United States

Amazon.com plans to transition its air cargo fleet from Boeing 767 aircraft to Airbus A330 freighters, with Air Transport Services Group set to acquire and convert 30 Airbus A330 jets to support Amazon's air network. ATSG expects to begin operating the Airbus A330 cargo aircraft for Amazon in 2027 as part of the refreshed fleet. The switch gives Amazon access to larger, more modern cargo aircraft that can carry more volume per flight than the 767s they replace, potentially reshaping how the retailer positions inventory for Prime and marketplace orders, especially on longer domestic and transcontinental routes where aircraft range and payload matter most. The move marks a key shift in Amazon's air logistics strategy and lines up with the company's broader thesis of heavy capital spending on logistics and data centers as a trade off for efficiency and future return potential. The clearest proof point will arrive as ATSG starts flying the A330s in 2027, when Amazon discloses how much of its parcel volume flows through the new jets versus legacy aircraft and third party carriers, along with any commentary on unit costs per package or delivery speed.

Luck Stone announced in mid-September 2026 that it had expanded its collaboration with Caterpillar to roll out autonomous hauling technology to two additional Virginia quarries, building on a site where autonomous Cat trucks have already moved more than 3.50 billion tons without reported injuries. The expansion includes the first-ever deployment of Caterpillar's autonomous haulage on Cat 775 trucks, and the company is pairing the automation with workforce skill development to address quarry safety and productivity challenges. The move reinforces Caterpillar's broader push into autonomy and AI, which analysts tie to higher quality recurring revenue, and follows the company's August update highlighting record backlog and heavy investment in digital and automation. Caterpillar's narrative projects $94.5 billion revenue and $17.4 billion earnings by 2029, with a $970.37 fair value implying 20% upside, while some of the most optimistic analysts already assumed revenues above US$112,200,000,000 and earnings near US$20,700,000,000 by 2029. Investors are still weighing rising tariffs and pricing pressure against the pace at which digital and service income can scale.

Lockheed Martin is set to benefit from a US government plan to sell up to 48 F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia, following a notification to Congress in 2026, a package that would mark the first sale of F-35 aircraft to the kingdom. The company also marked the rollout of Germany's first F-35A in 2026, a key step in Berlin's transition to the aircraft. The Saudi notification for up to 48 F-35s would, if approved and executed, add a new Gulf customer to a platform already adopted by 20 nations and operating from 42 bases worldwide, extending an existing global footprint rather than creating a new product line. The next concrete waypoint is formal progression of the Saudi sale through Congress after the 2026 notification, which would turn a proposed package into a contracted backlog line, while for Germany investors can track the first eight F-35 deliveries to Ebbing Air National Guard Base for pilot training beginning this fall. Lockheed Martin, a US aerospace and defense group with a market cap of about $124.2b, designs and builds combat aircraft like the F-35 along with a wide range of military technology systems for governments in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and other regions.

Amgen's updated analyst model lifted its fair value price target to US$388.03 from a prior US$371.93, with the revenue growth assumption rising to 3.50% from 2.93%, the net profit margin assumption moving to 25.15% from 24.84%, the future P/E multiple changing to 25.1x from 24.6x, and the discount rate shifting to 7.96% from 7.70%. The revision reflects a split analyst view, with UBS, Argus, TD Cowen, Scotiabank and Oppenheimer raising their Amgen price targets into a US$420 to US$460 range on the strength of a strong product portfolio, Q2 beats and higher guidance. Wells Fargo and Piper Sandler lifted their targets to US$435, citing external survey work and prescription data they believe support higher long term sales potential for cholesterol and cardiovascular products such as Repatha and Lipfendra. On the bearish side, HSBC downgraded Amgen to Hold and cut its target to US$425 from US$445, saying the stock price now more closely matches its assessment of fair value with limited near term upside, while BMO Capital shifted to a neutral Market Perform stance even with a higher US$450 target, citing ongoing loss of exclusivity headwinds and a need for more clarity on the competitive profile and sales potential of MariTide.

