The Wall Street Journal is reporting that profits are soaring at America’s biggest companies—and their leaders say that likely won’t change soon. From Target and J.M. Smucker to farm-equipment maker Deere, companies spanning the breadth of the U.S. economy are ringing up heftier sales and earnings. Many have raised financial outlooks for the year. Chalk the good times up to a confluence of fortunate events: red-hot AI spending, federal spending and the windfall companies are getting in the form of refunds of some of their past tariff payments. Plus, a booming stock market and high home values are helping many shoppers keep spending, even as plenty of others struggle to absorb rising prices. What are they buying? New appliances, toys and clothing.

The Democrat media narrative and reality have never been more at odds.

Trump economy soars as Democrats like Mamdani’s socialist ‘affordability’ agenda drives New York housing costs to record highs.

As the American economy surges and corporate profits soar, Democrat moochers and looters are dragging their cities in the opposite direction. The irony is staggering: Zohran Mamdani campaigns on “affordability,” yet his rent-control crusade and war on landlords have achieved the polar opposite—choking off housing, driving owners from the market and pushing New York’s rents and housing costs to unprecedented levels. Democrats create scarcity, call the resulting catastrophe “capitalism,” and then demand even more power to intensify the policies that caused it.

Corporate America’s Profits Are Booming—and Signal More Good Times Ahead

By: Sarah Nassauer and Theo Francis, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 30, 2026:

Profits are booming at America’s biggest companies—and their leaders say that likely won’t change soon.

From Target and J.M. Smucker to farm-equipment maker Deere, companies spanning the breadth of the U.S. economy are ringing up heftier sales and earnings. In recent days, many have raised financial outlooks for the year, citing robust sales as just one of the reasons.

Chalk the good times up to a confluence of fortunate events: red-hot artificial-intelligence spending, federal spending and the windfall companies are getting in the form of refunds of some of their past tariff payments. Plus, a booming stock market and high home values are helping many shoppers keep spending, even as plenty of others struggle to absorb rising prices.

At Abercrombie & Fitch, consumers kept buying even after the fashion retailer pared back discounts in the most recent quarter, executives told investors on a conference call last week. That, plus around $120 million in expected tariff refunds, led the retailer to raise its full-year financial estimates.

“The underlying business performed above our expectations,” Chief Financial Officer Robert Ball said on the conference call.

Across S&P 500 companies, per-share earnings soared 53% in the second quarter from a year earlier, while sales rose nearly 16%, according to data from LSEG. Investment gains from tech giants Amazon.com and Alphabet added fuel to the big earnings surge.

Even without those gains, S&P 500 earnings rose the most since fall 2021. Quarterly sales also climbed more than they have in years. By a nearly 2-to-1 margin, more companies raised their profit guidance for the current quarter than lowered it—a turnaround from a year ago, when more were lowering their outlooks.

Tariff refunds are providing a big, temporary tailwind. They are likely to account for more than 4% of third-quarter economic growth—or add about 0.2 percentage point to the Atlanta Fed’s growth forecast of between 4% and 5%—according to a mid-August estimate from Apollo Global Management.

Improved full-year financial estimates came from a diverse set of companies, including healthcare companies McKesson and Charles River Laboratories International and jelly giant Smucker. At many of them, the refunds flowed primarily to the bottom line, rather than into lower prices for shoppers.

At fitness-watch maker Garmin, $21 million in tariff refunds boosted profit margins in the quarter that ended in late July, executives told investors late last month. Strong demand for its fitness products helped, too, leading the company to raise its full-year financial guidance.

Even without the refund, “our gross margin performance was impressive by any historical comparison,” Chief Executive Clifton Pemble told investors.

Retailers generally reported strong quarterly sales figures in recent weeks, noting that consumers are spending on new appliances, toys and clothing even as they navigate higher fuel prices and long-term inflation.

Dollar General, known for drawing cash-strapped shoppers to its mostly rural stores, posted a fifth consecutive quarter of higher traffic and a 3.5% increase in comparable sales. Electronics retailer Best Buy said its shoppers were buying up computers, TVs and AI-enabled glasses, lifting its most recent quarterly sales and profit. Target also reported higher sales, profit and a benefit from tariff refunds in the most recent quarter, noting shoppers pushed up sales of toys, food and beauty products.

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AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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