Welcome to Staten News — where every market this week punished the premium and asked what it was actually paying for.

ServiceNow lost a quarter of its value over a two-cent miss. The 30th Celebration Night box lost $65 before it shipped. Apple is betting people will pay $400 extra for a screen anyway. Same question in three markets: what is the premium really worth?

📊 Finance

• The S&P 500 slipped 0.57% to 7,580.07 last week, while the Russell 2000 gained 1.29% and the equal-weight S&P notched its fourth straight up week.

• ServiceNow fell 33.9% on the week, including 26.9% on Thursday, after a $1.00 EPS miss and a guide for backlog growth to slow from 21% to 18.5%.

• Fortinet and Intel each dropped about 24%, with Intel guiding Q4 revenue to $15 to $16 billion and a foundry loss near $1.9 billion.

• Regeneron gained 15.3% after revenue jumped 36% to $5.1 billion and EPS hit $20.07 against roughly $16.19 expected.

• Our predicted gainer this week is AMD, which reports Tuesday with the Street expecting $13.1 billion in revenue.

• Our predicted loser is Palantir, reporting tonight at $184.11 after a 29.4% pop last quarter left almost no room for a soft number.

• Friday's jobs report is expected around 55,000 jobs, with Fed hawk Beth Hammack speaking Thursday.

Full story: ServiceNow Lost a Third of Its Value in a Week

🏈 Sports

• Lamar Jackson's return lasted one snap before a thumb injury, and NFL.com reports he's headed to injured reserve.

• Buffalo crushed Baltimore 36-10, outgaining the Ravens 433 to 138, and Josh Allen passed Jim Kelly for the franchise touchdown record.

• Joe Burrow threw for 426 yards and five touchdowns, plus three picks to Amani Hooker, then won it 43-36 in overtime on his own scramble.

• Denver beat Kansas City 28-24 behind Bo Nix to move to 6-2 in the AFC West.

• The Eagles lost 27-10 in Washington, their sixth straight loss, and fell to 2-6.

• The Brewers won the World Series in five games over Tampa Bay, the first title in franchise history, with William Contreras named MVP.

• Bears at Seahawks closes Week 8 tonight, with Seattle favored by 3.

Full story: The Ravens Got Lamar Back for One Snap

💻 Tech

• Apple's first touchscreen MacBook Pro, with an OLED PROLED XDR display, hits stores Friday, November 6.

• Every touch model costs exactly $400 more than its non-touch version, starting at $2,899 for the 14-inch M5 Pro.

• The touch models use last generation's M5 Pro and M5 Max, even though Apple put a new M6 in the base MacBook Pro the same week.

• Apple reports tonight, with consensus around $1.98 EPS on $113.27 billion, and the December-quarter margin guide is the number to watch.

• Meta grew its equity raise to as much as $97.5 billion, the largest ever, to fund AI data centers.

• Nvidia committed $3 billion and AMD $1 billion to buy Meta stock, the same suppliers selling Meta its chips.

• Meta burned $2.12 billion in free cash flow last quarter, its first negative quarter in more than a decade.

Full story: The Touchscreen MacBook Ships Friday

🃏 TCG

• The 30th Celebration Ultra-Premium Collection [Night] fell 11.4% since Friday, from $575.44 to $510.03 on TCGplayer.

• The Night vs. Day gap collapsed from about $41 to $14.31, a sign the market sees the two promos as nearly interchangeable.

• The UPC [Day] slipped below $500 to $495.72, and it's our predicted loser into release week.

• The Mew Figure Collection was the only 30th Celebration product to rise, up 2.9% to $171.24, while Mewtwo dropped to $151.00.

• The regular Delta Reign ETB ticked up to $105.84 and is our predicted gainer heading into Friday.

• Delta Reign and the 30th Celebration wave both release Friday, November 6, with the Build & Battle Box at wide retail November 20.

Full story: The 30th Celebration Night Box Lost $65 Before Anyone Opened One

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research.

Stay sharp. Signal over noise. — The Bandicoots 🔥

Welcome to Staten News — where the presale chart blinked first and the Night promo stopped being special.

On Friday the 30th Celebration Ultra-Premium Collection [Night] traded at $575.44 on TCGplayer. This morning it's $510.03.

That's $65 gone in one weekend, four days before a single box ships. Nobody pulled anything bad. Nobody graded anything soft. The market just changed its mind.

📉 Last Week's Biggest Loser: 30th Celebration UPC [Night], down 11.4%

Here's the full comparison from our Friday presale snapshot to today's TCGplayer market prices (via our Staten Deals release tracker, November 2):

• UPC [Night]: $575.44 to $510.03 (down 11.4%)

• UPC [Day]: $533.97 to $495.72 (down 7.2%)

• Figure Collection [Mewtwo]: $157.95 to $151.00 (down 4.4%)

• Classic Collection Pack: $293.68 to $282.96 (down 3.7%)

• Delta Reign Build & Battle Box: $51.37 to $49.99 (down 2.7%)

• Ditto Premium Collection: $191.89 to $190.63 (down 0.7%)

On Friday we said the Night vs. Day gap was the number to watch. It was about $41. Today it's $14.31.

That gap closing is the market telling you it now sees the two promos as roughly interchangeable. When the premium version sheds more than the base version, early buyers paid for a story, and the story is getting repriced. The Day box also slipped under $500, which is a psychological line for a product this size.

That's not a crash. That's presale air coming out before real supply shows up.

📈 Last Week's Biggest Gainer: Figure Collection [Mew], up 2.9%

Only one 30th Celebration product went up. The Mew Figure Collection moved from $166.48 to $171.24.

Its twin went the other way. Mewtwo dropped to $151.00, so the Mew-over-Mewtwo spread widened from about $8.50 to $20.24 in a weekend. Same product line, same release date, same format. Collectors are picking a side, and it's the pink one.

The Delta Reign regular Elite Trainer Box also ticked up, from $104.98 to $105.84. Small move. But it's the only Delta Reign sealed item that gained, and it held above $100 heading into release week.

🔮 This Week's Predicted Gainer: Delta Reign Elite Trainer Box

Delta Reign lands Friday, November 6. Pokémon lists it at over 135 cards, led by Mega Rayquaza ex with Mega Golurk ex, Mega Malamar ex and Mega Golisopod ex behind it. The Pokémon Center ETB still trades at $294.97, nearly triple the regular one.

Our thesis: the regular ETB is the one sealed product people buy to open and to keep. A Mega Rayquaza at the top of the set gives it a chase that people actually recognize, and that tends to keep ETBs moving through launch weekend. If it's still above $100 on Friday, our two-week test from last week is already half passed.

Possible it dips when Target shelves fill? Absolutely. That's the risk with any product that ships in volume.

⚠️ This Week's Predicted Loser: 30th Celebration UPC [Day]

The Day box already broke $500. It's the cheaper of the two, so it should have been the safer hold. It isn't.

Nostalgia products price on hype until they price on supply, and release week is when supply arrives. The UPCs have the furthest to fall because they carry the most premium over what's inside. With the Night/Day gap almost gone, the Day box no longer has a "cheaper alternative" story either. We expect it to keep sliding into Friday.

📅 The Calendar

• Friday, Nov 6: Delta Reign and 30th Celebration Wave (UPCs, Classic Collection, Ditto, Figure Collections)

• Friday, Nov 20: Delta Reign Build & Battle Box at wide retail ($49.99 market)

• Friday, Dec 4: 30th Celebration Binder Collection ($97.53) and ex Tins (Greninja ex $55.22, Sylveon ex $73.10)

This is the week the presale market finds out what the 30th anniversary is actually worth once boxes stop being promises.

Full disclosure: Staten Deals is ours, and it may earn a commission when you buy through its links. The prices above are TCGplayer market prices; presale markets are thin and can move fast on a handful of orders.

