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The October consumer sentiment index released on the 6th by Westpac and the Melbourne Institute came in at 80.4, down 4.7% from the previous month. It was the second straight sharp decline following a 5.2% drop the prior month, and the index is down nearly 13% from a year earlier. A reading below 100 indicates pessimism outweighs optimism. The survey was conducted around the Reserve Bank of Australia's fourth rate hike this year, which raised the policy rate to 4.60%, a 15-year high. According to Westpac's head of Australian macro forecasting, responses collected after the rate hike, which made up 40% of the total, showed a sentiment index of just 67.2, compared with 86.9 for the 60% collected before the hike. The impact of the rate increase was also clear in measures of household finances, which plunged 8.0% compared with a year earlier, while the expectations index fell 6.4% and the index gauging the right time to buy major household items dropped 7.1%.

Reflection AI, an artificial intelligence startup backed by U.S. semiconductor giant Nvidia, announced its first open-weight model, Beam, on the 5th. The move is aimed at competing with low-cost Chinese models such as DeepSeek and Kimi in coding and agentic tasks. According to Reflection, Beam is roughly on par with GLM-5.2 from Chinese AI startup Z.ai on such tasks and approaches the performance of Alibaba Group's Qwen3.8-Max. The company said Beam has 501 billion total parameters but uses only 23 billion for any given task, drawing on just part of its network per task so the model can run fast and at low cost. Z.ai's GLM-5.2, by contrast, has about 744 billion total parameters and uses 40 billion. U.S. technology companies are seeking to counter a wave of Chinese open-weight models that are low-cost, easy to customize, and capable of code generation roughly on par with the frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

McDonald's introduced its McDonald's > NEXT plan on September 23, committing up to $8.5 billion in franchisee support through 2036 to cover rent relief, new kitchen equipment, restaurant remodels, and ArchIQ, an artificial intelligence system designed to take orders and manage inventory. The company expects to reach a low-to-mid 50% operating margin by 2030, up from 46.1% in 2025, and to add about $100,000 in annual cash flow per U.S. restaurant. The announcement followed a weak second quarter in which U.S. comparable sales rose just 0.8%, and Reuters reports that management expects traffic to remain flat as inflation continues. Shares dropped about 6% on September 23, their biggest one-day decline in more than a year, and are now down roughly 22% this year. Restaurant remodels and NEXT upgrades could cost at least $1.2 million for the average U.S. location, with McDonald's providing some rent relief and capital support, while the number of hedge funds holding the stock fell from 83 at the end of Q1 2026 to 79 at the end of Q2 2026.

British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced on the 5th that it will invest more than $1 billion in the eastern state of Massachusetts as part of a total $50 billion US investment plan. The company expects to increase its Massachusetts workforce by more than 50% over the next several years. It has already opened a new research and development center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at the 570,000-square-foot, 18-story facility built in Kendall Square, it will focus on developing treatments for cancer, chronic diseases and rare diseases, as well as research into cell therapies. Together with a nearby genomic medicine site, about 2,000 researchers and scientists will work there, and the new research center features 10 floors of laboratories equipped with robotics, automation and artificial intelligence. The Cambridge site joins the company's other major research center in Gaithersburg, Maryland. AstraZeneca operates 24 research, manufacturing, sales and headquarters sites in the United States and employs more than 25,000 people there.

San Diego County launched its new Consumer Fairness and Public Protection Unit on October 06, 2026, filing its first three lawsuits against AppLovin, Roblox and Polymaker over children's safety, consumer privacy and 3D-printed ghost guns. The unit was championed by Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer, who first called for a local consumer protection division in her 2025 State of the County Address, arguing San Diego needed stronger local enforcement as federal consumer protections were rolled back. The County's complaint against AppLovin, a digital advertising platform whose technology reaches more than 1 billion daily active users worldwide, alleges its technology bypassed parental controls to serve ads for adult dating, alcohol, vaping, cannabis, graphic sexual content and violence inside mobile games used by children, and collected sensitive data from children's devices; the County brings claims under California's False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition Law and seeks injunctive relief, restitution and civil penalties, with Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP serving as outside counsel. The Roblox complaint alleges the platform, with about 144 million daily active users worldwide, marketed itself to parents and children as safe while failing to stop adults from posing as children and grooming young users, and seeks injunctive relief under California's Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law. The Polymaker complaint alleges the 3D-printing filament maker deliberately marketed certain filaments to people making 3D-printed ghost guns, including sponsoring gun-printing influencer Sean Aranda and later hiring him as its Head of Customer Experience, and the County asks the court to stop these practices, impose civil penalties and require Polymaker to give up proceeds tied to unlawful conduct. County Counsel Damon Brown said the three lawsuits, filed in San Diego Superior Court, are proof the office has hit the ground running.

