A customer pushes a shopping cart containing a case of Coca-Cola outside a Walmart Supercenter retail store in North Bergen, New Jersey, on November 21, 2025.
Mike Seeger | Reuters
The word “resilient” appears repeatedly in the third-quarter earnings report.
Here’s some early information on U.S. consumers for the various companies that released their results this week. Many companies say Americans are still continuing to spend despite inflationary pressures, although not all have had the same success.
The comments came amid concerns that diesel fuel prices, which hit a record high of $6.52 a gallon in September, will push up the price of consumer products. Economists also worried that rising prices for regular gasoline, high borrowing costs and continued tensions between the United States and Iran would add to the decline in consumer spending.
Retail sales rose 0.8% in September, following a 1.3% increase in August. Sales in September were boosted by increased spending at gas stations. Despite these challenges, some executives say the headwinds have not yet affected sales.
“There’s been a lot of noise in the market this year. There’s a lot of geopolitics.” royal caribbean Chairman and CEO Jason Liberty said on Tuesday’s earnings call. “But when you look at our business (and our performance), I think it really speaks to the resilience of the business, the resilience of the consumer.”
Royal Caribbean reported an increase in bookings in the third quarter; sherwin williams The CEO said the quarter demonstrated the company’s strength.
Here’s how businesses are reading consumers over the past three months.
coca cola
The food and beverage company posted third-quarter profits and sales that beat analysts’ expectations despite what CEO Enrique Braun called an “uneven environment.”
coca cola reported that North American unit case volumes were flat, indicating steady demand despite rising prices. The company’s overall unit case volume was supported by increased demand outside of North America.
“The underlying momentum remains very strong,” Chief Financial Officer John Murphy told CNBC. “Consumer sentiment hasn’t changed much in the sense that people are looking for value no matter where they are on the income scale. I think the system here captures that very well.”
The company raised its full-year forecast and now expects comparable earnings per share to increase by at least 11%, up from its previous forecast of 9% to 10% growth.
royal caribbean
The cruise line beat Wall Street’s earnings per share expectations, but missed revenue by a narrow margin.
“Our third quarter results reflect continued strong consumer demand for our vacation experiences and accelerating momentum across our industry-leading brands,” Liberty CEO said in a release.
The company reported that it served 2.7 million guests in the third quarter, an increase of 9% year-on-year, and said that reservations for 2027 are already “increasing in the high teens” and on pace to outpace historical levels, indicating strong demand for travel.
“It’s not that we don’t see challenges, but what we’ve seen is that even with those challenges, consumers come back cheering about their vacation experience,” Liberty said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” after the news.
royal caribbean The stock closed up more than 5% on Tuesday.
sherwin williams
Sherwin-Williams’ sales exceeded analysts’ expectations, but fell short of earnings per share expectations.
Sherwin-Williams CEO Heidi Petz said in the company’s earnings call that the paint retailer’s performance demonstrated “our resiliency and the strength of our strategy in a challenging demand environment.”
He said, “Despite weak underlying market volumes, we continued to win new customers, expand wallet share, and achieve sales growth in all three reportable segments.”
Sales increased by 7.9% compared to the same period last year. The company attributed this gain to higher selling prices, but the benefit to earnings was partially offset by higher raw material costs and supply chain-related costs.
The company maintained its full-year outlook, saying, “Customer sentiment and the leading indicators we track indicate demand will slow through the remainder of this year and into 2027.”
UPS
A worker drives a United Parcel Service truck in Los Angeles, California, on October 28, 2025.
Tama Mario | Getty Images
UPS beat Wall Street expectations for both third-quarter earnings per share and revenue.
U.S. sales for the period increased 4.5% to $14.86 billion.
Chief Executive Officer Carol Tomé told investors on an earnings call that consumers remained “resilient” ahead of the company’s busiest holiday season. He said the company expects average daily shipments next quarter to grow at a similar pace to last year. However, he said the average daily volume in Japan in the fourth quarter is likely to decline due to Amazon’s delivery cuts.
UPS is in the midst of dissolving its partnership with Amazon, while at the same time implementing an extensive restructuring effort to operate more efficiently.
The company raised its full-year forecast for the second consecutive quarter, raising consolidated sales to approximately $92.6 billion from the previous forecast of $91.2 billion.
The stock ended Tuesday up more than 5%.
swirl
However, not all companies have the same spending trends.
home appliance manufacturer swirl The company failed to achieve both sales and bottom line results in the third quarter, and has lowered its full-year earnings forecast.
For the period ending September 30, net sales in North America were down more than 8% compared to the same period last year.
Still, the company cited its own interpretation of “resilience.”
“Through disciplined working capital management, we protect our year-end free cash flow and
and the resilience of our balance sheet to weather challenging market conditions,” CFO Roxanne Warner said in the earnings call.
Shares ended Tuesday up more than 3%.
—CNBC’s Amelia Lucas and Raya Neelakandan contributed to this report.