Sources: TCGplayer market prices via Staten Deals, Pokémon.com: Mega Evolution Delta Reign, Staten News Oct 30 presale snapshot

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research before buying or selling collectibles.

— The Bandicoots 🃏⚡

Welcome to Staten News — where Apple reverses a Steve Jobs rule, charges you for it, and Meta sells a chunk of itself to pay for servers.

Apple spent 16 years telling everyone touchscreen laptops were a bad idea. On Friday it starts selling one for $2,899.

The MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display opened for preorders on October 28 and goes on sale November 6. Steve Jobs called laptop touchscreens "ergonomically terrible" back in 2010. John Ternus, a few months into the CEO job, just shipped one anyway.

💻 What $400 Buys You

Per Macworld, every touch model costs exactly $400 more than its non-touch twin. The lineup:

• 14-inch, M5 Pro: $2,899

• 16-inch, M5 Pro: $3,399

• 14-inch, M5 Max: $4,499

• 16-inch, M5 Max: $4,799

The screen is Apple's first OLED in a MacBook Pro. Tandem OLED, 2,000 nits peak HDR, 120Hz. It also gets a Dynamic Island, Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7, and storage up to 16TB on the M5 Max, double the old ceiling. RAM still tops out at 128GB.

Here's the catch Bloomberg flagged. The chips are the same M5 Pro and M5 Max already in the current lineup, while Apple gave the base MacBook Pro a new M6 this same week. So the flagship touch machine is a generation behind on silicon at launch.

That's not a spec upgrade. That's a display tax.

♟️ Why Apple Is Doing This Now

Windows laptops have had touchscreens for more than a decade. Apple isn't catching up here. It's making a margin move.

The people buying $3,000 MacBooks are pros and businesses running on-device AI, and that crowd has been driving Mac growth. Selling them the same chip with a better screen at a $400 premium is the cleanest way to raise average selling prices without waiting on a new chip cycle. Microsoft's Surface line and every premium Windows OEM now has to compete with an OLED touch Mac instead of a Mac with an asterisk.

Jason Calacanis summed up the skeptic case on X: people want more memory and better processors for local models. He's not wrong. But Apple has never priced for what people say they want.

🍎 Tonight: Apple Earnings

Apple reports fiscal fourth quarter results after the close. Consensus sits around $1.98 in EPS on $113.27 billion in revenue, per Fiscal.ai data compiled by Stocktwits.

It's Ternus's first earnings call as CEO, and the number that matters most is the December quarter guide. Memory costs are rising across the industry, which is the same squeeze that helped sink Intel last week. If Apple says it can hold margins while selling a $4,799 laptop into the holidays, the touchscreen bet looks smart. If margins slip, the $400 premium starts looking like a patch.

🏗️ Meta Is Selling Itself to Build Data Centers

Meta's equity raise, the largest ever, grew to as much as $97.5 billion last week, per Reuters. The structure:

• $25 billion in common stock at $625 a share

• $12.5 billion in convertible preferred

• Up to $60 billion in at-the-market sales, starting after new non-voting Class C shares begin trading in early 2027

Read the next part twice. Nvidia committed $3 billion and AMD $1 billion to buy Meta stock, with Broadcom also interested. The companies selling Meta its chips are now buying Meta's shares so Meta can buy more chips.

Because the numbers underneath are ugly. Meta burned $2.12 billion in free cash flow last quarter, its first negative quarter in over a decade. It raised the low end of 2026 capex to $135 billion and has about $825 billion in future spending commitments. Cash on hand was $82.45 billion at the end of September.

Translation: the AI arms race just outgrew the biggest cash machine in social media. And honestly? That should worry Meta shareholders more than it worries OpenAI or Anthropic, the two companies Meta says it's racing.

📅 Drops This Week

• Monday: Apple earnings after the close

• Tuesday: AMD and Super Micro report

• Friday, Nov 6: Touchscreen MacBook Pro hits stores

This is the week we find out if Apple's customers will pay $400 for a screen, and whether Meta's shareholders will keep paying for everything else.

Sources: Macworld MacBook Pro specs, Bloomberg via BNN, Reuters via The Star on Meta, Stocktwits week ahead

— The Bandicoots 💻🔥

Welcome to Staten News — where a franchise waits 57 years for a title and a quarterback comes back for exactly one snap.

Lamar Jackson's return lasted one play. Baltimore spent most of the season waiting for him to get healthy, got him on the field in Orchard Park, and lost him almost immediately to a thumb injury. NFL.com reports he's headed to injured reserve with thumb surgery on the table.

Buffalo didn't wait around to feel bad about it.

🦬 Bills 36, Ravens 10

The Bills outgained Baltimore 433 to 138, per PFF. That's not a win. That's a mismatch with a scoreboard attached.

Josh Allen passed Jim Kelly for the most touchdowns in franchise history and added one on the ground. Dalton Kincaid caught four balls for 86 yards and a score. D.J. Moore had four for 82 and a touchdown.

Baltimore's quarterback situation went from bad to worse. Tyler Huntley got hurt too, and rookie Joe Fagnano finished the game. The Ravens fall to 4-4. Buffalo moves to 6-1.

Because the real question for Baltimore isn't this loss. It's what the next month looks like without Lamar.

🔥 The Shootouts

Joe Burrow went 38-of-48 for 426 yards and five touchdowns in a 43-36 overtime win over Tennessee. He also threw three interceptions, all to Amani Hooker, and still won the game himself on a 9-yard scramble. Ja'Marr Chase had 11 catches for 141 yards. Tee Higgins had 10 for 155 and two scores. Cincinnati is 5-2.

Arizona beat Dallas 33-30 in overtime in a game that should have ended in regulation. Chad Ryland missed a go-ahead extra point wide left with six seconds left. Gardner Minshew came off the bench for Jacoby Brissett and threw three touchdowns. Tyler Allgeier ran for 147 yards on 11 carries. Both teams sit at 3-5.

The Raiders outlasted the Jets 38-33. Brock Bowers caught two touchdowns, and Geno Smith threw an interception with seven seconds left to end New York's comeback. The Jets are 2-6.

🐴 Denver Takes the Division Spotlight

Broncos 28, Chiefs 24. Bo Nix went 20-of-32 for 222 yards and two touchdowns and led the go-ahead drive in the fourth. Kansas City's last play ended in a sack, and Harrison Butker missed from 54 earlier.

Denver is 6-2. Kansas City drops to 5-2. That's the AFC West race in one game, and right now the Broncos have the inside lane.

In Washington, the Commanders beat Philadelphia 27-10 for Jayden Daniels' first win since October 5, 2025. The Eagles have lost six straight and sit at 2-6. Read that last number again.

📋 The Rest of Week 8

• Packers 27, Panthers 19 (Thursday)

• Lions 19, Vikings 15

• Steelers 27, Browns 6

• Buccaneers 16, Falcons 0

• Jaguars 42, Colts 7

• Rams 24, Chargers 9

• Patriots 24, Dolphins 19

⚾ The Brewers Are Champions

It finally happened in Milwaukee. The Brewers beat the Rays 4-1 in Game 5 last Wednesday to win the World Series in five games, the first title in franchise history.

Jacob Misiorowski threw 5 2/3 shutout innings before a calf cramp pulled him. Cooper Pratt drove in the first run in the first inning and set a World Series rookie record with six straight hits across Games 4 and 5. Trevor Megill got the last six outs, and Brice Turang made the throw for the final one.

William Contreras took World Series MVP, hitting .381 (8-for-21) with four RBI. Over the full postseason he slashed .373/.448/.588. A small-market team built on development just beat a small-market team built on development. Nobody should be surprised that's how it ended.

🏈 Tonight: Bears at Seahawks

Week 8 closes at Lumen Field at 8:15 PM ET. DraftKings has Seattle -3 with a total of 46.5.