S&P Global announced on September 17, 2026 that it has acquired OpenZeppelin, the industry standard for smart contract security, in a move that extends the ratings firm's risk-assessment mandate into the technology-risk layer of digital assets. OpenZeppelin's libraries underpin over $37 trillion in cumulative transfers and power 8 of the top 10 stablecoins, including USDC, and 10 of the top 10 tokenized money market funds, such as BlackRock's BUIDL and Franklin Templeton's BENJI. OpenZeppelin will operate as a separate business unit led by CEO Demian Brener, who will report directly to Yann Le Pallec, President of S&P Global Ratings. The deal lands on the same day the SEC granted a 5-year exemption for tokenized NMS stock trading, aligning with the broader GENIUS Act framework, and ahead of the DTCC Tokenization Service launch in October 2026. S&P Global is positioning itself as the gatekeeper of the technical standards regulators are expected to require for tokenized markets.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission introduced a provisional, conditional exemption allowing certain tokenized U.S.-listed equities to trade on-chain under specified conditions, while S&P Global agreed to acquire OpenZeppelin, a firm specializing in smart contract security infrastructure. The SEC measure, set out in a "Statement on Innovation Exemptions" signed by Commissioner Mark T. Ueda, guarantees holders of equity tokens the same rights as holders of conventional shares and requires third parties to notify the issuer of the underlying stock in writing before dealing in tokenized shares. According to S&P Global, OpenZeppelin's technology has supported the transfer of more than $37 trillion in value cumulatively, including major stablecoins and tokenized funds. Following these announcements, the market capitalization of DeFi-related tokens rose about $7 billion on Friday, climbing 8.8% to $79.8 billion, while the total market capitalization of the broader crypto market rose 4% to $2.7 trillion. Hyperliquid's HYPE jumped 10.8% to an all-time high of about $90.46, giving it a market capitalization of $20.12 billion; Uniswap's UNI rose 29.1% over 24 hours to about $9.00, for a market capitalization of $5.59 billion; and Aave's AAVE gained 9.5% to about $135.28. Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said the SEC is trying to put in place as much of a crypto regulatory framework as it can under its existing authority, and described tokenization as a massive tide.

The fair value estimate for Palo Alto Networks has been raised from US$336.70 to US$395.38, a roughly 17% increase in the underlying model, after a wave of analyst price target hikes. RBC Capital, Wells Fargo, BofA, Morgan Stanley and Truist lifted their targets into the low to mid US$400s, citing stronger cybersecurity demand as AI usage expands and customers consolidate spending with larger platforms. Goldman Sachs, Oppenheimer, BTIG and Susquehanna pointed to solid Q4 results and guidance, with broad based strength across firewalls, SASE, observability, identity and AI security modules. On the bearish side, Bernstein and Phillip Securities moved to more neutral stances while still raising targets, and Stephens and UBS described the risk or reward as more balanced with shares near peak valuation levels. The updated model trims the revenue growth assumption to about 17.31% from about 19.09% and the net profit margin outlook to about 13.84% from about 14.51%, while the future P/E rises to about 197.87x from about 164.67x and the discount rate adjusts to about 8.60% from 8.40%.

Micron Technology and Intel CEOs cautioned that memory chip shortages and higher prices could persist through 2027, with Micron's leadership indicating on a recent call that supply constraints may only start to ease meaningfully from 2028 onward. Intel's CEO echoed the outlook for extended tightness in DRAM and NAND availability, pointing to heavy AI and data center demand. Micron Technology designs and produces memory and storage hardware used in everything from smartphones and PCs to data centers, so long running tightness in DRAM and NAND supply directly touches the products it sells into these markets. As one of the larger US based chip manufacturers by scale, with a reported market value of about $1.1 trillion, its comments on supply conditions can influence how investors think about capacity planning across the wider semiconductor sector. The clearest test of this read will be how Micron's long term customer agreements and utilization plans look through 2027, especially whether the company keeps reporting high take or pay coverage across its AI oriented memory output as new fabs and its 512GB DDR5 modules move toward volume production in the second half of 2027.

