Merck Q3 sales hit $18.09B, beating $17.31B estimate; EPS $2.04

Merck's beat-and-raise is a reminder that large-cap pharma earnings still carry weight in a market increasingly fixated on crypto and tokenized assets, since healthcare cash flows remain a benchmark for defensive allocation. The guidance lift matters more than the headline beat, as it signals management confidence beyond a single quarter. The open question is whether the premarket gain holds through the session, a signal of how much good news was already priced in.