Daily Earnings: Defense Freezes Buybacks to Build Plants | RTX, GE, NFLX, NOC | Oct 20

Today’s earnings exposed a sharp physical and financial divergence: aerospace and defense giants are competing with the AI boom for basic electronics and halting stock buybacks to build factories, while Netflix is cutting staff even as it spends record cash buying back shares.

- RTX coordinates with the Pentagon so AI data centers don't crowd out missile circuit boards.

- RTX and NOC froze stock buybacks at zero to fund factory expansions and hiring surges.

- NFLX paired a record $4.8B buyback with layoffs while cutting ad guidance by $300M.

Beneath the headline beats, GE Aerospace and RTX also navigated deferred GE9X engine losses and one-time tariff refunds that reshaped their 2026 and 2027 profit outlooks.