Mon., Oct. 26, 2026
[4:10 PM ET…closing prices for stocks, 3:50ish for commodities and bonds]
Tale of the Tape at the gas pump, nationwide averages, courtesy of AAA.
Fri., Feb. 27…regular $2.98…diesel $3.75
Mon., Oct. 26…regular $4.28…diesel $6.34
Over the weekend the Houthis launched more attacks on the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, including port facilities in Aden, while launching more missiles and drones at key targets in Saudi Arabia, which appear to have largely been repelled.
As trading opened Sunday night and early Monday morning, crude oil (WTI) fell to below $101 from Friday’s close of $103, rebounded back to near $103 early this afternoon, only to fall back again.
Brent, which closed Friday at about $117, fell a bit to $116, while heating oil (diesel) futures were trading at about $5.00, before also selling off some.
There was talk today of renewed diplomatic efforts to ease tensions between the U.S. and Iran that raised hopes of avoiding further disruptions to energy supplies. Security officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey met Iranian leaders to revive negotiations and prevent the conflict from spreading. And there are ongoing reports that crude shipments through the Strait of Hormuz continue to recover to near prewar levels despite continued attacks on vessels.
But the diplomatic outlook remains uncertain, with fears that strikes against Iran could resume following Tuesday’s election in Israel, and next week’s U.S. midterm elections.
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Here in the U.S., four years into the artificial intelligence boom, investors are beginning to question how much longer it can go.
Today, Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot and a key developer of cutting-edge A.I. models, painted a picture of future growth propelled by the technology – including advances in science, discovering cures for diseases and bringing about explosive economic growth – as it prepares for what could be the largest ever initial public offering.
“We believe that A.I. is one of the most consequential technologies in human history,” Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, said in a much anticipated corporate filing that signals its public listing is just weeks away.
Amodei and the other five founders of the company said their San Francisco company aimed to “realize” the benefits of A.I. “while navigating and preventing the risks that come with a technological revolution this fast and this powerful.”
In the filing, Anthropic said its revenue skyrocketed to $16.3 billion in the first half of the year, a 14-fold increase from a year earlier, largely from businesses using its A.I. software, including Claude.
As previously reported, the company lost more than $80.7 billion in the first half of the year, but $72.4bn of that was a one-time charge related to convertible notes.
Anthropic aims to raise more than $100 billion in its public listing, which could value the company at $2 trillion, pushing it past Elon Musk’s SpaceX as the world’s biggest I.P.O.
Anthropic’s filing was unusual in that it warned its products could bring about disasters, including loss of control of the technology and authoritarian abuses. “To build A.I. is to harness cognition itself, and anything so powerful can be used for ill as well as good,” Amodei and the other founders wrote.
Earlier in the day, SpaceX announced it was borrowing another $40 billion to accelerate its AI buildout, as raising capital is getting harder, which is a risk to the AI trade.
“SpaceX closed $40 billion of debt for GPUs, but we’re investment grade and have Starlink and launch revenue,” CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday. The deal follows a $25 billion bond offering in June.
“As of the past few weeks, debt markets have almost entirely shut off access to money for any company that doesn’t have substantial revenue independent of AI data centers,” added Musk. “That means the 200-plus [neocloud AI compute companies] are going to see guppy-level death and consolidation. Some will make it through, but not many.”
Lenders are getting stricter, and investors are getting nervous, witness the reaction in Meta Platforms’ stock last week after the company created a new class of shares with zero voting rights to help preserve CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s voting power, while financing its AI buildout. And CoreWeave’s bond yield recently hit 15%, making it far more expensive to grow.
Meta then said Monday it plans to raise up to $95 billion in equity to fund its costly AI-related expansion of data centers, cloud computing power and other infrastructure. $35 billion will be comprised of $22.5 billion of Class A common stock and $12.5 billion of depositary shares representing mandatory convertible preferred stock.
Meta also plans to establish an at-the-market stock offering program of up to $60 billion, potentially beginning in the first quarter of 2027.
Meta previously announced capital expenditures were expected to come in between $135 billion and $145 billion this year.
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Overseas, Brazil’s stock market cratered some 15% today in reaction to the reelection of leftist President Lula da Silva, in a surprise runoff result over conservative Flavio Bolsonaro, whose victory the markets had priced in after he had won the first round of voting.
In France, the yield on the 10-year bond fell 12 basis points to back below 5.00% (4.90%) as the anti-government protests over the weekend were largely peaceful, especially compared to the widespread violence of the prior weekend, while a key ratings agency did not downgrade French debt.
Here in the U.S., it’s a big week. The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee reveals its decision on interest rates Wednesday, we have key inflation data Thursday, and big earnings reports from Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, and Amazon, Wed. and Thurs.
Stocks rallied, aided by Anthropic’s IPO release, bonds were little changed.
Dow Jones +146…+0.3% [52361]
S&P 500 +53…+0.7% [7676]
Nasdaq +214…+0.8% [26169]
Oil (WTI) $101.70…Brent $115.50
Gold $4010
Silver $53.90
Bitcoin: $79,918 [4:00 PM ET…ugly day…]
U.S. 2-yr. 4.71%
U.S. 10-yr. 4.98%
Japanese 10-yr. 2.78%.
Back Tues.
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Brian Trumbore