Three points at home is the market saying these teams are basically even. And honestly? That's fair. A field goal is the whole spread, and Seattle at home at night is a different animal. This is the game that decides whether Chicago is a real NFC contender or just a good story.

Sources: NFL.com Week 8 recap, ESPN Week 8 scoreboard, PFF Ravens-Bills recap, Yahoo Sports World Series Game 5 box score

— The Bandicoots 🏈⚾🔥

Welcome to Staten News — where a profit miss of two cents costs a company a third of its market cap and nobody blinks.

ServiceNow missed its earnings estimate by two cents. Revenue actually beat. The stock dropped 26.9% in a single session anyway.

That was the mood of the last week of October. The S&P 500 slipped 0.57% to 7,580.07, the Nasdaq lost 2.0%, and big tech spent the week getting interrogated about AI spending. Meanwhile the Russell 2000 gained 1.29% and the equal-weight S&P (RSP) put together its fourth straight up week. Translation: the average stock was fine. The giants were not.

📉 The Loser: ServiceNow (NOW), down 33.9% on the week

ServiceNow reported on October 28. Adjusted EPS came in at $1.00 against a $1.02 estimate. Revenue landed at $4.107 billion, a hair above the $4.095 billion Wall Street wanted. Subscription revenue grew 20.5% in constant currency.

None of that is a disaster. The guide was the problem.

Current remaining performance obligations, the backlog number software investors treat like a heartbeat monitor, grew 21% in the third quarter. Management guided it down to 18.5% for the fourth. Management also said early renewals pulled deals forward into Q3, which is a polite way of saying Q4 already got raided. The stock fell 26.9% on Thursday, October 29, while peers only lost somewhere between 2.8% and 7.3%.

And it wasn't alone. Fortinet dropped 24.4% on the week after trimming its service revenue forecast. Intel fell 24.4% after guiding fourth quarter revenue to $15 to $16 billion with a foundry operating loss near $1.9 billion. The market is grading software and legacy chips on the fear that AI eats their lunch, and any crack in the numbers gets treated as proof.

That's not an earnings reaction. That's a verdict on the whole business model, delivered in one trading day.

📈 The Winner: Regeneron (REGN), up 15.3% on the week

Regeneron's Friday report was the cleanest beat of earnings season so far. Total revenue jumped 36% to $5.1 billion. Non-GAAP EPS hit $20.07, up 70% from a year ago and miles past the roughly $16.19 analysts expected.

The engine is Dupixent. Global sales, which Sanofi books, rose 35% to $6.5 billion. Because Regeneron finished paying off its development balance with Sanofi in the second quarter, it now keeps its full share of those profits. Sanofi collaboration revenue jumped 68% to $2.72 billion.

Eylea HD did its part too, with U.S. sales up 62% to a record $699 million. The original Eylea dropped 41% to $400 million as biosimilars ate into it. Regeneron is basically moving its own customers to the new product before the competition gets them, and so far it's working.

Chipotle technically edged it on the weekly leaderboard at +15.9%. But Regeneron is the move with a real earnings story behind it.

🔮 This Week's Predicted Gainer: AMD

AMD reports Tuesday after the close. The Street expects about $13.1 billion in revenue and $1.94 in EPS.

Here's the thesis. Intel just told investors its next quarter looks light and its foundry is still bleeding close to $2 billion. Every dollar of data center and PC spend that doesn't trust Intel's roadmap has one obvious place to go. AMD also gets to talk about AI accelerators the week after the market punished everyone whose AI story looked shaky, which means a credible guide on GPU shipments could get rewarded hard.

The risk is real, though. Marvell fell 14% last week and memory shortages helped sink Intel. If AMD says supply constraints are capping the fourth quarter, the stock goes down with the rest of the chip trade. Possible? Absolutely. But the setup favors the company taking share, not the one losing it.

⚠️ This Week's Predicted Loser: Palantir (PLTR)

Palantir reports Monday after the close, with consensus around $0.41 in EPS on $2.18 billion in revenue. It closed Friday at $184.11.

The last report sent the stock up 29.4%. That's the problem. When a stock trades on multiples this rich, "beat and raise" is the minimum, and last week showed what happens to software names that deliver anything less than perfect. ServiceNow missed by two cents and lost a quarter of its value in a day.

Palantir has a better growth story than ServiceNow. Nobody is arguing otherwise. But the market spent last week selling software on any excuse, and Palantir is the most expensive name in the group walking into the same room.

🗓️ The Week Ahead

• Monday: ISM manufacturing at 10 AM ET. Apple and Palantir after the close.

• Tuesday: Midterm elections. JOLTS. AMD, Super Micro, Pfizer and Amgen report.

• Wednesday: ADP and ISM services. Qualcomm, Uber, AppLovin and McDonald's report.

• Thursday: Jobless claims. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack speaks.

• Friday: October jobs report at 8:30 AM ET. FactSet's consensus is about 55,000 jobs and 4.2% unemployment.

Hammack is the one to watch. She was one of two Fed officials who dissented in favor of a rate hike when the Fed held steady last week, with Brent crude sitting near $113 a barrel. If Friday's jobs number comes in hot on top of $113 oil, the hike crowd gets louder.

This is the week the market finds out whether last week's software beatdown was a correction or the start of a new rule.

Sources: Regeneron Q3 2026 release (SEC 8-K), Trefis on ServiceNow, The Glass Desk weekly review, Stocktwits week ahead

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research.

— The Bandicoots 📊🔥

Welcome to Staten News — where the deadline is still 11 days out and half the league already has its phone off silent.

Thursday the Bears paid two first-round picks for a defensive tackle. In October.

That's the market now. The NFL trade deadline hits Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. ET, and teams aren't waiting for the last hour anymore. Seven deals are already done, three of them since Tuesday.

✅ What's already done

Every trade since the season kicked off, newest first:

• Bears get DT Jeffery Simmons (plus a 2028 5th) from the Titans for a 2027 1st, a 2027 4th and a 2028 1st. Oct. 29.

• 49ers get DT DeForest Buckner from the Colts for a 2027 4th. Oct. 27.

• Seahawks get G Quenton Nelson from the Colts for a 2027 3rd and a 2028 5th. Oct. 27.

• Texans get WR Marvin Harrison Jr. (plus a 2027 7th) from the Cardinals for a 2027 2nd and a 2027 6th. Oct. 11.

• Ravens get C Cam Jurgens (plus a 2027 7th) from the Eagles for a 2027 5th and a 2028 2nd. Oct. 7.

• Cowboys get CB Joey Porter Jr. from the Steelers for a 2027 6th and a 2028 2nd. Sept. 30.

• Giants get QB J.J. McCarthy from the Vikings for a 2027 5th after Jaxson Dart got hurt. Sept. 28.

🐻 Chicago went all in

Simmons is 29, signed an extension in June and is locked in through 2030. That's the part that makes this different from a rental. The Bears didn't buy a half-season of a Pro Bowl tackle. They bought the next five years of one.

The price is the price, though. Two firsts and a fourth for an interior lineman is the kind of deal that gets graded twice: once now, and again in April 2028 when you see who Tennessee drafts with that second pick.

For the Titans, it's an easy call. A rebuilding team that can turn one player into two first-round picks does that every time.

🏷️ Everything in Indianapolis must go

Now look at the Colts. They fired GM Chris Ballard, sat at 2-5, and then moved two Pro Bowl linemen in the same afternoon.

Nelson was on an expiring contract, so a 3rd and a 5th beats watching him walk in March. Buckner went back to San Francisco, where he started his career, for a single 4th. That one is less about value and more about clearing the deck.

And they're not done. Jonathan Taylor confirmed he asked for a trade, while saying he's still "proud to wear the horseshoe." Josh Downs has reportedly asked out too.

When a team sells its two best linemen and two of its best skill players are asking for a new address, that's not a slump. That's a teardown.

🔮 What could still happen

Everything below is speculation. Some of it comes from national reporting, some of it is us connecting dots. None of these deals is done.

