AMC tumbles after debt-for-equity swap

AMC is tanking this morning after reaching a debt-for-equity swap and settling litigation with some of its creditors.

As part of these agreements, the theater chain is turning $143 million in notes due 2030 into stock, and could “equitize” an additional $194 million of that offering in the future.

What’s bad news for shareholders is good news for debt holders.

“AMC appears on the cusp of an improved credit profile,” Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Credit Analyst Stephen Flynn wrote.

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J. Edward Moreno4m

Grindr discloses buyout proposal at $18 per share

Grindr soared on Friday after it disclosed a take-private proposal that would value the company at $18 per share.

James Lu and Raymond Zage, who together already own more than 60% of the gay dating app, proposed to buy the remaining shares of the company and delist it from the New York Stock Exchange. The premium would be more than 50% from where the stock was trading before Semafor’s report. Shares closed at $12.67 on Thursday.

Rumblings of the deal were first reported by Semafor earlier this month. As it reported, Zage and Lu had pledged nearly all of their Grindr stock for personal loans. The loans became undercollateralized following the stock’s recent slide, which led their lender to seize and sell some of their shares in Grindr.

Luke Kawa1h

Beyond Meat gains amid slightly better-than-expected Q3 sales, positive commentary on legal issues

Shares of Beyond Meat built on their premarket gains after the plant-based meat seller reported preliminary Q3 sales a bit ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, before paring this advance after the market opened.

For the three months ended September 27, management said net revenue would be approximately $70 million. That’s in line with their guidance range of $68 million to $73 million, but Wall Street was expecting sales to skew toward the lower end of that range, at $68.7 million.

However, its anticipated gross margin of 10% to 11% is lower than analysts had been expecting (13.8%). That’s still the case even adjusting for expenses related to its downsizing of operations in China, which would have left margins around 12% to 13%, per Beyond.

Perhaps more importantly, the company provided positive commentary regarding arbitration discussions with a former co-manufacturer that appear to bring it closer to a resolution while limiting potential damages:

“As previously disclosed, in March 2024, a former co-manufacturer brought an action against the Company in a confidential arbitration proceeding claiming that the Company inappropriately terminated its agreement with the co-manufacturer and claimed damages of at least $73.0 million. On September 15, 2025, the arbitrator issued an interim award (the ‘Interim Award’) and found that the Company had a valid basis to terminate the agreement with the Manufacturer. The details of the Interim Award are confidential, and a final arbitration award has not been issued. Additional proceedings will be held to determine the award of attorneys’ fees, prejudgment interest and costs, if any, before a final arbitration award will be issued. On September 25, 2025, the Manufacturer filed a request with the arbitrator to re-open the arbitration hearing. On September 29, 2025, the Company opposed this request. On October 20, 2025, the arbitrator denied the Manufacturer’s request.”

Luke Kawa2h

Softer inflation means higher conviction in Fed easing, per prediction markets

A cooler-than-expected inflation report is fueling more confidence in additional Federal Reserve easing through year-end.

CPI rose 0.3% month on month in September, while its core measure of inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2%. Both increases were a tick less than economists polled by Bloomberg had anticipated.

Market-implied odds derived from event contracts offered on Robinhood show that the probability of the US central bank delivering exactly three cuts this year rose to as high as 85% in the minutes following the release, up from 77% beforehand.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

The Federal Reserve reduced its policy rate by 25 basis points in September to a range of 4% to 4.25%. It meets again next week and its final rate decision for 2025 is scheduled for December 10.

The central bank’s most recent “dot plot” showed that the median official thought 75 basis points of easing (or three 25-basis point rate cuts) would be appropriate for 2025 if the economy evolved in line with their expectations.

Stocks rose in the minutes after the CPI print, with the SPDR S&P 500 Trust gaining 0.3%, as of 8:50 a.m. ET, leaving it 0.6% higher than it closed last night.

Max Knoblauch2h

Alaska Air drops after Q3 profit missed expectations and an IT outage grounded its flights across the US

A bad news twofer is driving Alaska Airlines lower in premarket trading Friday, following the airline’s Q3 earnings report after the close on Thursday.

Alaska Air posted adjusted diluted earnings of $1.05 per share, below Wall Street’s expectation of $1.09.

Last month, ALK warned that elevated fuel costs and factors like weather and air traffic control issues would put its results toward the lower end of its EPS guidance. At the time, analysts had been expecting the carrier to post earnings of $1.35 per share. In its report, Alaska Air posted $3.62 billion in operating expenses, up 32% from last year.

The airline did beat on revenue, reporting $3.77 billion in sales in the quarter, representing a 23% jump from the same period last year.

Adding to negative sentiment around the stock was a tech outage that grounded Alaska’s flights across the US for several hours on Thursday, leading to 229 cancellations. The outage forced the airline to postpone its earnings call.

Luke Kawa2h

Upstart data center and AI energy stocks rise as Trump administration reportedly pushes for data centers to access power faster

The Trump administration is urging regulators to speed up the approval process that allows for data centers to connect to the power grid, per a Bloomberg report published late Thursday evening.

Citing a proposed rule draft that US Energy Secretary Christopher Wright sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the administration is looking to limit these reviews to 60 days. At present, such reviews can stretch on for years. “Data centers could win a speedy review if they include new power plants or agree to curtail usage in response to regional grid strain during high-demand periods such as heatwaves,” per the report.

Simply, the more roadblocks are removed from data centers being in operation, the faster a supply-constrained AI boom can realize demand. As such, adopting such a proposal could be a boon for the entire ecosystem, from data center upstarts to the fledgling power providers looking to meet the growing demand for power.

Data center companies IREN and Cipher Mining are up big in premarket trading, as are nuclear energy company Oklo and fuel cell company Bloom Energy.

Other companies identified with the AI power trade were also getting a lift, including Constellation Energy, Talen Energy, turbine-maker GE Vernova, and AI infrastructure company Vistra.

Caveat: these are volatile stocks, and it’s very unclear whether this report is the catalyst for their early gains — but it certainly stands to reason that it would!

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