Henkel vs Merck

Henkel Posts Double-Digit Sales Growth, Lifts Outlook

Henkel reported a strong third quarter of 2026, with group sales rising 11% to €5.71 billion. Organic growth reached 6.5%, driven by higher prices and increased volumes. The Adhesive Technologies segment grew organically by 7.9%, while Consumer Brands grew 4.8%. The company raised its full-year organic sales growth forecast to 3-4% (previously 1.5-3.5%). However, higher material costs (expected +10%) and increased restructuring charges (€200-250 million) are pressuring profitability. Adjusted return on sales is expected around 15% for the group. The company continues to pursue strategic acquisitions to drive growth in both business areas.

• Group sales rose 11% to €5.71 billion in Q3 2026.
• Organic growth of 6.5%, driven by price increases of 5.4 percentage points.
• Adhesive Technologies organic growth 7.9%; Consumer Brands organic growth 4.8%.

WPP Media pilots ChatGPT Ads with Colgate, Ford, Henkel, RTL, Volksbanken

WPP Media launched pilot campaigns on OpenAI's ChatGPT Ads in Germany, following its August market entry. The global media agency group developed a "Context-Hint Approach" for each campaign, managing ad creative, activation, and ongoing evaluation. Participating brands include Colgate-Palmolive, Ford, Henkel (Persil), RTL Deutschland, and the Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken cooperative banking group. The pilots aim to understand user behavior, ad relevance, and measurement, with a focus on reach, clicks, and interaction data. WPP Media seeks to evolve success measurement beyond reach and clicks toward business outcomes like conversion signals and post-click behavior. Executives from each company highlighted the potential of conversational advertising and the value of early testing in AI-based search and discovery environments.

• OpenAI launched ChatGPT Ads in Germany in August 2026.
• WPP Media ran pilot campaigns on ChatGPT Ads for Colgate-Palmolive, Ford, Henkel, RTL Deutschland, and Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken.
• The pilots used a 'Context-Hint Approach' for each campaign.

Henkel celebrates 150 years with employees around the world

Henkel marks its 150th anniversary on September 26, 2026. Anniversary events for employees take place around the world. Around 18,000 guests expected at an employee festival at the headquarters in Germany. Additional day of vacation for all employees and attractive benefits through Henkel’s employee share program. Henkel expands its global “Researchers’ World” education initiative and plans additional STEM learning opportunities.

Target earnings, Canada tariffs, American Airlines screens

CNBC’s Morning Squawk highlights market-moving items on Aug. 19, 2026: Moderna shares jumped as much as 100% after a personalized cancer vaccine developed with Merck showed positive late-stage results. Global bond yields have spiked, pressuring stocks and mortgage rates ahead of Fed minutes and the Jackson Hole conference. Retailers saw tariff refunds boost earnings: Target said refunds added $752 million to Q2 net earnings and raised its full-year outlook; Lowe’s credited an 11-cent EPS lift but gave a tepid outlook and missed revenue expectations. President Trump paused planned 50% tariffs on certain Canadian goods for three days pending final documents. American Airlines announced plans to add seatback screens to most narrow-body aircraft starting in 2028. Auto dealers are emphasizing parts and services as new-vehicle sales soften.

• Moderna shares rose as much as 100% after a personalized cancer vaccine it developed with Merck showed positive results in its first late-stage trial.
• Target said tariff refunds boosted its net earnings by $752 million in the second quarter and raised its full-year outlook.
• Lowe’s credited tariff refunds for an 11 cent increase in EPS but issued a tepid full-year outlook and missed second-quarter revenue expectations.

AI-Personalized Cancer Vaccine Halves Melanoma Recurrence

The AI Secret newsletter highlights multiple AI and tech developments: Merck and Moderna said their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, intismeran autogene, met endpoints in a 1,000-patient melanoma Phase 3 trial, cutting recurrence by half and reducing metastasis by 59%. Cursor launched Origin, a GitHub rival interoperable with GitHub and reportedly backed by Elon Musk, coinciding with a major GitHub outage. OpenAI changed how ChatGPT sources information—moving to a site:operator approach that reduced Reddit citations and appears to centralize which sources are surfaced, opening the door to paid or prioritized signals. Etched raised $700 million at a $21 billion valuation, backed by Jane Street, to build custom inference chips. The newsletter also includes a sponsored mention of MyClaw (an AI agent hosting platform) and a brief TL;DR of other AI-industry developments.

• Merck and Moderna announced that intismeran autogene met endpoints in a 1,000-patient melanoma Phase 3 trial, halving recurrence and reducing distant metastasis by 59% with no new side effects.
• Cursor launched Origin, a GitHub-compatible code-hosting platform, the same day GitHub experienced a six-hour global outage.
• OpenAI changed ChatGPT's retrieval approach in early August to use a site:operator starting point, which reduced Reddit citations from ~4.5% to ~0.5% and increased site:operator usage in queries from 0.37% to 16.8% (PromptWatch data).