Jonathan Taylor to the Vikings. CBS's Zach Pereles floated Minnesota as the match. The Vikings already moved McCarthy, so they've shown they'll make a call. A team trying to win now with a back who wants out of a rebuild is the cleanest fit on the board. Possible? Very. The question is whether Indy wants a first or settles for less.

Saquon Barkley to the Bengals. This is the one that would break the internet. Pereles also paired Barkley with Cincinnati, and the logic is real: the Eagles have already sold Jurgens, their offense is banged up, and they "figure to be sellers," per CBS. Trading the face of your offense is a different kind of decision than trading a center, though. We'd put this one at long shot.

Brian Thomas Jr. to the Chiefs. Kansas City has been linked to a receiver for weeks, and ESPN's Ben Solak flat out predicted it'll happen. Thomas is the name CBS keeps attaching to Kansas City. If Andy Reid gets a true deep threat in November, the AFC gets a lot less comfortable.

Josh Downs to anyone who calls. CBS listed the Rams, Patriots, Falcons and Chiefs as fits. A slot receiver who asked out on a team in teardown mode is the most likely move on this list. If we had to bet on one deal getting done, it's this one.

Maxx Crosby and Khalil Mack. Both sit in CBS's top tier of trade candidates. Crosby is the bigger swing. Mack is the cheaper rental for a contender that needs one more pass rusher in January.

Not happening, probably: Garrett Wilson. The Jets are 2-5 and the rumors were inevitable. Wilson said he wants to stay in New York. Take that at face value until somebody gets a first-round pick offer they can't ignore.

⏰ The clock

Eleven days. The Bears set the price of a premium player at two firsts, the Colts showed everyone they're open for business, and every contender knows it.

This is the deadline where the sellers got organized before the buyers did. Whoever waits until Nov. 10 at 3:59 p.m. is going to pay the most.

Sources: ESPN trade deadline tracker, CBS Sports deadline live blog

— The Bandicoots 🏈📞🔥

Welcome to Staten News — where the AI trade got its bill, the Packers got six sacks, and a Poké Ball box is pricing promos a week early.

One thread ran through Finance and Tech this week: Big Tech can still grow the cloud, but Wall Street now wants proof the spending pays. Microsoft had the proof. Alphabet and Amazon had the bill.

📉 Finance

• Alphabet closed at $283.82 on Thursday, down 12.6%, its worst day since its 2004 listing and roughly $500 billion in market value gone.

• Alphabet's Q3 capex hit $51.4 billion and free cash flow went negative at minus $9.1 billion, even with revenue up 25% to $127.6 billion.

• Amazon's trailing-twelve-month free cash flow swung to an outflow of $42.4 billion, and the stock fell as much as 10% after hours.

• The Fed held at 3.75% to 4% in a 10-2 vote, with Lisa Cook and Beth Hammack both voting for a hike.

• September PCE inflation rose to 3.6% and Q3 GDP came in at 3.4%, backing the hawks.

• Crocs jumped 25% and Intel fell 17% on a weak Q4 revenue guide.

• Next up: Apple reports Monday after the close, and the October jobs report lands Friday, Nov. 6.

Full story: Alphabet Lost $500 Billion in One Day

🏈 Sports

• The Packers beat the Panthers 27-19 on Thursday night and moved to 5-3.

• Green Bay sacked Bryce Young six times, and Young finished 22-of-39 for 200 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

• Christian Watson left in an ambulance in the second quarter and returned in the third with a broken rib.

• Carolina falls to 3-4 but still shares the NFC South lead with Atlanta.

• Ravens at Bills is Sunday's headliner: Buffalo -3, total 54.5, with Lamar Jackson expected to return from his ankle injury per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. Not confirmed yet.

• Washington is a 6-point favorite over Philadelphia on Sunday night, and Bears at Seahawks closes the week on Monday.

Full story: Six Sacks at Lambeau

💻 Tech

• September-quarter cloud revenue: AWS $46.0 billion (up 39%), Azure $33.2 billion (up 48%), Google Cloud $30.7 billion (up 103%).

• Google Cloud is now within $2.5 billion of Azure, after being about two-thirds its size a year ago.

• Microsoft spent $39.4 billion on property and equipment in the quarter, double a year ago, and Wall Street still rewarded it.

• Apple's touchscreen MacBook Pro with a PROLED XDR display starts at $2,899 (14-inch) and $3,399 (16-inch). Preorders open today, and it ships Nov. 6.

• DoorDash agreed to buy Instacart for $65 a share, about $17 billion, at a 26% premium.

• That deal isn't expected to close until the end of 2027 or the first half of 2028, which tells you how long the antitrust review could run.

Full story: Google Cloud Grew 103%

🃏 TCG

• Delta Reign and a new wave of 30th Celebration collections both release Friday, Nov. 6.

• The 30th Celebration Ultra-Premium Collection [Night] sits at $575.44 on TCGplayer, $41 above the [Day] version at $533.97.

• The Delta Reign Pokémon Center ETB is at $295.00, nearly 3x the regular ETB at $104.98.

• The Delta Reign Booster Box is at $229.71, and the Build & Battle Box follows on Nov. 20.

• Staten Deals is now public with a free Pokémon release tracker: presale prices, 7-day and 1-day release reminders, and alerts on 15% overnight swings.

Full story: November 6 Is Stacked

Stay sharp. Signal over noise. — The Bandicoots 🔥

Welcome to Staten News — where the release calendar is the alpha and the presale chart is the tell.

Two big releases drop next Friday, November 6. Delta Reign and a new wave of 30th Celebration collections hit shelves the same morning, and the presale market has already picked its favorites.

The 30th Celebration Ultra-Premium Collection [Night] is sitting at $575.44 on TCGplayer. The [Day] version is at $533.97. Same product line, same release date, a $41 gap before a single box has been opened.

That's not a price. That's a prediction.

📅 What's actually dropping

Per TCGplayer presale listings, here's the sealed lineup with current market prices:

Friday, Nov 6: Delta Reign

• Booster Box: $229.71

• Elite Trainer Box: $104.98

• Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box: $295.00

• Booster Bundle: $49.85

• 3 Pack Blister [Seel]: $33.53

Friday, Nov 6: 30th Celebration

• Ultra-Premium Collection [Night]: $575.44

• Ultra-Premium Collection [Day]: $533.97

• Classic Collection Pack: $293.68

• Ditto Premium Collection: $191.89

• Figure Collections: [Mew] $166.48, [Mewtwo] $157.95

Later: Delta Reign Build & Battle Box (Nov 20, $51.37), then the 30th Celebration Binder Collection and ex Tins on Dec 4.

The Pokémon Center ETB trading at nearly 3x the regular ETB tells you where the chase is. Exclusive promos and a fixed allocation. The regular ETB is the one you'll see stacked at Target.

🧠 Why presale prices lie (a little)

Presale prices are thin markets. A handful of preorders sets the number, and the number moves fast once real supply shows up.

Hyped sealed product tends to trade above MSRP in presale, dip in the first two weeks as distributors flood the channel, and then sort itself out by demand. The boxes people actually want to keep sealed recover. The ones people just rip don't.

Keyword: tends. The 30th anniversary is a once-a-decade nostalgia event, and nostalgia doesn't read the historical chart.

📲 So we built a tracker

We've been running a release tracker for CardSafe HQ. It watches every upcoming English Pokémon product on TCGplayer and flags the moves. As of today it's public, inside Staten Deals, our free deal-alert app.

Here's what it does:

• A live release calendar with presale market prices, updated every morning

• An alert when TCGplayer lists a new upcoming product

• Reminders 7 days and 1 day before each release

• An alert when a box, ETB or collection swings 15% or more overnight

No email, no password, no account to make. Open it, tap "Turn on notifications," and pick the alerts you want. On iPhone, add it to your Home Screen first, because that's the only way Apple lets web apps send notifications.