The SEC announced a five-year conditional Innovation Exemption allowing eligible platforms to trade tokenized U.S. equities without standard exchange registration, sending shares of Robinhood up 7.6% and Coinbase up 10.5%. According to Reuters, the temporary framework lets digital asset brokerages and trading platforms support tokenized equity trading while the agency solicits public comments to shape permanent regulatory policies for on-chain securities. Tokenized equities represent traditional corporate shares as digital tokens on a blockchain, potentially enabling 24/7 trading, fractional ownership, and more efficient settlement. The move reduces compliance hurdles and waives full exchange registration requirements for qualifying participants, opening the door for platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood to launch new asset offerings and capture additional trading volume. The rally was further supported by a rebound in the broader cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin trading up roughly 2% near $78,000. Coinbase remains down 17.7% since the start of the year and trades at $194.63 per share, 49.7% below its 52-week high of $387.27 from October 2025.

NASA and Boeing are in talks about using Boeing's Starliner vehicle to handle 10 or more new flights to low-Earth orbit in the coming years, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The Starliner has not flown since summer 2024, when performance problems including failed thrusters that posed safety risks left two astronauts stuck on the International Space Station for months; the astronauts returned to Earth on SpaceX's Crew Dragon vehicle, and the Starliner came back empty. SpaceX's Crew Dragon has been the only certified vehicle to carry NASA astronauts to the space station from the U.S., but SpaceX has stopped making new Dragon ships and has not said publicly when it plans to stop operating the ship. NASA said Friday it awarded SpaceX three additional astronaut missions to the space station using Crew Dragon, flights worth an average of $315M each and running through 2030. Few other options exist for flights to low-Earth orbit: Northrop Grumman has a cargo capsule that flies to the space station for NASA but not a human-rated one, while Russia flies vehicles to the ISS that handle crews and cargo.

Edwards Lifesciences outlined a structural heart growth plan that targets more than US$2 billion in transcatheter mitral and tricuspid revenue by 2030, anchored by its PASCAL, EVOQUE, and Sapien M3 technologies. The plan sits alongside updated Medicare coverage that could enable 100 to 200 additional U.S. centers to perform TAVR procedures, reinforcing the company's transcatheter ecosystem. Edwards' broader narrative projects $8.5 billion in revenue and $2.2 billion in earnings by 2029, requiring 9.3% yearly revenue growth and an earnings increase of about $1.2 billion from $979.9 million today. Three fair value estimates from the Simply Wall St Community cluster between US$91.47 and US$100.96 per share, against a $100.96 fair value that implies 14% upside to the current price. The company still faces risks around margins, tariffs, and competitive pressure in international markets.

Marathon Petroleum shares are up 7.3% after analyst upgrades and an earnings beat, with the stock outperforming both the Oils-Energy sector and the broader market over the past month. The company reported US$52,337 million in revenue and US$5,138 million in net income in its Q2 2026 results, and it is set to discuss its third-quarter results on a now-completed November 3, 2026 conference call. A narrative projection for Marathon Petroleum forecasts $137.9 billion in revenue and $5.2 billion in earnings by 2029, implying revenue declining by 3.6% per year and an earnings decrease of $3.3 billion from $8.5 billion today. That forecast yields a $324.56 fair value, a 24% downside to the current price, while some of the most optimistic analysts had once assumed revenue could reach about US$198.8 billion and earnings US$7.6 billion. The recent analyst upgrades and share price outperformance highlight earnings momentum as the key short-term catalyst, though they do not materially change the core risk that future demand for refined products could structurally weaken over time.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman plans to address the United Nations Security Council next week in New York City during the U.N. General Assembly, according to Reuters. The Security Council is slated to meet on Wednesday, Sept. 23, and an OpenAI spokesperson said Altman will brief the open meeting in person, with remarks expected to focus on the steps OpenAI is taking to ensure AI is safe and benefits people globally, along with the need for international coordination and shared safety standards. The meeting comes as AI company executives call for a deliberate pacing of AI model development due to its ever-increasing capabilities, particularly in cybersecurity. The U.N. Security Council first addressed the potential risks of AI during a 2023 meeting. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei introduced a strategy on September 12 calling for embedded evaluators, democratic coordination and global coordination to address the risks, and it was announced today that Anthropic will embed evaluators through a new partnership with Accenture.

