Three Themes For C-Suites From Q3’s Earnings Calls

In many ways, Adam Miller’s predicament speaks to the state of much of the U.S. economy.

Speaking to analysts in late October, the CEO of Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. said his team — which runs the country’s third-largest for-hire trucking fleet — is seeing “two things at once” as it heads toward the end of the year. On the one hand, some large customers have been launching big initiatives to handle their projected demand during the peak holiday season. On the other hand, a sizable section of Knight-Swift’s customers just isn’t generating the broad seasonal upswing they ordinarily would.

“We haven’t seen that demand grow like we would typically see,” Miller said.

Translating that dichotomy to the economy at large: For Miller’s vigorous first group of clients, think anything related to artificial intelligence and data centers. For the more sluggish second group, picture the manufacturing and housing sectors, among others.

That push-pull dynamic has surfaced repeatedly in recent weeks as we’ve sat in on the earnings calls of dozens of companies in multiple industries we follow for EndeavorB2B titles. It seemed that we could find a somber statement to offset every upbeat pronouncement, chatter about reining in expansion plans to set against ambitious investment goals. Here are three high-level thoughts that emerged from those calls. Fittingly, they also run the gamut of positive and negative sentiment.

Cost pressures aren’t going anywhere

This is not a political statement but an economic reality: Most tariffs aren’t going anywhere and, after scrambling for most of this year, leadership teams now need to figure out how to also respond to higher costs for at least some of their inputs in 2026 and beyond. Several prominent distributors of maintenance, repair and operations materials recently had to respond to more — in some cases unexpected — price hikes from their suppliers.

Manufacturing executives aren’t alone in talking about costs creeping higher — and then pushing them down the line. Most large trucking companies discussed on their recent conference calls the need to hike rates and rebuild their margins.

Ditto for many health insurers, who have been dealing for roughly two years with a post-pandemic rise in the number of patients seeking care and the intensity of that care. Big names such as UnitedHealth and Humana — the latter’s leaders are forecasting that medical costs will climb nearly 10% in 2026 — have said they’ll hike premiums for some plans by 25% or more. And it’s not only a U.S. phenomenon: Insurance brokerage Lockton predicts the average employer health plan around the world will see costs climb 11% next year.

Which means leaning out is still the way to go

How to respond? For many leadership teams speaking to investors over the past month, the answer sounded the same as it did in late 2022 and early 2023, when recession fears ran high and cost-cutting was the name of the game. Heading toward 2026, it’s essential to, as MSC Industrial Direct Co. Inc. President and COO Martina McIsaac put it, “have a very healthy pipeline of productivity projects that will continue to build through the year.”