👉 staten-deals.michaelamarino16.workers.dev

Full disclosure: Staten Deals is ours, and it may earn a commission when you buy through its links. That doesn't change what it tells you. The price is the price.

🎯 What we're watching into Nov 6

Three things decide how this release trades.

First, the Night vs. Day UPC gap. It's about $41 today. If it holds or widens through release week, the market is pricing the Night promo as the long-term keeper. If it closes, the market is calling the two promos interchangeable.

Second, the Pokémon Center ETB. Anything near $295 for an ETB needs the exclusive promo to carry real value after release. If early PSA submissions come back soft, that number has room to fall.

Third, the regular Delta Reign ETB. If it's still above $100 two weeks after release, supply didn't catch up. That's usually where sealed holders start getting very comfortable.

We'll be watching all three. Now your phone can too.

Sources: TCGplayer presale prices (via Staten Deals), Pokémon.com: 30th Celebration Ultra-Premium Collections, Pokémon.com: Delta Reign arrives November 6

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research before buying or selling collectibles.

— The Bandicoots 🃏⚡

Welcome to Staten News — where three cloud scoreboards dropped in 48 hours and only one of them got a standing ovation.

Google Cloud did $30.7 billion in revenue last quarter. A year ago it did $15.2 billion.

That's not a growth rate. That's a different company.

☁️ The scoreboard

All three big clouds reported between Wednesday and Thursday. Here's the September quarter, side by side:

• AWS: $46.0 billion, up 39%

• Microsoft Azure: $33.2 billion, up 48%

• Google Cloud: $30.7 billion, up 103%

AWS is still the biggest by a mile, and 39% growth on a $46 billion base is the fastest it has grown in a long time. Azure is doing exactly what Microsoft needs it to do. Google is the one that changed shape.

A year ago, Google Cloud was about two-thirds the size of Azure ($15.2 billion against $22.4 billion). Now it's within $2.5 billion. The three don't define "cloud revenue" the same way, so treat this as a scoreboard, not an audit. But the gap that used to separate the big two from Google is basically gone.

If those growth rates hold for even a couple more quarters, Google passes Azure. That's our math, not a forecast anyone at either company has made.

💸 The bill that came with it

Here's the catch. The cloud race runs on data centers, and data centers run on cash.

Alphabet spent $51.4 billion on capex in the quarter and posted negative free cash flow. Microsoft spent $39.4 billion on property and equipment, double a year ago. Amazon's trailing-twelve-month free cash flow is now an outflow of $42.4 billion.

Our Finance desk has the stock damage today. The short version: Wall Street paid up for Azure and sold the other two. Same strategy, three different report cards, and the grade came down to whether the revenue shows up as fast as the spending.

💻 Apple put its finger on the screen

Steve Jobs once called a touchscreen Mac "ergonomically terrible." Apple shipped one anyway.

The new MacBook Pro with a PROLED XDR display comes in 14-inch ($2,899) and 16-inch ($3,399) versions, with M5 Pro or M5 Max chips, up to 128GB of memory and up to 16TB of storage. The screen hits 2,000 nits, and Apple redesigned the hinge so the display doesn't wobble when you tap it. Preorders open today. It ships Nov. 6.

Look at the price ladder. Apple also announced a standard 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M6 chip the day before, starting at $1,999. Touch starts $900 higher, on a different chip, which tells you Apple is selling it as a pro feature, not the new default.

Windows laptops have had touchscreens for over a decade. Apple isn't trying to win that argument. It's betting the display is good enough that people stop asking why it took so long.

🛒 DoorDash buys the grocery aisle

DoorDash agreed Thursday to buy Instacart for $65 a share, about $17 billion in equity value. That's a 26% premium to Instacart's Oct. 22 close, the last trading day before deal reports surfaced. At least 75% of it is cash, backed by a JPMorgan bridge loan.

The closing date is the tell. DoorDash expects this to wrap at the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028, and it needs U.S. antitrust clearance plus approvals in Canada and Israel. Nobody budgets 14 months or more for a deal they think regulators will wave through.

DoorDash says it will keep the Instacart brand, its app and its enterprise tech, the software grocers use to run delivery on their own sites. That last piece is the real prize. The consumer app gets the headlines. The grocer software gets DoorDash inside the store.

Who sweats? Uber Eats, which now faces one combined giant in restaurant and grocery delivery. And honestly? Amazon too, since it has spent years trying to make grocery delivery stick.

🎯 What it adds up to

This is the week the AI story split in two: the companies that can show the revenue, and the companies still asking for patience. Google can show the revenue. It just can't show the cash yet.

Next up: Apple reports Monday, and the touchscreen Mac starts landing on desks Nov. 6.

Sources: Microsoft FY27 Q1 earnings release, Stock Titan Alphabet Q3 breakdown, TechCrunch on the touchscreen MacBook Pro, DoorDash-Instacart announcement (SEC filing)

— The Bandicoots ☁️💻🛒

Welcome to Staten News — where the clocks fall back Sunday and Baltimore still doesn't know who's taking the snaps.

Christian Watson left Lambeau Field in an ambulance on Thursday night. He came back in the third quarter with a broken rib.

That was the kind of night Green Bay had.

🧀 Thursday: Packers 27, Panthers 19

Watson already had 100 receiving yards when he went down in the second quarter, with the Packers trailing 10-6. Green Bay outscored Carolina 21-9 from there, and Watson still caught one more pass for 13 yards on the broken rib.

The real story was what happened to Bryce Young. The Packers sacked him six times and pressured him on 47.7% of his dropbacks. Young finished 22-of-39 for 200 yards, one touchdown and one interception, a tipped ball that Ty'Ron Hopper hauled in.

Carolina tried to rattle Jordan Love with 16 blitzes. Love answered with 14 completions for 126 yards and two touchdowns against the blitz, including a perfect 9-for-9 to open the game. He finished with 30 completions, the third most of his career. Josh Jacobs scored twice.

If you send the house 16 times and the quarterback throws two touchdowns against it, you're not blitzing anymore. You're donating.

Green Bay moves to 5-3. Carolina falls to 3-4 but still shares the NFC South lead with Atlanta. Both teams are off until Nov. 8.

🦬 Sunday's main event: Ravens at Bills

Baltimore at Buffalo, 1 p.m. ET on CBS. The Bills are 5-1 and 3-point favorites at DraftKings. The Ravens are 4-3 and sitting last in the AFC North after back-to-back division losses.

Everything hinges on Lamar Jackson. He hasn't played since the second half of Week 4 with an ankle injury, and he still hasn't logged a full practice since. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported the Ravens expect him to play, and the line has already moved from Buffalo -3.5 to -3. That's a report, not a confirmation. Watch the final injury report.

The total sits at 54.5, tied for the highest on the board. If Lamar plays, that number makes sense. If he doesn't, the Bills are laying a field goal against a backup and the whole game changes.

📋 The rest of the board

Every line below is the DraftKings number listed on ESPN's schedule:

• Chiefs at Broncos, 4:25 p.m. ET, CBS: Kansas City -1.5, total 40.5

• Eagles at Commanders, Sunday night, 8:20 p.m. ET, NBC: Washington -6, total 40.5

• Patriots at Dolphins, 4:25 p.m. ET, CBS: New England -7

• Cardinals at Cowboys, 1 p.m. ET, Fox: Dallas -7, total 54.5

• Vikings at Lions, 1 p.m. ET, Fox: Detroit -3

• Titans at Bengals, 1 p.m. ET, CBS: Cincinnati -12.5, the biggest spread of the week

• Bears at Seahawks, Monday night, 8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN: Seattle -3, total 46.5

Read the Sunday night number again. Philadelphia is getting six points in Washington. That's the market telling you exactly what it thinks of this Eagles team right now.

