The season's two consumer giants report four days apart. Amazon is expected on Thursday, October 29, after the close; the date was a calendar estimate rather than a company confirmation when this preview was written. Apple is confirmed for Monday, November 2, after the close, with the release set for 1:30 p.m. Pacific. Both are in the Q3 2026 earnings calendar, and together they close out the mega-cap stretch that begins with the Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta prints.

Amazon: AWS or nothing

Consensus for Amazon sits at $1.96 a share on $202.10 billion of revenue. A revenue line that size makes Amazon the biggest single top line of the season, but the stock will not trade on the total. It will trade on AWS growth, on advertising, and on whether North America retail margins keep expanding while the company spends heavily on AI capacity and logistics. Zacks' consensus runs slightly higher at $2.02 a share, a reminder that the whisper number and the published number are rarely the same thing in this name.

Watch the fourth-quarter guide. Amazon's holiday-quarter outlook is the closest thing earnings season produces to a consumer confidence survey with money behind it, and a cautious guide lands on every retailer reporting after it.

Apple: the guide already told a story

Apple is unusual this quarter because part of the answer arrived early. On its previous call, the company guided to September-quarter revenue growth of 9 to 11 percent year over year, which implies roughly $111.7 to $113.7 billion. The print itself is therefore a test of the guide's honesty, and the December-quarter guide becomes the real event. iPhone demand, services growth and China commentary are the three dials; services is the one that has carried the margin story for years.

  • December-quarter guidance. Apple's holiday guide moves the stock more than the September print.
  • Services revenue. The highest-margin line, and the market's favorite proof that the ecosystem compounds.
  • China. Any softness here gets extrapolated to the whole consumer electronics chain within hours.

The insider angle

Apple and Amazon filings teach opposite lessons. Amazon's feed is thin for a company its size, so a genuine open-market purchase there earns real attention. Apple's feed is steady and scheduled, mostly plan sales by long-tenured executives, and it rewards the reader who checks the plan footnote before reacting. Our running list of stocks insiders are buying right now shows how we rank those filings once the blackout windows lift.

Both names are congressional-trade staples as well, held and traded by dozens of members, with disclosures trailing the trades by weeks. If following that flow matters to you, InsiderPulse Pro delivers every filing as it publishes. The season's final marquee print belongs to Nvidia, covered in the Nvidia preview.