Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🤖 Investors’ AI fears intensify
• 🏀 New WNBA champion
• 🐄 Cow tipping is a myth

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.77-minute read (1,003 words).

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“Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.”

–Samuel Butler (1835-1902)

Wall Street's AI enthusiasm took a hit last week after mixed earnings reports from major tech companies raised fresh concerns about the enormous sums being poured into the technology.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.9% Friday, its worst day since June, and closed out its weakest month in more than a year.

The week didn’t start out that way...Investors initially received reason for optimism as news of Anthropic's soaring revenue and potential IPO briefly revived excitement about the company's growth, as well as the prospect of more blockbuster AI stock-market debuts like OpenAI.

But that enthusiasm faded as a series of disappointing developments later in the week rattled investors:

• Alphabet shares plunged 13% on Thursday after Google's parent company reported slowing growth in its core search-advertising business, fueling concerns about the impact of AI-powered search.
• Amazon reported weaker-than-expected revenue and declining free cash flow after the closing bell Thursday. The news sent its stock temporarily down ~7% amid concerns about the financial pressure of its massive AI infrastructure investments, despite strong profits.
• Intel warned that rising memory-chip prices, driven partly by AI demand, could prolong a slowdown in PC sales, sending the tech giant’s shares down 29% Friday in their worst one-day performance on record.

The selloff spread across the tech sector Friday, dragging down Amazon, Alphabet, Nvidia, and Microsoft alongside chipmakers and companies building AI data centers.

Wall Street takes out an insurance policy

The mounting uncertainty has investors increasingly seeking protection against losses on their AI investments, fueling demand for financial contracts that can pay off when share prices fall or companies default on their debt.

• Investors have been buying put options tied to AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave, giving them the right to sell shares at a set price if the stock declines.
• Some traders are also developing contracts that would protect against falling rental rates for AI computing power, a potential risk for companies that have invested heavily in chips and data centers.

At the same time, the cost of insuring debt issued by Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Oracle against default has climbed over the past month to its highest level since 2021.

Zoom out: Despite the growing appetite for financial protection, companies are also beginning to report measurable returns from AI investments.

Meta recently credited AI with additional advertising revenue, while Google Cloud's quarterly revenue more than doubled to ~$31 billion, highlighting continued demand for AI infrastructure.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, is the US economy currently in an AI bubble that will “pop” in the near future?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🪙 Binance says $6.3 billion in crypto was stolen in what’s believed to be the largest hack in history, with the crypto exchange pledging to make owners whole using company funds; FBI identifies North Korean hacking group “TraderTraitor” as the culprit.
• 🛢️ OPEC+ oil-producing countries keep December production targets steady amid export disruptions from the Iran war.
• 🌐 Data center executive with close ties to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is suspected of being a Chinese intelligence source by officials from the US, Singapore, and Taiwan, per multiple reports.

SPORTS, MEDIA, & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 CFB: USC upset #2 Ohio St., #3 Georgia beat #17 Florida, and #13 Texas Tech beat #22 Arizona. | NFL Week 8: A full recap of the action.
• 🏀🏆 Golden State Valkyries earn first WNBA championship in just the second year of the franchise, beating the Atlanta Dream 69-63 in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals on Saturday.
• 🍿 You Can See Everything ($10.6 million) narrowly beats out DC Comics’ Clayface ($10.4 million) in its third weekend at the domestic box office.

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SCIENCE, SPACE, & EMERGING TECH

• ☄️ Martian meteorite discovered in the Sahara Desert in 2022 formed at least 4.1 billion years ago, making it likely the oldest of 435 meteorites from Mars known on Earth, new study finds.
• 🥜 Eating peanuts daily (~2 servings, unsalted skin-roasted) can help support brain health and memory in older adults, per new research.
• 🧑‍🚀 NASA volunteer crew of four people has finally exited a 3D-printed Mars simulation after living there for the past year-plus uninterrupted.

US, WORLD, & POLITICS

• 🌧️ Heavy rains are expected to continue across the US Southwest through today, bringing threats of flash flooding to Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.
• 🗳️ Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens (D) endorses Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers over Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, whom she lost to in the primary, following days of rising tension with El-Sayed and his campaign.
• 🧑‍⚖️ Federal judge dismisses DOJ lawsuit seeking to delay certification of Alaska’s Senate election due to potential voter confusion from having two candidates named Dan Sullivan on the ballot (including the Republican incumbent).

☝️ NYC Marathon: Andreas Almgren of Sweden won his first crown in NYC with a 2:06.41 on the men’s side, with Italy's Yemaneberhan Crippa finishing just 0.13 seconds behind. On the women’s side, Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya won the event for a second time, with runner up Jessica McClain becoming the first American woman to make the NYC podium since 2018.

🤔 Did you know? Cow tipping as it’s popularly imagined—where one person puts a hard shoulder into a cow taking a standing snooze and tips them over—is an urban legend that doesn’t actually exist. Cows don’t sleep on their feet; and even if they did, estimates suggest it would take 3-6 people to tip over the ~1,500-pound animal.

📰 Worth a read: The surf communities selling man-made waves to homeowners.

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• Why you feel awful when clocks go back—and how to fix it
• Are sharks really older than trees?
• 5 simple ways to get a word in when someone won’t stop talking

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On Friday, we covered an October surprise in Alaska’s Senate race, where strategists linked to Democrat Mary Peltola reportedly recruited a candidate sharing Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan’s name to potentially divert votes from him, per a NYT investigation.

❓ Our question to you: Which best describes your opinion of Democratic strategists running a candidate with the same name as the GOP incumbent in Alaska’s Senate race?

• Deceptive election manipulation: 52%
• Fair-play political gamesmanship: 35%
• Unsure/other: 13%

Read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 538 votes and 58 longform responses.

Monday: Apple, Palantir report earnings; Monday Night Football: Bears v. Seahawks

Tuesday: Election Day; JOLTS labor report for September; AMD reports earnings

Wednesday: ADP’s private-sector jobs report for October; Stick Season 2 debuts on Apple TV

Thursday: Guy Fawkes Night; National Chinese Takeout Day

Friday: October jobs report; The Cat in the Hat and Godzilla Minus Zero hit theaters; Alanis Morissette drops first holiday album: Good Weather for Immaculate Conception

Guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words:

1. Hydr
2. Dyna
3. Brev
4. Lev
5. Omni

(keep scrolling for the answer)

🎈 Pilot Jonathan Trappe recently took to the skies in a flying gondola suspended by ~100 helium balloons. Jonathan floated for almost 24 hours with no burner, steering, or set destination before landing in Arizona.

1. Hydr = Water (e.g., hydration)
2. Dyna = Power (dynamic)
3. Brev = Short (brevity)
4. Lev = Lift (levitate)
5. Omni = All (omnipotent)

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