CoinShares, a major digital asset management firm, released a survey report on October 5 covering wealthy individuals in the United States and six European countries, revealing that the crypto market decline in February 2026 did not dampen investor appetite but rather increased it. The survey was conducted jointly with strategy research firm Vardaxoglou Advisory from May 11 to June 5, and drew responses from 2,230 people in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland with investable assets excluding real estate of more than 500,000 dollars. Crypto ownership rates reached a majority in all seven countries, ranging from 54 percent in Sweden to 70 percent in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, with allocations averaging around 10 percent of portfolios, while only 6 percent described themselves as short-term traders. In all seven countries, more respondents said the February decline made them more likely to invest than said it made them less likely, and in Germany in particular, 54 percent said it made them more likely versus 23 percent who said less likely. Among current holders, more than 85 percent in five countries intend to increase their holdings in 2026, and 68 to 79 percent said the US administration's pro-crypto policies would boost their investment appetite, exceeding the 49 to 65 percent who cited the European Union's crypto market regulations. Meanwhile, 88 percent felt they lacked sufficient knowledge, and 69 percent said they would consider seeking advice from a wealth manager knowledgeable about crypto, highlighting a gap in which financial institutions are failing to keep pace with demand from wealthy clients.

Goldman Sachs said the short-term impact of rising political opposition to US data centers on rapid expansion will be limited, and its growth outlook through 2027 is broadly unchanged. In a report published on the 4th, the bank raised its forecast for US data center capacity at the end of 2026 by 5 gigawatts to 64 gigawatts, while cutting its forecast for the end of 2027 by 5 gigawatts to 90 gigawatts. It projected that US data center power demand will rise 38 percent, or 12 gigawatts, in 2026, and 38 percent, or 17 gigawatts, in 2027. Data centers provide the computing power needed to train and run artificial intelligence models, but they face resident opposition across the United States over concerns about local impacts such as power demand and utility bills. In a Reuters/Ipsos survey in June, only one-third of Americans supported the pace of construction, and just 14 percent said they supported construction in their own area. Goldman noted that public opinion has become even more negative, and that this backlash has become a political issue for Republicans ahead of the US midterm elections on November 3.

The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) reported on the 6th that business confidence improved in the third quarter, with firms growing more optimistic even as rising fuel prices and geopolitical headwinds persisted. The net share of firms reporting that overall business conditions improved rose to 43%, up from 8% in the previous quarter. The survey was conducted from September 9 to 28, overlapping with a period when the conflict between the United States and Iran flared up again and fuel prices surged. On a seasonally adjusted basis, 40% of firms expected business conditions to improve, up from 14% in the previous quarter, while capacity utilisation stood at 91.0%, above the previous quarter's 90.8%. NZIER said that with indicators on costs and selling prices stable, the risk of high fuel prices spilling over into broader inflationary pressures is limited.

The U.S. Supreme Court's justices appeared divided during oral arguments Monday as they weighed whether communities can sue big energy companies for billions of dollars over climate-related damages. The court is considering a lawsuit brought by Boulder County, Colorado, against Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy claiming the companies deceived consumers about the dangers of their oil and gas operations and their effects on climate change through advertising and marketing. The Colorado Supreme Court allowed the suit to proceed in state court, but the oil companies have asked the justices to overturn that ruling, arguing Boulder's claims are pre-empted by the Clean Air Act. By the end of the arguments, only Justice Kavanaugh appeared squarely in the companies' camp, while Justice Alito, who owns stock in several energy companies, has recused himself, raising the possibility of a 4-4 deadlock that would leave the lower court decision in place without setting a nationwide precedent. A decision is expected in the coming months.