IREN's fair value estimate has been trimmed from US$80.93 to US$79.03, a modest adjustment reflecting a mix of growing AI cloud contracts and ongoing questions around execution and supply build out through 2027. The revision lifts revenue growth assumptions to 168.01% from 125.79% and net profit margin expectations to 11.73% from 5.79%, while the future P/E assumption drops to 31.26x from 90.29x and the discount rate rises to 9.41% from 8.83%. On the bullish side, JPMorgan shifted IREN from Underweight to Overweight with a US$65 price target, citing a partnership with Nvidia, new customer signings and higher industry pricing, while H.C. Wainwright raised its target to US$90 after IREN announced US$2.8b of new multi year AI cloud contracts and lifted its 2026 AI cloud annual recurring revenue target to more than US$4b. Northland initiated IREN at Outperform with a US$99 price target, and Freedom Capital upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy. Freedom Capital nonetheless flagged execution on supply additions over the next two years as a central risk, noting the story depends heavily on adding capacity on schedule.

Strategy Inc. shares climbed just over 16% on Friday, rising $21.67 to close at $153.92, as crypto-related stocks broadly advanced after the SEC approved a temporary "Innovation Exemption" allowing certain venues and liquidity providers to facilitate trading in tokenized U.S.-listed stocks. The move followed two weeks of choppy trading for the stock, which operates as both a Bitcoin Treasury Company and an enterprise analytics software provider. Strategy holds approximately 845,050 Bitcoin as a treasury reserve, financed through equity, debt, and preferred securities. Volume reached 53.9 million shares, roughly 1.96 times the one-month average, and the stock's one-month return stands at 35.39%.

CFRA Research expects Apple to sell essentially every foldable iPhone Duo it can produce, with the device potentially accounting for 5 to 8 percent of iPhone units and more than 10 percent of iPhone revenue. The iPhone 18 Pro hit store shelves on Friday, a full month before the foldable iPhone Duo's release in late October. CFRA senior vice president and equity analyst Angelo Zino said the firm initially forecast the Duo at about 4 to 5 percent of iPhone volume, but now sees potential for that figure to be higher, closer to 5 to 8 percent of units, with pricing pushing its revenue contribution north of 10 percent. Zino said the key question is how supply constrained the device will be, and called early indications for the Pro devices a pretty solid start to the iPhone 18 cycle. He added that the cycle could have longer legs because Apple is pushing out its base devices into the March quarter, helping sustain momentum into the March and June quarters, while China demand for foldables remains a variable to watch.

Mastercard rolled out a payment option Thursday that lets cardholders give an AI agent a virtual card to buy things online without checking in before each purchase, with limits on spending, retailers, or required approval before checkout. Rival Visa partnered with Alchemy earlier this year and has announced its own AI shopping and payment product, Visa Intelligent Commerce, which the company says is still being deployed, while Meta's Muse can search for products and navigate checkout but presents the purchase for the user's final approval. Phil Bruno, chief strategy and growth officer at payments company ACI Worldwide, called it "a land grab for infrastructure standards," saying that if card companies set the standards for agentic commerce they can keep the commerce in their environments for decades to come. Consumer appetite lags the infrastructure push: just 7% of U.S. and U.K. consumers surveyed who buy fashion items said they would allow an AI assistant to make purchases without approval under predefined conditions, according to research commissioned by ACI Worldwide, and more than half said they were uncomfortable allowing AI to purchase on their behalf. Mastercard has developed a digital paper trail called Verifiable Intent to record who authorized the agent to shop and what it was authorized to buy, but when asked who would be responsible if an agent made an incorrect, fraudulent, or unauthorized purchase, Mastercard pointed back to Verifiable Intent and did not specify who would ultimately be responsible if an agent bought something outside those instructions.

Nscale, the London-based AI data center developer backed by Nvidia and Microsoft, filed publicly for an initial public offering in New York, seeking to raise as much as $3 billion. The company reported a net loss of $1.02 billion on revenue of $140.6 million for the six months ended June 30, compared with a net loss of $368.9 million on revenue of $10.4 million a year earlier, according to its Friday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Spun off from a cryptocurrency mining operation in early 2024, Nscale was valued at about $14.6 billion in a March Series C round led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries, with Nvidia and Nokia Oyj also participating. The company has agreed to add more than 30,000 Nvidia chips to an existing rental agreement with Microsoft at its Narvik, Norway gigafactory, and Anthropic has agreed to spend $45 billion to rent AI cloud computing power from its flagship West Virginia data center development. The offering is being led by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, with shares expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NSCL.

