Simba Mudonzvo

A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY. Here's a full recap: 1. OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue was approaching $50B at the end of September, according to the Financial Times, below the roughly $70B figure that had been widely reported last month. The discrepancy reportedly reflects differences in accounting methods, with Anthropic including revenue generated through cloud partners such as AWS and Google Cloud, while OpenAI does not. Investors had attempted to adjust OpenAI’s figures to make them comparable with Anthropic’s, contributing to the higher estimate. The report weighed on AI infrastructure sentiment, with several semiconductor stocks falling roughly 5–7% as investors reassessed near-term AI spending expectations. OpenAI declined to comment. 2. The September FOMC meeting minutes showed that most Federal Reserve officials expect another interest rate hike by year-end, reinforcing the central bank’s higher-for-longer stance. All 19 Fed officials supported the September rate hike, reflecting unanimous concern that inflation remains above target. The minutes also said almost all policymakers believe inflation risks remain tilted to the upside, with several officials warning that the accelerating AI investment boom could increase demand faster than supply, adding to inflationary pressures. 3. Elon Musk said today that he sees an extraordinary long-term future for $SPCX SpaceX, writing: “This will sound super crazy, but I see a path to SpaceX being worth orders of magnitude more than the current Earth economy.” 4. Goldman Sachs upgraded Palantir $PLTR to Buy with a $230 price target, while Barclays initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $265 price target. Goldman argued that Palantir’s total addressable market is entering another step-function expansion, driven by the rise of sovereign AI, bespoke enterprise AI applications, and the company’s increasing verticalization strategy. The firm also highlighted Palantir’s Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) model as a key competitive advantage, noting that its tight feedback loop between customer deployments and product development has become so refined that Palantir is now able to automate portions of the FDE workflow with AI-powered FDEs. Goldman believes these dynamics further strengthen Palantir’s long-term competitive position as enterprise AI adoption accelerates. 5. Zeta $ZETA unveiled AthenaOS, an enterprise intelligence operating system designed to dynamically organize AI, applications, and workflows around a specific business objective by combining proprietary enterprise knowledge with intelligence from the Zeta Data Cloud. The company also introduced Athena MCP, which allows Athena’s intelligence to plug directly into existing enterprise tools, including ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, while preserving enterprise data governance and control. Zeta also launched the Athena Inference Model (AIM), a suite of specialized AI models built with Fireworks using NVIDIA Nemotron, and said it has begun developing a specialized AI chip and supporting data center infrastructure with a leading semiconductor partner through a capital-light approach. AthenaOS is currently in limited internal beta, with a public beta planned later this year and general availability targeted for Q1 2027. 6. Starbucks $SBUX has reportedly explored a potential takeover of Chipotle $CMG in what would rank among the largest restaurant acquisitions ever. A combination could significantly accelerate Chipotle’s international expansion by leveraging Starbucks’ global network of more than 41,000 stores, established licensing partners, and extensive real estate relationships. At the same time, any transaction would face substantial financing, integration, and execution challenges given the size of the deal and the complexity of combining two of the world's largest restaurant brands. 7. The top 10 most active options today by contracts traded were $NVDA with 2.9M contracts, $TSLA with 1.3M contracts, $INTC with 1.2M contracts, $MU with 1.1M contracts, $AAPL with 1.0M contracts, $SPCX with 1.0M contracts, $PLTR with 927K contracts, $AMZN with 635K contracts, $ORCL with 635K contracts, and $IREN with 612K contracts. 8. The U.S. Pentagon has reportedly instructed the military to complete preparations for a potential resumption of major combat operations against Iran, according to Axios. U.S. and Israeli sources told the outlet that renewed operations could occur before the midterm elections, while a White House official said President Trump “has all options available at any time.” The report also said Trump's national security team met at Camp David on Friday to discuss possible scenarios for restarting large-scale military operations. The developments come as the administration continues weighing both military and diplomatic options in its approach toward Iran. 9. Broadcom $AVGO is reportedly seeking more than $50B in financing for OpenAI’s custom AI chip program, according to the Wall Street Journal, with Apollo and Blackstone among the firms approached to participate. The financing could support several gigawatts of custom AI chip capacity, with a transaction targeted before year-end, though discussions remain preliminary and the size could change. OpenAI’s internally developed chip initiative, known as “Nexus,” includes its first two generations, “Jalapeño” and “Serrano,” and builds on the companies’ previously announced plan to deploy 10 GW of custom AI chips using Broadcom’s networking technology between the second half of 2026 and 2029. 10. Bitcoin $BTC fell to around $81,000 down roughly 3% on the day and about 6–8% from the $87,000 highs reached earlier this week, with an intraday low near $80,300. The selloff appears to be a broad risk-off move rather than the result of a single headline, driven by Brent crude above $105, rising inflation concerns, expectations for another Fed rate hike after the September FOMC minutes and comments from Governor Christopher Waller, and a 10-year Treasury yield near 5.3%. Pressure was compounded by roughly $485M in U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF outflows on October 7, approximately $1–1.16B in crypto liquidations, mostly long positions, and blockchain data showing wallets linked to the U.S. government moving about 12,267 BTC from a seized Bitfinex wallet, adding to concerns about potential future supply. Altcoins underperformed Bitcoin throughout the session, consistent with a broader leverage-driven unwind across the crypto market. 11. Since the start of 2025, U.S. nonfarm payrolls have been revised lower in 16 of the last 20 months, removing a cumulative 793,000 jobs from previously reported figures, an average downward revision of roughly 39,650 jobs per month. The latest revisions reduced July and August payrolls by a combined 60,000 jobs, continuing a pattern of consistent downward revisions that has persisted since 2023. If that average revision were applied to the initially reported 29,000 jobs added in September, it would imply a decline of roughly 10,650 jobs instead. That would mark the third monthly contraction in payrolls during 2026, following declines of 156,000 in February and 10,000 in July. 12. SpaceX $SPCX has agreed to acquire Grain Management’s nationwide portfolio of 800 MHz low-band spectrum licenses, a move Elon Musk called “the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle” needed for Starlink to become a major U.S. mobile carrier. The company plans to combine its satellite network with a terrestrial mobile network, using the newly acquired low-band spectrum alongside Starlink’s existing 2 GHz holdings to improve indoor coverage and expand service into areas with weak or no cellular reception. Separately, the FCC approved a new constellation of 15,000 SpaceX satellites for direct-to-device mobile services, further advancing Starlink’s wireless ambitions. The announcement pressured telecom stocks after hours, with AT&T $T falling 6.75%, Verizon $VZ down 5%, and T-Mobile $TMUS declining 5.4%, as investors weighed the prospect of a new nationwide competitor. The spectrum acquisition remains subject to FCC approval and other customary closing conditions, with financial terms undisclosed. WALL STREET IS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.