The jury trial in the lawsuit brought by U.S. semiconductor giant Qualcomm against British chip design firm Arm Holdings began on the 5th in a federal court in Delaware. Qualcomm alleges that Arm failed to provide semiconductor testing tools it was contractually obligated to supply, and that when it notified Qualcomm in 2024 of the termination of a key licensing agreement, it leaked that information to the media, harming negotiations over a chip deal with Meta Platforms. In this lawsuit, Qualcomm is seeking the right to suspend royalty payments to Arm for up to five years, and the amount involved could reach billions of dollars. In her opening statement, Qualcomm attorney Karen Dunn said Arm executives referred to Qualcomm as an "enemy" in internal documents and were concerned about a sharp drop in royalty revenue. In response, Arm attorney Greg Locascio countered that he would present evidence showing Qualcomm has in fact suffered no damages. The jury trial is scheduled to last five days and marks a new phase in the two companies' long-running dispute.

FinCEN, part of the US Treasury Department, announced on October 5 that it is withdrawing two proposed rules concerning crypto assets. The withdrawal notices will be published in the Federal Register on October 6. The first was a rule proposed in December 2020 on self-hosted wallets, which would have required identity verification and recordkeeping for transactions over $3,000 and reporting to FinCEN for transactions over $10,000 when a counterparty uses a self-hosted wallet; FinCEN said it will take no further action on the proposal. The second, proposed in October 2023, would have designated international crypto asset mixing as a primary money laundering concern class of transactions under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act; the withdrawal cited concerns that the definition of mixing was too broad, chilling legitimate activity and imposing a heavy reporting burden on financial institutions. Neither proposal had been finalized into a rule, so financial institutions' existing obligations are unchanged. The Treasury also lifted sanctions on Tornado Cash in March 2025, making the shift in US regulatory policy toward privacy technology increasingly clear.

ATERRA Metals Inc. has amended its agreement with Research Capital Corporation, as lead agent and sole bookrunner, to increase the size of its previously announced brokered, best-efforts listed issuer financing exemption private placement offering of common shares to a minimum of $4,000,000 and a maximum of $8,355,000 in aggregate gross proceeds, at a price of $0.06 per common share. Research Capital leads a syndicate that includes Desjardins Capital Markets. The company intends to use the net proceeds to advance the Phase II exploration program at its Totora Copper-Gold Project in the Dos Amigos Mining District in Region III, Chile, and for general working capital and corporate purposes. On September 24, 2026, ATERRA announced a maiden Inferred Mineral Resource estimate for Totora of 159.8 million tonnes grading 0.51% copper equivalent, comprising 0.30% copper and 0.15 grams per tonne gold, based on a 0.2% copper cutoff grade. The Phase II program is expected to include infill drilling to increase confidence in the current Inferred Mineral Resource, resource expansion drilling, evaluation of grassroots exploration targets using geophysics and, where warranted, diamond drilling, and preliminary metallurgical test work. Closing is expected on or about October 14, 2026, subject to receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, including conditional approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange. The agents will receive a cash commission of 6.0% of aggregate gross proceeds up to $6,900,000, reduced to 1.0% on gross proceeds above that amount, plus broker warrants equal to 6.0% of the common shares sold under the offering up to $6,900,000 in gross proceeds, in each case subject to reduction to 3.0% for certain subscribers on a president's list.

In early September, AI researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from leading generative AI company Anthropic and warned in a post on X that cutting-edge AI could one day "destroy all of us," sparking a worldwide debate over slowing down AI development. Coxon, who researched cutting-edge AI at Cambridge University in the UK, contributed to the development of GPT-4o at OpenAI, and later moved to Anthropic, said that executives and senior researchers at AI companies "voice their fears" about rapid progress in private settings. In response, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said on September 12 that the pace of development should be deliberately adjusted so that improvements in AI capabilities do not outstrip advances in safety measures, and he laid out a three-tier proposal: continuous third-party evaluation, an industry-wide regulatory framework, and global regulation including US-China coordination. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, and xAI's Elon Musk expressed supportive views, while journalist Brian Merchant criticized the approach as potentially amounting to "regulatory capture." NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg take the position that there is no need to slow down. Former President Barack Obama said at a September 18 talk at Colgate University that AI learning has entered a phase of steep ascent like a "hockey stick curve," and stressed the importance of bipartisan discussion. US President Donald Trump said on September 13 that he wants to maintain AI superiority, and at the UN General Assembly on September 23 he called moves to monitor AI a "plot by globalists." French Economy and Finance Minister Roland Lescure and AI company Mistral also criticized calls for slowing down as the "self-interest" of leading companies, and with geopolitical rivalry for hegemony also in play, the debate is growing more complex.