Bristol Myers Squibb announced positive two-year results from the late-stage POETYK PsA-2 study of Sotyktu, or deucravacitinib, including its open-label extension. Among patients entering the extension, clinical responses improved from week 16 through week 52 and were sustained through week 104, with robust results across ACR20/50/70 and Minimal Disease Activity in both continuous Sotyktu patients and those who switched from placebo at week 16. The safety profile remained consistent through week 104 with no new safety signals; adverse events occurred in 86.6% of 604 patients exposed to Sotyktu, while serious adverse events and discontinuations due to adverse events were reported in 12.6% and 7.6% of patients, respectively. Sotyktu, an oral selective tyrosine kinase 2 inhibitor approved in the United States and numerous other countries for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis and active psoriatic arthritis, generated $156 million in first-half 2026 revenues, up 24% year over year. Data from the POETYK SLE-1 and SLE-2 studies in systemic lupus erythematosus are expected later in 2026, while Amgen's Otezla and Takeda's investigational zasocitinib, whose new drug application the FDA recently accepted for plaque psoriasis, remain competitive threats.

Intel and SK Hynix are exploring partnership opportunities to manufacture memory chips in the United States, reportedly centered on Intel's long-delayed Ohio manufacturing complex, with possibilities ranging from SK Hynix leasing capacity to a broader joint venture involving cloud companies. No formal partnership has been announced, and SK Hynix stressed that no specific plans or arrangements have been finalized. Since reports of the potential partnership surfaced Wednesday, Intel shares have surged roughly 10%, while SK Hynix has climbed about 5%; SK Hynix stock has risen 20% since its U.S. Nasdaq debut in July, while Intel is up about 4% over the same period. Intel's turnaround is gaining traction independently, with Q2 revenue jumping 25% year over year to $16.1 billion, Data Center and AI revenue surging 59% to $6.3 billion, Intel Foundry revenue up 31%, and management guiding Q3 sales to $15.8-$16.8 billion, while the Zacks Consensus calls for fiscal 2026 revenue to rise nearly 18% and FY26 EPS to soar to $1.50 from $0.42 per share last year. SK Hynix reported record Q2 performance amid robust AI demand, began mass shipments of HBM4 with production expected to ramp through the second half of the year, and shipped samples of HBM4E, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate calls for FY26 revenue to soar over 250% to $240.09 billion and EPS to jump more than 500% to $25.69. Despite its AI-memory leadership, SK Hynix trades at a forward P/E multiple of 7X, while Intel trades at more than 100X forward earnings; SK Hynix carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), while Intel holds a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Costco is expanding its same-day delivery network through new and broadened partnerships with DoorDash and Uber as it looks to grow e-commerce sales and compete with retailers like Walmart and Target. DoorDash announced that Costco members can now order groceries, dry goods, household essentials and other products through the DoorDash app for fast delivery from their local store, extending an existing relationship between the companies in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Iceland and Puerto Rico. Uber announced a major expansion of its Costco partnership to deliver products in 47 states, up from 17 states, with nearly 600 Costco locations now available on the Uber Eats app for on-demand and scheduled delivery. Costco is also available on Uber Eats in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, France and Spain. The expansion of food and grocery delivery platforms into retail delivery underscores the rapid evolution of the parcel delivery market, where online sales now represent 16.5% of total retail sales and are growing at about 10% per year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, while alternative carriers now make up about 8.5% of the parcel freight market, up from 2.6% of parcel volume in 2021, according to The Colography Group.

