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Tech and energy fuel positive start to the week for US stocks

US stocks enjoyed a positive start to the week, shaking off early losses to finish near their highs of the day. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.7%, and the Russell 2000 went up 0.2%.

The S&P 500’s rally came despite decliners outnumbering advancers by 22.

Energy was the best-performing S&P 500 sector ETF despite another production increase from OPEC+, while tech also put in a solid gain. Industrials was the lone sector to finish in the red.

Meta surged, while ad agencies fell, on the social media giant’s plan to launch an AI ad-creation tool.

US steel giants Nucor and Steel Dynamics surged double digits, leading S&P 500 gainers after President Trump said he would double tariffs on steel and aluminum imports beginning this Wednesday. On the flip side…

Detroit automakers Ford and GM both fell about 4% on the news and additional comments from the president that he wanted automakers to move full production to the US.

Advertising firms Omnicom, Interpublic, and WPP dipped over 2% on reports that Meta hopes to launch a tool that will use AI to create ad campaigns by the end of next year.

DraftKings shares dropped 6% and FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment slipped nearly 3% after Illinois quietly passed a new budget over the weekend that tacks on steep new fees for high-volume sportsbook operators.

Shares of Tempus AI, an unprofitable vendor of cancer screening tests that also licenses data for use in drug discovery, soared 15%, erasing much of the loss it suffered after a short seller released a searing analysis of the stock last week.

Applied Digital soared 48% while CoreWeave jumped 8% after the former announced a pair of 15-year deals between the two tech companies to support the latter’s AI capabilities.

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Luke Kawa

Opendoor surges on bullish options bets as traders look to potential real estate tokenization

Opendoor Technologies is surging on Friday amid bullish options bets and social media posts referencing unconfirmed rumors about the company.

The stock moved higher in the premarket session after the soft inflation report boosted stocks and briefly pushed long-term bond yields lower (positive for a real estate company). But the real gains came after the opening bell rang and options demand picked up.

As of 12:11 p.m. ET, roughly 664,000 call options have changed hands versus a 10-day average of about 364,000 for a full session.

What seems to be galvanizing members of the “$OPEN Army” is the potential for the company to pursue the tokenization of real-world assets, with Robinhood often bandied about as a potential partner in this endeavor.

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

Opendoor bulls have often pointed to signs that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev appears to be fond of the company, from what appeared on-screen during a demo of a social trading feature at HOOD’s conference in Las Vegas in September to offering support to Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian in setting up an opportunity for retail shareholders to ask questions during the online real estate company’s next earnings call.

Opendoor is currently in a quiet period ahead of earnings, which restricts what type of announcements a company can make.

The call options seeing the most demand expire this Friday with strike prices of $8, $8.50, and $9.

Intel Earnings Researchers

Wall Street analysts see some issues with Intel’s earnings

Even with the US government as a partial owner, Intel’s turnaround has a long way to go.

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Luke Kawa

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.”

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