The Bank of Japan has begun considering a move to judge that its "underlying rate of inflation" has reached around 2%, it was learned on the 5th. If possible, the bank will reflect this in its "Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices" report, to be compiled at its monetary policy meeting on the 29th and 30th of this month. Companies are increasingly passing on higher raw material and labor costs into prices, putting the achievement of the 2% inflation target within reach. The BOJ had previously said underlying inflation would reach 2% sometime between the second half of fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027, but Governor Kazuo Ueda noted after the September meeting's press conference that it is "roughly hitting 2%." Going forward, the key question will be whether underlying inflation that has reached around 2% settles at that level, and the BOJ is poised to keep watching for the time being whether it moves stably around 2%.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies announced on October 5 that its Ethereum holdings reached 6,016,414 ETH. It added 15,112 ETH over the past week, with the purchase amount estimated at about 41 million dollars. The holdings represent 4.9% of Ethereum's total supply of 122.1 million ETH, reaching 99% of its goal of acquiring 5% of the supply, known as the "Alchemy of 5%." Since the strategy began on June 30, 2025, the company has continued buying every week without fail for about 15 months. Combined with 214 BTC, 643 million dollars in cash and securities, and investments positioned as moonshots, total assets held amount to 17.4 billion dollars, and 84% of its ETH holdings are allocated to staking. Chairman Tom Lee said, "Crypto appears to be entering a cycle that looks like a bull market."

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on the 5th proposed a new federal regulatory framework for crypto asset exchanges that offer leveraged digital asset trading. With legislation to comprehensively regulate crypto assets stalled in Congress, the aim is to bring part of the spot trading market under federal oversight. Under the proposal, U.S. crypto exchanges would be able to opt into a CFTC-supervised federal framework instead of the current patchwork of state-by-state money transmitter licenses. For exchanges offering leveraged and margin trading to retail investors, the proposal would create a new trading venue category, a "crypto asset market," under CFTC supervision, requiring systems to prevent market manipulation and the submission of proof of reserves, and it also proposes a mechanism for registered futures commission merchants to act as intermediaries. CFTC Chairman Selig said on the 5th at an event held by Fordham University School of Law in New York, "Entrepreneurs opening up a new frontier in finance have for years faced uncertainty over whether they have a place in the market. We are going to give them that answer." The proposal follows the failure of congressional consideration of the Clarity Act, a comprehensive bill to introduce new rules for the roughly 2 trillion dollar crypto market, one of whose pillars was giving the CFTC clear authority to oversee the crypto spot market.

The Institute for Supply Management's September non-manufacturing index came in at 54.9, down from 55.4 in August and below expectations. Still, it remained above the 50 level that signals expansion for a 27th consecutive month. The key new orders component fell to 59.8 from 60.9, holding in expansion territory for a 16th straight month. Raw material costs rose to 74.0, the highest level since July 2022, a four-year high. Employment came in at 50.1, turning back to expansion for the first time since June. Components of the non-manufacturing index, which drives US economic growth, generally showed growth above 50, a result that supports a rate hike, though new export orders were the sole exception, falling to 46.9 into contraction.

The World Gold Council estimates that the above-ground stock of gold mined by humanity stood at about 220,000 tonnes at the end of 2025, with two-thirds of that mined since 1950. The above-ground stock in 2010 was about 160,000 tonnes, meaning roughly 60,000 tonnes were added over the past 15 years. Mine production rose from around 400 tonnes a year in the early 1900s to about 3,800 tonnes in 2025, a record high, while gold prices are also at record levels. Comparing 2011 with 2025, among demand derived from mine production, jewellery demand fell by 300 tonnes, from 700 tonnes to 400 tonnes, while central banks increased their purchases by 300 tonnes, from 500 tonnes to 800 tonnes, and investment demand rose by 500 tonnes, from 1,700 tonnes to 2,200 tonnes. Central banks have been net buyers since 2010, exceeding 1,000 tonnes a year from 2022 to 2024 and surpassing 800 tonnes in 2025, well above the 2010-2021 average of 473 tonnes.

Crude oil futures fell about $2, pressured by rising exports from the Middle East and a release of reserves by the G7. The November contract for New York crude settled at $89.43 a barrel, down $1.68 from the previous session. In the U.S. stock market, the Dow rose for a third straight session and the Nasdaq advanced for a fourth, hitting a record high, while the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose 0.03 percentage points from the previous session to 5.30%. The December contract for New York gold settled at $4,156.8 a troy ounce, down $5.5 from the previous session, and CME Nikkei 225 futures rose from the Osaka Exchange level to close at 70,130 yen. The U.S. ISM non-manufacturing index for September came in at 54.9, below the expected 55.0.