Nvidia, Google and Emerald AI have launched the AI Energy Management Alliance, or AEMA, a coalition that dynamically manages the electricity use of data centers in response to grid conditions. Emerald AI founder and CEO Varun Sivaram said the alliance's founding members are joined by a cohort of 20 launch partners, including the AI lab Anthropic, the semiconductor firm Analog Devices, and the energy companies AES, NRG, Constellation, RWE and National Grid. Sivaram said Emerald AI, which was founded under two years ago, is building with Nvidia and Digital Realty the world's first from-the-ground-up power-flexible AI data center, a 100 megawatt facility in Manassas, Virginia, that comes online later this year. He said Google, one of the founding members, has already done a gigawatt of demand response for its data centers, while Emerald and Nvidia have completed six demonstrations around the world, in London, Phoenix and Virginia. Sivaram said the alliance is talking to the FERC commissioners, state regulators and the administration about a grand bargain in which flexible AI data centers act as good citizens to grids and communities in return for faster and larger connections to the power grid.

Micron Technology shares rose about 1.3% to $990.14 Friday morning after Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said memory prices have surged fivefold to sevenfold and that supply constraints will persist into next year. Tan's comments reinforce the tight memory market now driving Micron's profitability, with the company's latest reported quarter delivering an 84.6% GAAP gross margin and management guiding the following quarter to roughly 86%. At $990.14, Micron trades 54.71% above its $640 GuruFocus GF Value, a premium that raises the bar for the company to convert the pricing windfall into durable cash flows before supply eventually catches up.

CleanSpark Inc.'s debut junk-bond offering for a data center tied to Meta Platforms Inc. drew orders of about $10 billion, more than four times the deal's size, according to people familiar with the matter. The five-year notes were set at almost $2.28 billion and launched at 98.5 cents on the dollar to yield 8.25%, roughly 1.75 percentage points above the average for BB rated firms tracked by Bloomberg. The fundraising, led by Morgan Stanley, will help finance construction of a data center in Sandersville, Georgia, that has been fully leased to Anviran LLC, a Meta subsidiary, under a $6.6 billion, 20-year contract. The facility is expected to begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2027, with Meta guaranteeing rent and operating expenses. Data center developers have now sold more than $3 billion of high-yield bonds so far this year, most backed by long-term leases with hyperscalers including Oracle Corp. and Amazon.com Inc.

Snap introduced its SPECS Intelligence AI service alongside expanded real-world trials of its SPECS AR glasses in September 2026. The launch includes enterprise-focused deployments with partners such as Salesforce, Amazon Web Services and NVIDIA targeting industrial, retail and field use cases. Snap is highlighting a privacy-first architecture for SPECS Intelligence AI, limiting data usage for AI training and personalized advertising. The SPECS Intelligence AI rollout and broader AR glasses push are part of a wider shift in how Snap structures its consumer and enterprise ecosystem, extending its technology into real-world use cases across North America, Europe and other regions. The company's AR narrative hinges on whether an expanding AR ecosystem and new services can turn a social app reliant on ads into a broader computing platform with higher-margin revenue.

Apple Inc. has released its first foldable phone, the Duo, priced at $1,999 in the United States, marking the most significant design change to an iPhone in recent years. The device features a 7.6-inch inner display, a 5.4-inch outer screen, the company's A20 Pro chip, a custom hinge, and a titanium build, and it was the first major product launch for new CEO John Ternus, who called it "the most transformational change to iPhone since the original." Apple is billing the Duo as a hybrid of smartphone portability and tablet-like productivity with a Split View that lets users open two apps at a time. Industry analysts expect Apple to capture a significant share of the niche foldable market, with TrendForce projecting 25% market share in its debut year and IDC projecting 40% by the end of 2027. However, the lofty price, entrenched competition from Samsung and Huawei, and Apple's lack of AI development could prevent the Duo from becoming the company's next growth engine.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has cleared a path for tokenized US stocks, bringing the market closer to 24/7 trading under a five-year innovation exemption that lets eligible platforms trade tokenized US equities through blockchain-based liquidity pools. No platform has been individually approved, and the framework is not yet operational, though trading could start as soon as 30 days out. The exemption covers secondary trading only, not IPOs or issuance of new shares, and tokens must be tied to existing publicly traded equities rather than price trackers, with holders receiving the same economic interest, dividends, voting rights, liquidation rights and shareholder communications as conventional shareholders. Issuing companies get a veto: if an unaffiliated third party such as an exchange wants to tokenize a company's stock, the company receives 30 days to object. Smart contracts must be public and auditable on a public permissionless blockchain, not walled-garden private chains, while traders and wallets are verified and whitelisted for sanctions and AML compliance, and tokenized stocks can trade in crypto-style pairs, including tokenized stock against tokenized stock, a permitted stablecoin, another non-security crypto asset, or tokenized money market funds. The deliberately small pilot has multiple tiers: for the largest Tier one stocks each venue is limited to 75 symbols and 0.25% of each stock's prior month average daily volume, Tier two allows 250 symbols and 2.5% of volume, and repeatedly exceeding a limit triggers a three-month trading pause in that stock. Around-the-clock trading and self-custody are possible but not guaranteed and will be up to the exchange, and the relief exempts only two narrow requirements: venues from registering as conventional exchanges, and qualifying AMM liquidity providers from dealer registration and anti-fraud and market manipulation rules.

