Stories from Friday, October 23, 2026

• Western Digital and Bloom Energy beat estimates, Deckers cut its sales outlook, and all four stocks fell

  All four reported after Thursday's close. Deckers raised its EPS outlook while cutting its sales forecast, and Newmont's sales rose even as it sold less gold.

  Equities · Oct 23, 2026, 11:55 PM EDT · Marcus Rodriguez

• American Express is cutting 5% of its workforce, and its CFO says AI is part of the reason

  The card company took a $336 million restructuring charge in a quarter that beat adjusted profit estimates and lifted its full-year outlook.

  Equities · Oct 23, 2026, 11:45 PM EDT · Marcus Rodriguez

• A Senate Democrat wants Tether's records on payments to Bo Hines' consulting firm

  Sen. Richard Blumenthal sent letters to Tether and Nxum Group, citing Wall Street Journal reporting on payments made while Hines advised the White House on crypto. Tether says an internal investigation by outside counsel found no evidence of wrongdoing.

  Crypto · Oct 23, 2026, 11:35 PM EDT · Jennifer Walsh

• Former OpenAI science lead Kevin Weil raises $215 million to put robots in drug labs

  Warp Sciences trains robots to make and test drug compounds. TechCrunch reports the round values it at $865 million, according to Weil.

  Startups · Oct 23, 2026, 11:25 PM EDT · Robert Harrison

• Coinbase pitches AI agents that trade crypto, stocks and derivatives for you

  Coinbase is promoting a way to plug Claude, ChatGPT, Grok and other agents into your account. The service has been live since June; what's changed is the menu.

  Crypto · Oct 23, 2026, 11:15 PM EDT · Jennifer Walsh

• Tokenized stock trading topped $37 billion last quarter, and one token did much of the work

  Dune says onchain trading of tokenized stocks and ETFs grew almost 18x since January. Its own dashboard shows a single BNB Chain token in about half the recent volume, in trades Dune says look programmatic or incentive-driven.

  Crypto · Oct 23, 2026, 11:05 PM EDT · Jennifer Walsh

• SpaceX is reportedly seeking at least 80,000 US cell sites, and tower stocks are rallying

  Bloomberg News reported SpaceX is in talks with tower owners including Crown Castle for at least 80,000 US sites. No signed lease has been reported, and the companies haven't confirmed the talks.

  Equities · Oct 23, 2026, 10:55 PM EDT · Marcus Rodriguez

• OpenAI is raising up to $30 billion at a reported $1.25 trillion valuation

  CNBC's sources say UAE investors and Coatue are leading a round pitched as a bridge to a potential IPO. OpenAI declined to comment.

  Startups · Oct 23, 2026, 10:45 PM EDT · Robert Harrison

• AI helped find critical PHP flaws, and a leak forced a rushed fix

  Wiz and Calif found the PHP2Shell bugs with help from AI models, and PHP patched a day early after a leak. Now PHP has flagged a further flaw the patch doesn't fix, and officials say to take systems offline if they can't patch.

  Startups · Oct 23, 2026, 10:30 PM EDT · Robert Harrison

• Oil hits a five-month high as Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia pile onto supply fears

  A drone strike near Aramco's Shaybah field and an attack on Dammam's airport sent traders back to the risk premium, even as Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry said operations at Shaybah were unaffected.

  Macro · Oct 23, 2026, 10:05 PM EDT · James Mitchell

• Spark Capital's $75 million Anthropic bet is reportedly worth about $7 billion before the IPO

  At Anthropic's $965 billion private valuation, stakes held by Spark, Menlo, Iconiq and Eric Schmidt are reportedly worth billions. These are paper values, not realized gains.

  Startups · Oct 23, 2026, 9:25 PM EDT · Robert Harrison

• Moderna slides after its cancer vaccine data leaked early, even though the results looked strong

  Partial Phase 3 results with Merck slipped out ahead of Saturday's ESMO presentation. The full data showed a 42% cut in the risk of recurrence or death, but after a 530%-plus run this year, analysts say expectations were higher still.

  Equities · Oct 23, 2026, 8:45 PM EDT · Marcus Rodriguez

• China's state-favored funds draw billions, and stocks sink deeper into a bear market anyway

  Funds favored by Beijing's 'national team' took in 46 billion yuan on Thursday, the most since April 2025, but the CSI 300 kept falling Friday as stimulus hopes faded and AI trades cooled.

  Macro · Oct 23, 2026, 8:05 PM EDT · James Mitchell

• Ethereum delays Glamsterdam test after a security firm flags a risk to existing contracts

  Core developers postponed the upgrade's Oct. 26 Hoodi testnet launch to study how a gas change interacts with contracts on mainnet. The Ethereum Foundation says ETH holders don't need to do anything.

  Crypto · Oct 23, 2026, 7:20 PM EDT · Jennifer Walsh

• 10-year Treasury yield drops below 5% as AI jitters send investors running for safety

  A sell-off in stocks over the AI trade sent money into government bonds on Thursday, pulling the 10-year yield under 5% for the first time since Sept. 23, with the odds of a Fed hike next week down to 7.2%.

  Macro · Oct 23, 2026, 6:35 PM EDT · James Mitchell

• Meta's capital spending pushed its free cash flow negative, and its default insurance hit a record

  Meta's free cash flow came in at negative $2.12 billion as capital spending outran operating cash. Its five-year credit default swaps hit a record and the stock fell, even though revenue topped estimates.

  Equities · Oct 23, 2026, 5:55 PM EDT · Marcus Rodriguez

• Elon Musk has put roughly $1 billion into Skydance, Semafor reports

  Semafor says Musk's deal came together alongside other equity investments, including from board member Laurene Powell Jobs. Neither Skydance nor Musk has confirmed it.

  Equities · Oct 23, 2026, 5:15 PM EDT · Marcus Rodriguez

• Musk's public cheerleading created a "mess" for SpaceX-Tesla merger talks, Reuters reports

  Musk recused himself from the merger committees, then called the deal a good idea. Reuters' source says that raises questions about whether Tesla shareholders are fairly represented, with SolarCity's long legal fight in mind.

  Equities · Oct 23, 2026, 4:37 PM EDT · Marcus Rodriguez

• Lam Research sinks after a record quarter as Lockheed raises its outlook again

  Lam Research's supply constraints and China warning outweighed record revenue. Tesla cut its spending plan, Lockheed's backlog hit a record, and P&G beat on earnings.

  Equities · Oct 23, 2026, 3:50 PM EDT · Marcus Rodriguez