Oil industry executives said at the Energy Intelligence conference in London on the 5th that global crude prices are expected to remain elevated beyond 2027 due to stalled maritime shipping, sharp refinery output cuts, and drawdowns of inventories, Reuters reported. According to the report, Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Arabia's state oil company Saudi Aramco, said the tightening of supply for crude and refined fuels is expected to worsen further, and that it could take two years to rebuild global reserves that were drawn down as an emergency measure. In light of this view, energy-related companies such as INPEX, Japan Petroleum Exploration, JGC Holdings, and Chiyoda Corporation are likely to draw attention.

Amiyaki-tei, which operates yakiniku restaurants and other businesses, plunged after it lowered its consolidated earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2027 at 9 a.m. on the 5th. The full-year consolidated operating profit forecast was revised down from 2.5 billion yen to 2.0 billion yen, a decline of 9.5 percent from the previous fiscal year. The company expects increases in raw material costs, labor costs, logistics costs, utility costs, and promotional expenses to continue in the second half. It said the growing consumer tendency to economize amid rising food and beverage prices is also weighing on its performance. The consolidated results for the cumulative second quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2027, covering April to September, announced at the same time, showed sales of 20 billion yen, up 10.1 percent from the same period a year earlier, and operating profit of 850 million yen, down 14.0 percent, as rising raw material prices and labor costs took their toll.

Shares of Exmotion, a consulting firm specialising in embedded software, plunged. In its cumulative third-quarter results for the fiscal year ending November 2026, announced after the close on Friday the 2nd of the previous week, the company secured higher revenue and profit, but growth in operating profit for the June-August period slowed, and selling pressure took hold on concerns about its growth pace. In the cumulative third-quarter consolidated results, revenue came to 1.06 billion yen, up 3.4 percent year on year, and operating profit reached 160 million yen, up 17.2 percent. Meanwhile, operating profit for the third quarter alone was 57.6 million yen, roughly unchanged from 57.5 million yen a year earlier. Demand from AI-related companies, including support for autonomous driving development, was strong, but CoBrain and Eureka Box, which use generative AI, also fell short of plan.

Zuiko, a maker of hygiene product manufacturing machinery, fell for a third straight session. The decline came after the company, following the close on the previous Friday, the 2nd, reported cumulative first-half results for the fiscal year ending February 2027, covering March through August, showing a swing to an operating loss despite higher revenue. Cumulative first-half consolidated results showed sales of 10.9 billion yen, up 3.9 percent year on year, and an operating loss of 200 million yen, compared with a profit of 390 million yen a year earlier. Profitability in the hygiene product manufacturing machinery business deteriorated, partly because shipments from the Chinese subsidiary are skewed toward the second half. The full-year consolidated operating profit forecast was left unchanged at 1.8 billion yen, 10.9 times the prior year, with sales projected at 27 billion yen, up 27.5 percent. Although the first half produced an operating loss, the company kept its original forecast, taking into account that revenue from orders already received will be concentrated in the second half.

Jim Cramer said on the October 2 episode of Mad Money that Constellation Brands faces a genuine contraction in certain liquors and a steep slowdown in beer sales ahead of its scheduled October 6 earnings release. The company is set to report fiscal second-quarter 2027 results after the market closes on October 6, with its earnings call on October 7; its latest published quarterly results remain those for the period ended May 31. In its fiscal first-quarter 2027, beer sales rose 2% to approximately $2.28 billion and beer operating income also rose 2%, with Pacifico depletions up approximately 21%, Victoria up 14% and Modelo Chelada up 6%, while the remaining wine and spirits portfolio recorded 8% organic net sales growth and its reported sales decline of 47% reflected divestitures. Weakness persisted in the largest beer brands, as total beer depletions fell 0.3%, including an approximately 2% decline for Modelo Especial and a decline exceeding 5% for Corona Extra, while beer shipments increased 1.8%. The stock is down 19% for the year and trades at a forward earnings multiple of approximately 9.6x, compared with 7.8x for Molson Coors, and Insider Monkey's Q2 data tracking over 1000 hedge funds showed 59 hedge funds holding the stock versus 56 in the preceding quarter, with Harris Associates the top shareholder at nearly 3.1 million shares and short interest at 5.69% of the public float.