Kansas City at Denver is the other one we're circling. A 40.5 total in a division game is the books expecting a rock fight, and the Chiefs are barely favored on the road.

The Giants, Saints, 49ers and Texans are on bye.

🎯 Where we land

Our lean, and it's only a lean: if Lamar is active, Baltimore +3 is the most interesting number of the weekend. A healthy Jackson getting a field goal is a price we'd look at. If he's out, we're not touching it.

This is the weekend the AFC finds out whether Buffalo is the clear best team in the conference or just the one that's been healthiest.

Sources: ESPN Packers-Panthers recap, ESPN Week 8 schedule and lines, SI Lamar Jackson injury update

— The Bandicoots 🏈🧀🦬

Welcome to Staten News — where the AI trade finally got its credit card statement.

Alphabet lost roughly $500 billion in market value on Thursday. Class A shares closed at $283.82, down 12.6%, the worst day for the stock since it listed in 2004.

Google Cloud grew 103%. Didn't matter.

📉 The quarter that broke the spell

Alphabet posted $127.6 billion in third-quarter revenue, up 25% but a hair under the $128.2 billion Wall Street wanted. Adjusted EPS came in at $2.67 against $3.02 expected. Search, the business that pays for everything, grew 12%, slower than either of the first two quarters.

Then came the number that actually moved the stock. Capex hit $51.4 billion, more than double a year ago, and free cash flow went negative: minus $9.1 billion for the quarter.

For two years, investors rewarded every dollar of AI spending. This week they asked to see the receipt.

📦 Amazon got the same question

Amazon reported after Thursday's close, and on paper it was a good quarter. Revenue rose 12% to $201.9 billion. AWS grew 39% to $46.0 billion. Operating income jumped 61% to $28.1 billion.

The cash line told a different story. Trailing-twelve-month free cash flow was an outflow of $42.4 billion, against a $14.8 billion inflow a year earlier, and Amazon kept its 2026 capex plan at about $220 billion. EPS of $1.89 also missed the $1.96 estimate. The stock fell as much as 10% after hours before trimming the loss.

Microsoft was the exception. Revenue climbed 19% to $92.3 billion, Azure grew 48% to $33.2 billion, and the stock rose about 4%. Its spending on property and equipment doubled too, to $39.4 billion. The difference is that Azure's growth is visibly keeping pace with the bill.

Translation: the market isn't punishing AI spending. It's punishing AI spending that can't show its revenue yet.

🏦 The Fed got hawkish without moving

Wednesday's decision looked boring on the surface. The Fed held its target range at 3.75% to 4%. The vote was 10-2, and both dissenters, Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, wanted a quarter-point hike. The statement's verdict: "Inflation remains elevated."

Thursday's data backed the dissenters. September PCE inflation rose to 3.6% year over year, up from 3.4%. Core PCE ticked up to 3.1%. Third-quarter GDP came in at 3.4% annualized against 3.1% expected, and oil isn't helping, with WTI near $102 and Brent near $115.

Hot growth, rising inflation, and two votes to tighten. That's not a rate-cut setup. That's a December argument.

🩸 Thursday's damage report

The Nasdaq fell about 1.4% on Thursday. The S&P 500 and the Dow each slipped about 0.3%. Alphabet wasn't the only crater:

• Intel: down 17% after guiding fourth-quarter revenue to $15 to $16 billion, below the roughly $17 billion analysts expected

• ServiceNow: down about 25%

• Fortinet: down 21%

• Crocs: up 25%

• ADT: up about 34% on a $10-a-share, $7.6 billion all-cash buyout from Thrive Holdings

Yes, Crocs had a better Thursday than Google.

🔮 What we're watching next week

Apple reports Monday, Nov. 2, at 5 p.m. ET, the first earnings call with John Ternus as CEO. Apple is the one megacap that gets graded mostly on iPhones and services rather than data center spending. Our call: that makes it the likeliest of the group to get a pass from this market, as long as margins hold. That's our read, not a sure thing.

Then the October jobs report lands Friday, Nov. 6, at 8:30 a.m. ET. With two Fed officials already voting to hike, a hot payrolls number puts a December hike squarely on the table. A soft one buys the Fed time.

This is the week the market stopped asking how much AI you're building and started asking when it pays.

Sources: Federal Reserve FOMC statement, Amazon Q3 2026 results, Stock Titan Alphabet Q3 breakdown, Yahoo Finance market live blog

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research.

— The Bandicoots 📉💸🏦

Welcome to Staten News — where the champagne is still wet in Milwaukee and we’re already pulling up the 2017 box scores.

The Brewers won the World Series last night. Game 5, 4-1 over the Rays, at Tropicana Field. First title in franchise history, first championship for Milwaukee since the 1957 Braves, and an 11-2 postseason run that was never really in doubt.

Then somebody put their stat line next to the 2017 Astros. And it got weird.

📊 The twin lines

A side-by-side graphic has been making the rounds all week, comparing Milwaukee’s postseason offense to the most infamous champion of the modern era. It was made when the Brewers were 10-1. Here’s how it looks now that the season is over.

• Runs per game: Brewers 4.54, Astros 4.33

• Hits per game: Brewers 8.92, Astros 8.06

• Batting average: Brewers .262, Astros .240

• On-base percentage: Brewers .346, Astros .314

• Slugging: Brewers .396, Astros .431

• OPS: Brewers .742, Astros .745

• Walk rate: Brewers 10.1%, Astros 8.9%

• Strikeout rate: Brewers 21.7%, Astros 19.1%

Read the OPS line again. Three points. Over 13 games for Milwaukee and 18 for Houston, two championship offenses landed in basically the same spot.

The last two games of the World Series did that. Milwaukee scored three runs in the 12-inning Game 4 loss and four in the clincher, which dragged its averages down right next to Houston’s.

🗑️ Why that comparison stings

Nobody compares a team to the 2017 Astros as a compliment. MLB’s investigation found Houston used a center-field camera to decode signs that season and banged on a trash can to tip off hitters. The penalties came in January 2020: a $5 million fine, two years of first- and second-round picks gone, and one-year suspensions for GM Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch. The Astros fired both the same day.

That title still has an asterisk next to it in most people’s heads. So when a new champion’s numbers line up with it, people start squinting.

Here’s the thing. Nothing in Milwaukee’s line points that way. It points the other way.

🎯 Two different ways to score 4.5 a night

Houston’s 2017 offense was built on damage. Twenty-seven home runs in 18 games. A .431 slugging percentage. And the stat everyone circled once the scheme came out: a 19.1% strikeout rate, the kind of contact you’d expect from hitters who knew what was coming.

Milwaukee hit 13 home runs in 13 games. Its slugging was 35 points lower. It struck out more than Houston did, not less.

So where did the runs come from? Getting on base. The Brewers hit .262 and got on at a .346 clip, 32 points better than Houston, and walked in more than 10% of their plate appearances. They didn’t win by knowing what the pitch was. They won by refusing to chase it.

There’s even a 2026 twist on that. This was the first season with the ABS challenge system, and William Contreras, the World Series MVP, went 10 for 13 on his challenges in the Series while hitting .381. The Brewers’ plate discipline literally got a second review from the robot zone, and it held up.

That’s the difference between stealing an edge and earning one in the same box score.

🧱 The part the graphic left out

Offense is only half of it, and it’s the less impressive half. Milwaukee allowed 33 runs in 13 postseason games. That’s 2.54 a night, against the Padres, the two-time defending champion Dodgers and the Rays.

The Dodgers got swept in the NLCS. Nine of the Brewers’ 11 wins came by three runs or fewer. A team that scores 4.5 and gives up 2.5 is going to win a lot of baseball no matter how it gets on base.

And honestly? That’s why the Astros comparison doesn’t hold up past the first glance. Houston’s 2017 run was a slugging team riding its bats. Milwaukee’s was a pitching team with an offense that took walks and didn’t give away at-bats.

