BEFORE THE OPEN

Pre-Market:

US Investor % Bullish Sentiment:
↑33.86% for Week of OCT 23 2025

Market Wrap:

• Futures lower: Dow –0.2%, S&P –0.2%, Nasdaq 100 –0.3%.

• Alphabet +6% on strong Q3; Meta –8%, Microsoft –4% on AI-related charges.

• Meta took a $15.9B one-time hit; Microsoft said OpenAI cut earnings by $3.1B.

• Fed cut 25 bps, but Powell signaled December cuts aren’t assured.

• Wednesday: Dow –74, S&P flat, Nasdaq +0.6%.

• Strategists flag rising volatility and stretched valuations.

• Trump–Xi meeting now key for tariff and trade clarity.

EARNINGS

Here’s what we’re watching this week:

• Today: *Eli Lilly $LLY ( ▲ 0.78% ), Estee Lauder $EL ( ▼ 0.84% ), Reddit $RDDT ( ▼ 4.43% ), *Roblox $RBLX ( ▼ 10.06% ), *Roku $ROKU ( ▲ 2.98% ), Shake Shack $SHAK ( ▲ 1.89% ), *SiriusXM $SIRI ( ▲ 9.78% )

  • Amazon $AMZN ( ▼ 1.52% ) - $1.56 EPS (+9.1% YoY) on $177.7B revenue (+11.8% YoY)

  • Apple $AAPL ( ▼ 0.04% ) - $1.76 EPS (+81.4% YoY) on $102.1B revenue (+7.6% YoY)

• FRI: *Chevron $CVX ( ▼ 0.04% ), *Exxon $XOM ( ▼ 0.3% )

Full calendar here »

A MESSAGE FROM STANSBERRY RESEARCH

Trump’s “Smart Dollar” Just Went Mainstream 

Dear Reader,

What started as a bold idea from President Trump is now going mainstream.

His "Smart Dollar" is now moving more money than Visa and Mastercard combined...

JPMorgan is moving $1 billion a day through it...

And $40 billion has already poured into U.S. Treasury bills.

This isn't a prediction. It's happening right now.

I believe this could be the biggest financial shift since credit cards started appearing in every American's wallet – and it's unfolding faster than anyone expected.

Click here to see how to position yourself before the rest of the world catches on.

Eric Wade
Senior Editor, Stansberry Research

HEADLINES

Trump and Xi Meet in Person for First Time Since 2019

Fed Cuts US Interest Rates Again Despite 'Flying Blind'

• Dow slips after Powell dims hopes for December rate cut (more)

• The job market may be at a tipping point (more)

• Gold rises as Fed divisions raise questions over rate outlook (more)

• Asia stocks gain as Fed cuts, Trump-Xi meeting in focus (more)

• Nvidia hits $5 trillion valuation as AI boom powers meteoric rise (more)

• Meta, Microsoft test investors’ patience with AI spending spree (more)

• Microsoft takes $3.1B hit from OpenAI investment (more)

• Meta shares sink on rising AI costs (more)

• Alphabet stock surges on earnings beat after slew of AI deals (more)

• Google expects ‘significant increase’ in capital expenditure in 2026 (more)

• Chipotle plunges as company cuts sales forecast again (more)

• OpenAI lays groundwork for juggernaut IPO at up to $1 tln valuation (more)

• YouTube announces 'voluntary exit program' for US staff (more)

• Fiserv stock plunges 47% as results confound Wall Street (more)

• Top bonds hit after distressed fund seizes one of America’s largest malls (more)

DEALFLOW

M+A | Investments

• Hitachi Energy buys stake in US-based Shermco

• Japan’s NEC to acquire US-based CSG Systems for ~$2.89B

• Morgan Stanley to buy private-shares platform EquityZen

• Boyd Group to acquire Joe Hudson’s Collision Center for $1.3B

• Roark Capital exploring sale of Nothing Bundt Cakes (> $2B)

• Voxel receives investment from Ericsson Ventures

VC

• Pinetree Therapeutics, a biotech company pioneering targeted protein degraders for drug-resistant cancers, raised $47M in Series B funding

• Valthos, an AI biodefense startup, raised $30M in Seed financing

• VentureMed Group, Inc., a medical-device company, closed a $28M Series C financing round

• Mem0, a memory infrastructure platform for AI agents, raised $24M in Series A funding

• Reflectiz, a web exposure management platform, closed its $22M Series B funding round

• Arya Health, an AI platform that automates admin operations for home health and post-acute care providers, raised $18.2M in Series A funding

• Polygraf AI, an AI security platform for critical operations, closed a $9.5M Seed funding round

• Vesence, an AI-agent platform for law firms within Microsoft Office, raised $9M in Seed funding

• Homecourt, a home and personal fragrance brand, raised $8M in Series A funding

• TestSprite, an agent-ic testing tool for AI-native development, closed a $6.7M Seed round

• Socratix AI, a company building autonomous AI coworkers for fraud and risk teams, raised $4.1M in Seed funding

• Druo, a global direct-debit payment method, raised a Seed funding round in an undisclosed amount

The Fed's Move Missed This Shift
Everyone's talking about the Fed's rate cuts. But few realize the real monetary revolution is happening elsewhere. Just recently, Washington launched "Smart Dollar," and it's already outpacing Visa and Mastercard. Veteran investor Eric Wade warns that those who move now could ride one of the biggest wealth waves in decades.

Go here before the biggest potential gains vanish »

- a message from Stansberry Research -

CRYPTO

• Bitcoin tumbles back to $110K on Fed’s Powell’s hawkish comments (more)

• Bitcoin finally escapes ‘fear’ as confidence tiptoes back into crypto (more)

• How October was the most destructive month in recent memory for at least some crypto traders (more)

BULLISH BITES

🚨 THIS story is bigger than the Fed— * 

💰  How affluent investors are using options math to borrow on the cheap.

🫣 How NDAs keep AI data center details hidden from Americans.

🤖 Behind the Curtain: How an AI job apocalypse unfolds.

👻 The 40 best Halloween movies for people who hate horror movies.

DAILY SHARES

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