Toyota has given its compact tall wagon, the Roomy, a minor update, making SRS side airbags and SRS curtain shield airbags standard equipment on all grades. There are five grades: the standard X, G, and G-T, plus the custom Custom G and Custom G-T. Prices are 1.83 million yen for the X, 1.9899 million yen for the G, 2.1175 million yen for the G-T, 2.1703 million yen for the Custom G, and 2.3133 million yen for the Custom G-T. Adaptive cruise control with full-speed following and an electric parking brake, previously standard only on the custom grades, can now be selected as a 55,000 yen package option on standard grades other than the X, allowing buyers to save about 150,000 yen compared with the equivalent custom grade. The Roomy is an OEM model of the Daihatsu Thor and is also supplied as the Subaru Justy, and the Thor shares the same grade lineup and pricing as the Roomy.

US-based Strive purchased an additional 2,000 bitcoin for about $169 million between September 28 and October 2, raising its holdings to 29,462 BTC. The average acquisition price, including fees and expenses, was about $84,422 per bitcoin. The purchases were disclosed in a Form 8-K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on October 5, and mark the company's largest buying spree since it acquired 2,500 BTC between May 23 and June 1 and announced it on June 2. The gap with MARA's disclosed holdings of 35,577 BTC now stands at 6,115 BTC. According to CEO Matt Cole, preferred stock SATA accounted for 61.5 percent of the capital raised during the period, while warrant exercises brought in $56.7 million. The company also disclosed preliminary, unaudited data for the third quarter of 2026, during which it acquired 8,137 BTC at an average price of $78,885, and held 28,000 BTC plus about $284.7 million in cash and cash equivalents as of September 30. Strive aims to become the world's second-largest publicly listed corporate bitcoin treasury, but the current number two, Metaplanet, held 44,000 BTC as of September 30, a gap of 14,538 BTC.

Freshworks Inc. will replace BioLife Solutions Inc. in the S&P SmallCap 600 effective prior to the open of trading on Thursday, October 8. The change follows S&P MidCap 400 constituent Repligen Corp.'s acquisition of BioLife Solutions, a deal expected to be completed soon pending final closing conditions. Freshworks, which trades under the ticker FRSH and falls in the Information Technology sector, is the addition to the index, while BioLife Solutions, ticker BLFS, is the deletion from the Health Care sector. S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the change in New York on October 5, 2026.

The euro fell to its lowest level against the dollar since May 2025 after reports that Spain's government was preparing to call an early election, before recovering more than half of that drop to trade back above 1.1200. Traders said hedge-fund selling in Asia set off option barriers that deepened the fall in EUR/USD. The pair has since bounced from that low.

SpaceX is seeking approval to build a natural gas pipeline in Florida to supply fuel to rockets launching from Cape Canaveral, according to documents filed with state regulators in September. The company's subsidiary, Coastal Connect Services, or CCS, has applied to the state Public Service Commission for authorization of rates and supply terms for a new 32.4-mile, 16-inch natural gas transmission pipeline in Brevard County, where Cape Canaveral is located. SpaceX uses liquid methane as propellant for its large Starship spacecraft, and the facility is expected to supply natural gas. According to the filings, CCS plans to build and operate pipeline facilities that would deliver natural gas directly to customers from the existing Florida Gas Transmission interstate pipeline. In its application, CCS said current truck deliveries and existing local pipelines cannot meet SpaceX's growing demand at Cape Canaveral, and that a new pipeline is essential to supply natural gas safely, efficiently and in a timely manner. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has finalized an update to its Transparency in Coverage rules aimed at helping health plan enrollees understand how much they will pay before receiving care. The new rules provide more context about in-network prices, expand out-of-network pricing information, and strengthen accountability for the accuracy of published data. Group health plans and insurers must also give consumers personalized cost-sharing information by phone, a service they already provide online. The Transparency in Coverage rules were initially established in November 2020 during President Trump's first term. HHS said the top 25% of the most expensive healthcare service prices have dropped by 6.3% per year following those price transparency requirements.

