Good morning and welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and why.
Eli Lilly is raising its full-year outlook for the third time this year, and the reason is straightforward — Zepbound is selling at a pace that keeps outrunning expectations. The GLP-one weight-loss drug has cemented Lilly's dominance in the prescription obesity market, and Wall Street is taking notice with the stock holding strong gains on the session.
Shifting to the macro picture, the Federal Reserve held rates steady at its last meeting, but that patience may get tested this morning. GDP and inflation data landing simultaneously at eight-thirty Eastern could complicate the Fed's calculus considerably. Strong growth paired with sticky prices would sharpen the argument for a December rate hike, putting bond markets back on edge.
And stepping back from the near-term noise, a timely piece out of MarketWatch is challenging one of the foundational beliefs of a generation of retail investors — that the S-and-P five hundred is a reliable, all-weather engine of wealth. The index has long stretches of flat or negative real returns, and advisors say investors anchored to recent bull market history may be carrying more risk than they realize.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
