit climbed 23.8 percent to 169.081 billion yen, and interim net profit increased 23.1 percent to 125.053 billion yen, securing double-digit profit growth. The bulk of the 24.8 billion yen increase in profit came from a 22.2 billion yen gain in the urban redevelopment business, where the sale of six properties, including assets sold to Sekisui House REIT Investment Corporation, drove segment operating profit up 437.7 percent year on year to 27.352 billion yen. Meanwhile, the rental housing management business saw revenue rise just 2.9 percent to 368.016 billion yen, but its operating profit margin improved from 10.3 percent to 11.3 percent, exceeding the detached housing business's operating profit of 23.99 billion yen by 1.7 times. The international business, following the acquisition of M.D.C. Holdings in the United States, fell sharply, with revenue down 20.8 percent to 486.353 billion yen and operating profit down 93.2 percent to 1.036 billion yen, which the company attributed to customers taking a wait-and-see approach amid uncertainty over the U.S. economic outlook and the impact of incentives. For the full year, the company lowered its revenue forecast to 4.26 trillion yen from 4.353 trillion yen, while raising its ordinary profit forecast to 316 billion yen from 314 billion yen and its net profit forecast to 224 billion yen from 218 billion yen, and it plans an annual dividend of 145 yen, comprising an interim dividend of 72 yen and a year-end dividend of 73 yen.

Bitcoin Japan, formerly Hotta Marusho, announced on the 29th that its wholly owned subsidiary BTC JPN Ltd. has completed its first purchase of bitcoin. The acquisition totaled 11.9188 BTC, with the purchase date on the 28th, an acquisition price of 83,857.43 dollars per BTC, and a purchase cost of 999,479.94 dollars, equivalent to about 157.24 million yen at 157.32 yen to the dollar. The company disclosed on the 18th that it would launch a bitcoin treasury business and a bitcoin-related asset management business through the subsidiary, and because it had set the combined purchase cost and trading fees at 1 million dollars as the cap for the initial purchase, this acquisition was carried out within that limit. Separately, it recorded about 85,000 yen, or roughly 540 dollars, as an expense for remittance fees from Japan. The group plans to continue making additional purchases, with the timing, quantity, and amount to be decided within the upper limit of 662 million yen in total investment funds for the business as indicated in the disclosure on the 18th. The impact on consolidated results for the fiscal year ending March 2027 is under review, and the bitcoin held will be marked to market each quarter, with valuation gains and losses recorded in the income statement.

Bitcoin Japan, formerly Hotta Marusho, announced on September 29 that its wholly owned subsidiary had completed its first purchase of bitcoin. On September 28 it acquired 11.9188 BTC, worth about 157.24 million yen, with the purchase price amounting to 999,479.94 dollars, or roughly 157.24 million yen. Including the purchase price and trading fees, the transaction was carried out within the initially set upper limit of 1 million dollars. On September 18 the company announced that BTC JPN Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary based in the Cayman Islands, would launch a bitcoin treasury business and related asset management operations, and said it planned an initial investment capped at 1 million dollars, covering the bitcoin purchase price and trading fees. On July 16 the company unveiled a financing plan of about 9.7 billion yen through convertible bonds and share options, and stated that 66.2 million yen would be allocated to bitcoin investment; the latest purchase is the first acquisition carried out within this investment framework. The group plans to continue buying bitcoin, with the timing, quantity, and amount of additional purchases to be decided within the 66.2 million yen cap for investment across the business as a whole.

On the evening of September 28, more than 20 listed companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, including those on the STAR Market, released a batch of positive announcements covering share buybacks and stake increases, asset restructuring, drug approvals, and the signing of major operating contracts. Buybacks and stake increases were the highlight of the evening, with 12 companies publishing related plans or implementation progress. Among them, Huaqin Technology plans to use 300 million to 400 million yuan of its own funds to repurchase shares, with a buyback price cap of 100 yuan per share. Sifang Electric plans to spend 100 million to 150 million yuan on buybacks, with a price cap of 50 yuan per share. Jingsong Intelligent, which has already entered the implementation stage, completed its first buyback of 27,300 shares for 502,600 yuan. Haier Smart Home has repurchased a total of 108 million shares from March 27 to September 28 this year, spending 2.27 billion yuan. Bull Group has repurchased a total of 6.2046 million shares, using 245 million yuan. On the stake increase side, CCCC Design and Consulting's controlling shareholder CCCC Capital has increased its stake by a total of 15.3542 million shares since launching the increase on August 18, investing 80.36 million yuan and meeting the minimum amount required by the increase plan. In asset restructuring, Garden Corporation plans to issue shares and pay cash to acquire 93.5031 percent of Hualan Micro's shares while raising supporting funds. After the deal is completed, it will control this company engaged in the research, development and design of domestic storage controller chips, expanding its business into the storage chip sector. At the operating level, Jiangsu Jianyou Bio-Pharmaceutical's subsidiary received approval from the U.S. FDA for its vitamin B1 injection, with cumulative research and development investment of nearly 20 million yuan for the project. Shanghai Pharmaceuticals had multiple formulation products approved for production. China National Chemical Engineering announced total newly signed contracts of 238.797 billion yuan from January to August, and in August it secured several large orders including the general contracting of a gold mine in Saudi Arabia.