Eli Lilly and Company announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted full approval to Inluriyo, or imlunestrant, in combination with Verzenio, or abemaciclib, for adults with ER-positive, HER2-negative, ESR1-mutated locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer whose disease progressed after at least one line of endocrine therapy. The decision rests on the Phase 3 EMBER-3 trial, in which the combination doubled median progression-free survival versus Inluriyo alone, at 11.1 months versus 5.5 months, with a hazard ratio of 0.53 and a 95% confidence interval of 0.35 to 0.80, among the 159 patients with ESR1-mutated metastatic breast cancer. In that trial, 92 patients received Inluriyo alone and 67 received the combination after an aromatase inhibitor, with or without a CDK4/6 inhibitor, in either the adjuvant or metastatic setting. The approval marks the second FDA clearance for Inluriyo in less than a year, following its September 2025 monotherapy approval for the same ER-positive, HER2-negative, ESR1-mutated metastatic population. Inluriyo is also being studied in the Phase 3 EMBER-4 trial in the adjuvant setting for ER-positive, HER2-negative early-stage breast cancer, the largest adjuvant oral SERD trial with more than 8,000 patients enrolled across 650-plus sites in more than 30 countries, with initial results anticipated in 2027. The combination is now available in the United States.

Palantir Technologies' commercial revenue surged 110% to $945 million in the second quarter of 2026, more than doubling the $451 million recorded a year earlier. The commercial segment added $494 million year over year, expanding by more than its entire year-earlier base, while government revenue rose 79% to $990 million from $553 million. Combined, the two businesses generated $1.94 billion in second-quarter 2026 revenue, up from roughly $1 billion a year earlier, with commercial operations contributing more than half of the combined year-over-year increase and narrowing the gap with government revenue to just $45 million. Among peers, C3.ai reported fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 revenue of $51.6 million, down substantially year over year, and forecast fiscal 2027 revenue of $210-$240 million, while Datadog's second-quarter 2026 revenue rose 36% to $1.12 billion, with customers contributing at least $100,000 in ARR up 23% to roughly 4,720 and free cash flow of $279 million. Palantir shares have gained 37% over the past three months against 19% industry growth, and the stock trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 39.96X versus an industry average of 4.2X, carrying a Value Score of F and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Goldman Sachs now expects the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates by a quarter percentage point at its October 27-28 meeting, an abrupt pivot from just days ago. Chief Economist David Mericle said in a note obtained by TheStreet that the revised forecast follows the Fed's unanimous 12-0 decision on Sept. 16, which lifted the benchmark Federal Funds Rate to a range of 3.75% to 4%. The quarterly dot plot released the same day showed a median year-end funds rate of 3.6%, consistent with one additional 25-basis-point hike from the current midpoint, with sixteen of 18 participating policymakers anticipating at least one more increase this year. Goldman called the meeting more hawkish than expected, citing the 16-2 majority projecting at least one more hike, a median neutral rate dot that rose from 3.06% to 3.25%, and Chairman Kevin Warsh describing the move three times as having removed a dose of accommodation. Goldman kept its terminal rate forecast unchanged at 3.25-3.5%, while the CME Group FedWatch Tool puts the odds of another quarter-point hike on Oct. 28 at 53.1% and at least one additional hike by Dec. 9 at 87.5%.