A franchise that started in 1969 finally has its ring. Same OPS as the most controversial champion of the last decade, built in nearly the opposite way. The trash can stays in Houston.

Sources: StatMuse: Brewers 2026 postseason batting, StatMuse: Astros 2017 postseason batting, MLB.com: Brewers win Game 5

— The Bandicoots ⚾🏆🍺

Welcome to Staten News — where one IPO filing showed up in two sections today, and a ground ball saved a third.

💰 Finance

• The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 3.6% Tuesday for its third straight gain. The Nasdaq added 1.18% to 26,477.81, and the S&P 500 rose 0.6% to 7,722.60, within 1.2% of its record.

• AMD gained 5.45% on a commitment worth more than $20 billion to supply Anthropic with MI450-based Helios systems starting in 2027. Broadcom rose 4% after DA Davidson upgraded it to Buy with a $400 target.

• Boeing fell 10.69% on a $0.34 core loss per share against $0.20 expected, even with a record $745 billion backlog.

• The market paid for raised guidance: UPS +5.75% after lifting its full-year EPS view to $7.28, SoFi +13.42%, Herc Holdings +22.76%.

• WTI settled at $99.90, back under $100, while the 10-year Treasury yield held at 4.995%.

• The Fed decides at 2 PM with a hold about 94% priced. CME FedWatch puts December hike odds at 83%. Microsoft and Alphabet report after the close.

Full story: Chips Ran 3.6% on Anthropic's Paperwork

🏟️ Sports

• Rays 4, Brewers 3 in 12 innings. Pinch-hitter Ben Williamson's bouncer into right field scored Nick Fortes and ended Milwaukee's eight-game postseason winning streak.

• Cooper Pratt's solo homer in the top of the 12th had put the Brewers three outs from a title.

• Milwaukee still leads 3-1 after a 10-1 Game 3 win built on an eight-run fifth inning. Game 5 is tonight at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.

• Knicks 111, Pistons 97. New York outscored Detroit 37-13 in the third, Karl-Anthony Towns scored 27, and the Knicks are 1-3.

• Cowboys 38, Eagles 21 on Monday night. Javonte Williams ran for a career-high 155 yards, the most by a Cowboy since Ezekiel Elliott in 2016.

• Philadelphia finished with zero sacks, zero tackles for loss and zero quarterback hits, and fell to 2-5.

Full story: The Rays Refused the Sweep

💻 Tech

• Apple announced the OLED iPad mini ($699), the M6 iMac ($1,499) and the M6 14-inch MacBook Pro ($1,999) without an event. Pre-orders open today at 10:10 a.m. Pacific, and all three ship November 6.

• The M6 moves to a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU, doubles the Neural Engine to 32 cores, and Apple claims up to 30% faster graphics than M5.

• Apple's Pro and Tell event is today in Los Angeles. Bloomberg expects touchscreen OLED MacBook Pros at $2,899 for the 14-inch and at least $3,399 for the 16-inch.

• Bank of America, Blackstone, Citi and Morgan Stanley committed $63 billion to a vehicle that will buy Broadcom AI accelerators and lease them to Anthropic, with deliveries starting in 2027.

• Amazon's Andy Jassy says AWS is sold out through 2027, which sets the bar for Azure and Google Cloud tonight.

Full story: Apple Shipped Three Products by Press Release

🃏 TCG

• Reigning World Champion Andrew Hedrick won the Puebla Regional, a 2,234-player Standard event, with Dragapult.

• Dragapult holds 36.64% of the Standard meta on Limitless. The next deck, Basic Box, sits at 8.85%.

• Hedrick's last four results with Dragapult: 1st at Worlds, 25th at Baltimore, 145th at Louisville, 1st at Puebla.

• Delta Reign sealed went flat after last week's prerelease drop. The booster box sits at $235.36 and the ETB at $105.54, and nothing moved more than 1.5% since Monday.

• The 30th Celebration Classic Collection pack is unchanged at $297.48, and the Night Ultra-Premium Collection sits at $583.71.

• Delta Reign and the 30th Celebration premium wave release November 6. The Build & Battle Box follows November 20.

Full story: The World Champion Won Again in Puebla

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research.

Stay sharp. Signal over noise. — The Bandicoots 🔥

Welcome to Staten News — where the best player in the world keeps bringing the most popular deck in the room, and keeps winning with it anyway.

Andrew Hedrick won the Puebla Regional Championship last weekend. 2,234 players in Standard, and the reigning World Champion took Dragapult all the way through, per Limitless.

Same deck he won Worlds with in August. Same deck more than a third of the field is playing.

🐉 Dragapult Isn't a Meta Call Anymore

Per Limitless, Dragapult holds 36.64% of the current Standard meta. The next closest deck, Basic Box, sits at 8.85%. Slowking (7.58%), N's Zoroark (7.52%) and Alakazam (6.32%) fill out the rest of the top tier.

Hedrick's season reads like a stock chart with one ugly quarter. 1st at Worlds on August 28. 25th at Baltimore in September. 145th at Louisville on October 10. Then 1st in Puebla. Dragapult at every single one of them.

A 145th didn't make him switch. Two weeks later, the trophy explains why.

The field isn't hopeless. Luc Gantner won Nice on Basic Box two weekends ago with 2,336 players in the building. It's just outnumbered. When one archetype is four times more popular than the next, every other deck is built around beating it, and the best Dragapult pilots still find a way through.

📉 The Delta Reign Bleed Stopped (For Now)

Last week's prerelease weekend knocked the Build & Battle Box down 23% and the Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box down 16.4% in three days. Since Monday, nothing on the board has moved more than 1.5%.

TCGplayer market prices via TCGCSV, Monday (Oct. 26) to today (Oct. 28):

• Booster Box: $237.61 to $235.36

• Elite Trainer Box: $106.18 to $105.54

• Booster Bundle: $55.83 to $55.02

• Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box: $295.00, unchanged

• Build & Battle Box: $52.53 to $52.52

The pack math barely moved either. The booster box works out to $6.54 a pack across 36 packs. The bundle runs $9.17 a pack. The regular ETB still trades at more than double its $49.99 retail.

These are thin presale markets, so a single listing can swing them. Flat is still information. The panic sellers from prerelease weekend look done, and the real supply hasn't shown up yet.

🎂 30th Celebration Is Holding Its Price Tag

The premium side of the November 6 board didn't flinch either:

• Classic Collection Pack: $297.48, unchanged since Monday

• Ultra-Premium Collection [Night]: $583.71

• Ultra-Premium Collection [Day]: $543.72, down from $547.37

• Ditto Premium Collection: $191.49

• Figure Collection [Mew]: $167.52

• Figure Collection [Mewtwo]: $158.75

Nearly $300 for one pack. That's not a booster anymore. That's a collectible with a booster inside it, priced by people who already know they aren't opening it.

🗓️ Nine Days

Delta Reign and the 30th Celebration premium wave both release November 6. Prereleases run through November 1. The Build & Battle Box follows November 20, and the Binder Collection and ex Tins land December 4.

When a presale board goes flat nine days out, buyers are waiting on print size. If November 6 shows up thin, a $235 booster box looks cheap in hindsight. If it shows up in volume, last week's Build & Battle drop was the preview. Possible either way? Absolutely. Guaranteed? Not even close.

Friday, we launch it. Every upcoming Pokémon product, every presale price, and a ping on your phone a week and a day before each drop. Free, no account needed. See you Friday.

Sources: Limitless tournament results, Limitless: Andrew Hedrick player page, Limitless Standard meta share, TCGplayer market data via TCGCSV

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research before buying or selling collectibles.

— The Bandicoots 🃏🔥

Welcome to Staten News — where Apple saved the stage for the one Mac people spent years being told wasn't coming.

Apple announced three products this week without holding an event for any of them.