Polar Power said its board rejected an all-cash offer from Solidion Technology to acquire all of the company's assets, with no financial terms of the offer disclosed. The company said it received Solidion's offer last week, but the board concluded the proposal substantially undervalues Polar Power's assets, intellectual property, existing business opportunities, and significant growth opportunities. CEO Arthur Sams said Polar Power has spent decades developing valuable technology, intellectual property, and operating capabilities that position the company for significant opportunities across its existing and emerging markets. The rejection follows last week's move by Flux Power, whose board also rejected a separate acquisition proposal from Solidion on the grounds that it undervalued the company.

Aurora Cannabis said it is maintaining its recommendation that shareholders take no action on Curaleaf's hostile take-over bid because Curaleaf has yet to file the Notice of Variation and Change needed to formally revise the offer. Curaleaf has stated an intention to offer revised implied consideration of US$5.00 per Aurora share, consisting of 0.4013 subordinate voting shares of Curaleaf plus US$1.00 in cash per Aurora share, but Aurora said it has not received the materials required for a full evaluation. Executive Chairman and CEO Miguel Martin said the Special Committee of independent directors will review any formal revised offer once received with the same rigorous, independent and disciplined process applied previously, and the Board will communicate its recommendation once that review is complete. Aurora said its application to the Alberta Securities Commission delivered results, as Curaleaf has now agreed to amend its bid circular to include required pro forma financial statements and to extend the expiry time for the Hostile Bid to 11:59pm Mountain Time on December 4, 2026. Aurora shareholders will have until at least December 4, 2026 to consider their options, and the Board's formal recommendation will be provided through a news release and Directors' Circular within 15 days in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Schneider Electric has agreed to acquire product design software company PTC in an all-cash transaction valued at $205 per share, sending PTC shares up 36% in pre-market trading. The deal reflects an equity value of approximately $22.6 billion and an enterprise value of $23.7 billion, a 42.3% premium over PTC's previous closing price. The Financial Times reported that the transaction is the French conglomerate's largest acquisition, aimed at enhancing software capabilities for manufacturing plants and engineering processes. PTC, which trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker PTC, was at $194.58 per share and is up 14.4% since the beginning of the year, close to its 52-week high of $205.87 from October 2025.

Citi upgraded Harley-Davidson from Neutral to Buy and raised its price target to $33 from $31, sending the motorcycle maker's shares up 5% in pre-market trading. Citi analyst James Hardiman issued the upgrade, pointing to improving retail momentum, an anticipated 2027 product launch, and previous insider purchasing as the primary factors behind the higher price objective. After the initial pop, the shares cooled to $25.60, still up 4.3% from the previous close. Harley-Davidson is up 24% since the beginning of the year, though at $25.60 it remains 10% below its 52-week high of $28.45 from July 2026.

Elon Musk agreed with a Tesla AI engineer's argument that the automaker's early decision to develop and deploy custom inference computers across its vehicle fleet could look unprecedented as demand for artificial-intelligence compute accelerates. "Yes," Musk wrote on X on Sunday in response to Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai, who said Tesla's years of iterating and scaling its own inference computers for each car sold could prove unusually important before the superintelligence era, adding that the current compute shortage is only the tip of the iceberg and that when autonomy becomes indispensable, the real shortage will follow. Tesla has spent years designing its own inference hardware to run neural networks inside vehicles rather than relying entirely on general-purpose processors, and that strategy is now advancing through AI5 and AI6, with the company saying in January that development of both custom inference chips had progressed and production was then planned for 2027 and 2028, respectively. Musk has separately said AI5 will punch far above its weight and is primarily optimized for edge computing in Robotaxi and Optimus, and during the second-quarter earnings call he said the company's planned Terafab is necessary because Tesla otherwise simply won't have enough AI chips to scale Optimus. Reuters reported in April that Tesla, SpaceX and xAI are pursuing Terafab partly because Musk expects outside suppliers cannot satisfy their long-term chip requirements, with Tesla's Austin development fab alone expected to cost roughly $3 billion.

Payward, the financial infrastructure company that owns crypto exchange Kraken, has partnered with Singapore Gulf Bank to launch a service enabling round-the-clock settlement in the institutional digital asset market. Payward has integrated SGB Net, the real-time multi-currency settlement network provided by SGB, allowing eligible institutional clients to use funds deposited with Payward immediately, without being constrained by bank business hours or business days. The service will initially be offered for US dollar transactions to select clients in eligible jurisdictions across Asia and the Gulf region. SGB has also partnered with Kraken Prime, Payward's prime brokerage for institutional investors, using it as a liquidity source for its own digital asset services, and plans to use Payward's market for client-facing pricing over the coming months. SGB Net launched in May 2025 and, according to the bank, now processes more than 20 billion dollars in fiat currency transactions per month, and the two companies plan to gradually expand eligible clients and supported currencies going forward.