Huaqin Technology completed its first share buyback on September 29, 2026, through centralized bidding, repurchasing 1.057 million A-shares, accounting for 0.0697 percent of total share capital, with a buyback amount of 79.6 million yuan and a price range of 74.80 to 75.99 yuan per share. According to the previously disclosed plan, the company intends to use 300 million to 400 million yuan of its own funds to repurchase shares. This first buyback is part of that repurchase plan, and the repurchased shares will be used for equity incentives or employee stock ownership plans.

Huaqin Technology announced that as of September 29, 2026, it had repurchased 1.06 million shares, accounting for 0.0697% of total share capital, with a repurchase amount of 79.6 million yuan and a repurchase price range of 74.8 yuan to 75.99 yuan per share. In the first half of 2026, Huaqin Technology achieved revenue of 93.719 billion yuan and net profit attributable to the parent company of 3 billion yuan.

Huaqin Technology completed its first buyback of 1.057 million A-shares through centralized bidding on September 29, 2026, representing 0.0697% of total share capital. The buyback amount was 79.6 million yuan, at prices ranging from 74.80 yuan to 75.99 yuan per share. This buyback is part of the company's previously disclosed repurchase plan, which proposes to use 300 million to 400 million yuan of its own funds to repurchase shares for equity incentives or employee stock ownership plans.

Ittirit Nice Corporation Public Company Limited, or ITTHI, is preparing to sign additional government project contracts worth approximately 380 million baht. It has already signed 40 million baht and is awaiting the signing of roughly another 340 million baht within October, an increase from its earlier estimate of 220 million baht. Chief Executive Officer Thanaset Akarabunyaphat told Than Hoon that although the signing of contracts for some projects was delayed in the first half of 2026, causing revenue to slow, the third quarter has begun to stabilise and the fourth quarter is expected to recover fully, allowing full-year revenue to grow higher than last year. Currently, the company has a backlog awaiting revenue recognition of about 535 million baht, divided into 300 million baht in government project work, 200 million baht in real estate work, 30 million baht in the EV charging station business, and 5 million baht in solar rooftops. When the additional signed contracts are included, the backlog will exceed 600 million baht. In the EV charging station business under the Gridex brand, 20 stations have been installed, 11 are already open for service, nine are awaiting grid connection from the electricity authority, five are under construction, and five are awaiting new contracts. The company targets revenue of 100 million baht in 2027 for its EV subsidiary group. As for the solar rooftop business, it expects loan approval from financial institutions by the end of September, with 20 megawatts of power purchase agreements in hand. It expects to complete installation of about 6 megawatts this year and has a long-term plan for the solar business to grow to 1 billion baht or more. ITTHI has total cash on hand of approximately 300 million baht. It has already invested about 60 million baht in expanding the EV business and around 60 to 70 million baht in the solar business, for total investment of approximately 120 million baht, leaving more than 180 million baht in available cash.

Lennar has opened three new residential communities across Pennsylvania, Alabama and California. In Hatfield, Pennsylvania, the builder launched Venue at Leaf Creek, an active adult community with amenities tailored to buyers aged 55 and over. Near Huntsville, Alabama, Lennar introduced Cherokee Bend, offering new single family homes across multiple floor plans. In San Juan Capistrano, California, the company launched The Farm, a residential project adding more new construction options in the state. The three launches target different price points and life stages, fitting Lennar's asset-light, volume-focused model of keeping sales flowing across a wide mix of communities even when conditions are tougher.

Open House Group's cumulative results for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending September 2026 came in at 1.0234 trillion yen in revenue, 120.9 billion yen in operating profit, 116 billion yen in ordinary profit, and 81.2 billion yen in net profit. Progress against the full-year forecast stands at 68.2 percent for revenue, 67.2 percent for operating profit, and 68.6 percent for net profit, all below the 75 percent level typically seen as the benchmark at the third quarter. The full-year operating profit forecast has been raised from 170 billion yen at the start of the year to 174.5 billion yen in the first quarter and 178.2 billion yen at the half, and now to 180 billion yen at the third quarter, up 23.3 percent year on year. The dividend per share forecast has also been increased in stages, from 188 yen to 200 yen and then 205 yen, and is expected to exceed the 178 yen paid in the previous fiscal year. By segment, the detached housing business posted 563 billion yen in revenue and 61.8 billion yen in operating profit, accounting for more than half of consolidated revenue, while the condominium business saw revenue more than double year on year to 42.4 billion yen, with an operating margin of 17.8 percent, the highest of any segment. Meanwhile, the share price has fallen more than 30 percent from the 11,500 yen level at the end of February to the 7,500 yen range as of September 2026, back near last autumn's level, moving in the opposite direction from the upward revision.

Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it bought about 2.74 million more Lennar shares, pushing its stake in the homebuilder past the 10% ownership threshold. The filing records roughly 2.67 million Class A shares and 75,021 Class B shares purchased across September 17, 18 and 21, at a disclosed weighted-average cost estimated at $212.4 million. That brings Berkshire's holdings to 23.72 million Class A shares and 528,217 Class B shares. The purchase amounts to just 0.03% of Berkshire's market value, too small to move the needle for the conglomerate, but crossing 10% raises its reporting visibility and signals confidence in Lennar after weaker earnings. Berkshire shares stayed flat at $507.01 as of 11.27am ET on Thursday, about 5.79% above the GuruFocus GF Value of $479.25.

Zhongyuan Home announced after market close on September 24 that its wholly-owned overseas subsidiary EBELLO HOME INC has recently received tax refunds from US Customs and Border Protection in batches, totaling 1.6952 million US dollars in returned tariffs and interest, equivalent to approximately 11.4404 million yuan, representing 40.49% of the absolute value of the company's most recent audited net profit attributable to the parent. The announcement shows that the tariff portion of this refund is 1.6239 million US dollars and the interest portion is 71,200 US dollars. The company stated that the above taxes have been recognized in current profit or loss and do not involve adjustments to prior years' profit or loss, but the figures are unaudited, and the specific accounting treatment and impact amount are subject to the annual audit confirmation. This refund stems from the US Supreme Court's February 2026 ruling that the reciprocal tariffs imposed by the US government under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act lacked statutory authorization, rendering the relevant tariff measures void from the outset and requiring refunds of collected tariffs to importers. US Customs and Border Protection has officially initiated the refund process. Zhongyuan Home is mainly engaged in the research, development, design, production and sales of sofas and other furniture products. In the first half of 2026, it achieved operating revenue of 1.011 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39.70%, and net profit attributable to the parent of 3.3489 million yuan, turning losses into profits. Revenue from overseas brand retail business accounted for 66.27% of main business revenue.

Aoni Electronics announced at midday on September 24 that its wholly owned subsidiary Aoni Intelligent Technology Zhongshan Co., Ltd. signed a procurement contract with Company B to purchase GPU computing card products, with a total contract value of 232 million US dollars, equivalent to approximately 1.556 billion yuan. Aoni Electronics stated that the semiconductor industry as a whole faces common challenges of tight raw material supply and rising costs. If the contract is fulfilled smoothly, it is expected to have a positive impact on the company's operating results in the year of performance. The specific impact amount and reporting period will depend on the specific circumstances of order fulfillment, subject to the company's audited revenue and profit. Affected by this news, Aoni Electronics' share price quickly rebounded from a decline to positive territory, with the intraday gain approaching 14 percent in the afternoon, and rising more than 6 percent as of press time. Notably, just two days earlier on September 22, Aoni Electronics announced that Aoni Intelligent signed a procurement contract with Company A to purchase GPU computing card products, with a total contract value of 1.67 billion yuan including tax. Aoni Electronics previously stated in investor relations activities that the company has launched AI inference computing products such as the Lobster Workstation A2000 based on Nvidia's Jetson Thor chip. The related products have now been released and entered the market promotion and customer sample verification stage, and are steadily advancing toward mass production.

Zhongyuan Home Furnishing announced that its wholly-owned overseas subsidiary EBELLO HOME INC has recently received refunds from the US Customs and Border Protection in batches, with cumulative refunded duties and interest totaling US$1.6952 million, of which duties amounted to US$1.6239 million and interest US$71,200, equivalent to approximately RMB 11.4404 million, accounting for 40.49% of the absolute value of the company's most recent audited net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company. The announcement showed that the above taxes have been included in current profit or loss, with no adjustment to prior-year profit or loss, and the specific accounting treatment and impact amount are subject to the auditor's annual audit confirmation.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store posted a positive earnings surprise of 395% in its fiscal Q4 report, sending shares up 6.8% in early trading and adding to a 79% gain year to date. General Mills beat expectations on both top and bottom lines, with earnings of $0.75 per share topping the Zacks consensus by 3 cents on revenues of $4.39 billion, 1.04% above estimates, though its shares traded flat and remain down 23.8% in 2026. KB Home surpassed forecasts with earnings of $1.05 per share on $1.3 billion in revenues, ahead of expectations for $0.88 per share and $1.29 billion in sales, but shares fell 3% as the homebuilder warned of headwinds in the present quarter including higher mortgage rates. Pre-market indices slipped, with the Dow down 174 points, the Nasdaq down 94, the S&P 500 down 11 and the Russell 2000 down 17, while WTI crude sat at $90 per barrel and Brent at $100 per barrel and the 10-year yield held at 4.99%. Fed Governor Michael Barr is set to speak on housing affordability at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and flash S&P Manufacturing and Services PMI for September are due after the open, with Manufacturing expected at 53.5 and Services at 55.7.