Loomis has completed its acquisition of 99.80 percent of the shares in Hermes Transportes Blindados S.A. following the completion of the public tender offer and the fulfilment of the conditions set out in the Tender Offer Agreement. The total purchase price for the tendered shares amounted to approximately USD 297 million, or approximately SEK 3 billion. Loomis announced on May 5, 2026, that it had entered into a Tender Offer Agreement with shareholders representing 99.49 percent of the outstanding shares in the listed Peruvian valuables management company, and launched the public tender offer on August 31, 2026. By the end of the offer period on September 30, 2026, 87,072,827 shares, representing 99.80 percent of the outstanding shares, had been tendered, and the transaction closed on October 5, 2026. Hermes, a leading provider of security logistics services in Peru with approximately 3,400 employees and 19 branches serving around 1,000 customers, will be reported within Loomis' segment Europe and Latin America from October 2026, and its management team and employees will remain with the company. Nordea Bank and Société Générale structured and coordinated the acquisition financing, including a committed bridge facility and guarantee facility, which were refinanced ahead of closing through the proceeds of Loomis' previously announced EUR 300 million bond issuance.

Wall Street's major financial institutions have begun syndicating a record $60 billion debt package to back Anthropic's lease of Google semiconductors, the largest chip-financing transaction to date. Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley, which committed to fund the financing, have started approaching peer institutions to offload portions of the debt, according to the Financial Times. Syndication opened on Monday with $42 billion in senior secured loans backed by Broadcom's A-minus credit rating, a structure that could eventually allow the debt to be sold across private placement or investment-grade bond markets. A separate $18 billion junior debt tranche without Broadcom guarantees is expected to launch later, with Blackstone already committing approximately $9 billion while helping syndicate the remainder. Broadcom is providing credit support to help Anthropic manage borrowing costs, and the capital will fund advanced chip orders scheduled for 2027 delivery, with lease payments beginning only after the hardware is fully deployed. Because the unbacked junior tranche exposes lenders directly to Anthropic's credit profile, underwriters may wait until after the startup completes its planned initial public offering later this year before tapping broader markets.

TotalEnergies SE has agreed to transfer operatorship of the 5.6 Mtpa Papua LNG project in Papua New Guinea to ExxonMobil, selling a 9.1% interest that leaves it with a 20% stake plus a 1.5 Mtpa LNG offtake agreement. The French energy major also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Venezuelan government in mid-September, planning a return to the country after withdrawing from the Petrocedeno joint venture in 2021. TotalEnergies reported trailing twelve-month revenue of $196.38 billion, a 14.48% return on equity, a 12.79% operating margin and a 9.08% net margin, with operating cash flow of $33.04 billion and levered free cash flow of $13.53 billion against $62.92 billion in total debt. The stock closed at $84.40 on October 2, giving it a market capitalization of $186.2 billion and a 41.18% gain over the past 52 weeks. Hedge fund holdings rose to 34 in the second quarter of 2026 from 30 in the prior quarter, with Amundi the largest institutional investor at 206.12 million shares, or 8.25% of outstanding shares.

Jim Cramer told a caller on the October 1 lightning round of Mad Money that he likes Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and advised buying the stock. The endorsement came as TSMC reported second-quarter revenue of $40.20 billion, up 33.7% year-over-year in U.S. dollar terms, with net income rising 77.4% to NT$706.56 billion and a gross margin of 67.7%. Advanced technologies at 7 nanometers and below generated 77% of wafer revenue, and August revenue reached approximately NT$514.81 billion, up 53.3% from a year earlier, bringing first-eight-month revenue up 39.3% to approximately NT$3.39 trillion. Management raised its 2026 capital expenditure budget to $60 billion to $64 billion, while warning that the initial 2-nanometer ramp will cut second-half gross margin by roughly 3 to 4 percentage points and that overseas factories will dilute margins by 2 to 3 points early on, potentially widening to 3 to 4 points. For the third quarter, the company guided to revenue of $44.6 billion to $45.8 billion and gross margin of 65% to 67%, below the second-quarter level despite higher expected sales.