The OLED iPad mini with the A20 Pro chip landed Monday at $699. The M6 iMac and the M6 14-inch MacBook Pro followed Tuesday at $1,499 and $1,999. Pre-orders for all three open today at 10:10 a.m. Pacific, and they ship Friday, November 6.

That leaves one thing for the room in Los Angeles.

💻 The Quiet Upgrade

The M6 is not a small bump. Apple moved from a 10-core CPU to 12 cores (two "super" cores, four performance, six efficiency), took the GPU from 10 cores to 12, and doubled the Neural Engine to 32 cores. Apple claims up to 30% faster graphics and up to 25% faster AI workloads than M5, and calls the new CPU core the fastest in the world. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 arrive through Apple's own N1 wireless chip.

Storage starts at 1TB, since the 512GB tier disappeared in March. Everything else carries over from the M5 model.

A new chip that gets a press release instead of a keynote tells you where Apple thinks the attention should go. Not here.

👆 The Mac You Can Touch

"Pro and Tell" happens today in Los Angeles. Bloomberg reports touchscreen MacBook Pro pre-orders also begin today, with availability potentially as early as November 6. Expected pricing is $2,899 for the 14-inch and at least $3,399 for the 16-inch, both with OLED displays. None of that is official until Apple puts it on a screen.

The strategy is the part worth watching. Windows laptop makers have sold touchscreens for more than a decade, and Apple's answer was always the iPad. A $2,899 Mac you can tap blurs a line Apple drew on purpose, right before the holiday quarter.

That's not Apple catching up to Windows. That's Apple deciding the iPad Pro and the MacBook Pro can fight over the same buyer, as long as both checks clear in Cupertino.

🧮 Broadcom Found a Way to Rent Out the Future

Reuters reports Bank of America, Blackstone, Citi and Morgan Stanley committed $63 billion to a special purpose vehicle that will buy Broadcom's custom AI accelerators and lease them to Anthropic, with deliveries starting in 2027. Broadcom backs the lenders with residual value support, and Blackstone alone holds the second lien.

Translation: Anthropic doesn't buy the chips. A bank-funded box buys them, and Anthropic pays rent.

The timing isn't subtle. Anthropic's S-1 is public, the company is heading toward a listing, and a lease turns one giant upfront hardware bill into a payment schedule. Broadcom gets a committed customer for 2027 without carrying the financing itself. Nvidia gets a reminder that its biggest buyers keep shopping for alternatives.

📊 Tonight's Scoreboard

Microsoft and Alphabet report after the close. Amazon's Andy Jassy has already said AWS is sold out through 2027, with chunks of 2028 spoken for.

Because that's the bar now. If AWS can't build fast enough to meet demand, Azure and Google Cloud get asked the same question tonight: sold out too, or just spending like it?

This is the week the AI build-out stops being a forecast and starts being a backlog with a delivery date.

Sources: MacRumors on the M6 MacBook Pro, MacRumors on today's pre-orders, Appleosophy on the Pro and Tell event, AI Weekly (Oct. 27)

— The Bandicoots 💻🔥

Welcome to Staten News — where a ground ball that barely left the dirt just bought Tampa Bay one more night.

Cooper Pratt had the Brewers three outs from a championship. The rookie shortstop led off the top of the 12th with a solo homer off Ian Seymour, and Milwaukee led 3-2 at Tropicana Field.

Then the bottom of the 12th happened.

⚾ Game 4: Rays 4, Brewers 3 (12 innings)

Joey Ortiz's throwing error put Junior Caminero on third. Jonny DeLuca's grounder scored pinch-runner Cedric Mullins to tie it. Chandler Simpson singled to load the bases, and pinch-hitter Ben Williamson hit a ball that bounced into right field to score pinch-runner Nick Fortes. Shane Drohan took the loss.

Williamson called it a "Baltimore chop." Tampa Bay will take it.

The game ran 4 hours and 20 minutes and sat tied at 2 from the fifth inning to the 12th. Simpson robbed Garrett Mitchell with a leaping catch at the left-field wall, Brice Turang turned a double play on a 101.8 mph liner from Jonathan Aranda, and the Rays ran seven pitchers out, with the bullpen covering eight innings of one-run ball. Milwaukee's Aaron Ashby kept his own streak going, stretching his record run to 18 straight scoreless relief innings.

Milwaukee's eight-game postseason winning streak is over. The Brewers still lead 3-1.

🔨 Monday Was the Other Kind of Night

Game 3 was never close. The Brewers won 10-1 behind an eight-run fifth inning, out-hitting Tampa Bay 16 to 3. Robert Gasser got the win, Freddy Peralta took the loss, and the Rays didn't score until the ninth.

That's what makes Tuesday interesting for anyone holding a series price. Twenty-four hours after a 16-hit night, Milwaukee managed three runs in 12 innings. Tampa Bay's bullpen did that, not luck.

Because the math still belongs to Milwaukee. The Rays became the 11th team to force a Game 5 after falling behind 0-3, per MLB.com. No World Series team has ever come all the way back from 0-3. Possible tonight? Sure. Likely? The Brewers need one win in three tries.

Game 5 is tonight at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.

🏀 Knicks: Win Number One

Knicks 111, Pistons 97 at the Garden, and New York finally got off zero.

It didn't start that way. Detroit led 38-25 after one quarter. The Knicks won the second by 14 to lead 51-50 at the half, then turned the game in the third, outscoring Detroit 37-13 to go up 88-63. Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 27 points.

Jalen Brunson scored 23 on a rough night: 5-of-18 from the field, 0-for-5 from three, and 16 free-throw attempts doing the heavy lifting. Detroit shot 42% from the field and 24% from three, with Duncan Robinson, Javonte Green and Daniss Jenkins combining to go 4-for-22 from deep.

Paul Reed led Detroit with 22 points and 9 rebounds. Cade Cunningham went for 19, 9 and 8. The Pistons cut it to 11 with about two and a half minutes left and got no closer. Detroit falls to 3-1 with its first loss. The Knicks are 1-3.

One win doesn't fix a start like this. A 37-13 quarter against a team that hadn't lost yet is at least a sign the switch exists.

🏈 Monday Night: Dallas Didn't Need to Throw

Cowboys 38, Eagles 21 in Philadelphia. Javonte Williams ran for a career-high 155 yards and a 2-yard touchdown, the most rushing yards by a Cowboy in a game since Ezekiel Elliott's 159 in Week 15 of 2016. Dallas ran 38 times for 204 yards as a team.

Dak Prescott threw for 212 yards and three touchdowns, and Philadelphia's defense finished with zero sacks, zero tackles for loss and zero quarterback hits. Read that again. Zero.

Tanner McKee started at quarterback for the Eagles and went 23-of-35 for 211 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Saquon Barkley, back after missing two games, ran 7 times for 62 yards and a touchdown. Rookie Makai Lemon's first career touchdown put Philly up 21-20 in the third. Dallas answered with a CeeDee Lamb touchdown and a two-point conversion and never trailed again.

The Eagles are 2-5. Dallas is 3-4 and now sits ahead of them in the NFC East. That's not a rivalry game anymore. That's a division standings problem with ten games left for Philadelphia to fix it.

This is the night the World Series either ends in Florida or turns into a series Milwaukee has to sweat.

Sources: MLB.com Game 4 recap, Baseball-Reference Game 3 box score, Yahoo Sports Knicks-Pistons recap, Eagles game recap

— The Bandicoots ⚾🏀🏈

Welcome to Staten News — where one IPO filing moved more chip stocks than most earnings calls do.

Tuesday belonged to the semis. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbed 3.6% for its third straight gain, the Nasdaq added 1.18% to 26,477.81, and the S&P 500 rose 0.6% to 7,722.60, now within 1.2% of its all-time high. The Dow gained 0.03%.

Sixteen points. On a 52,000-point index.

That split tells you who was driving. Tech did the lifting while energy, the worst sector of the day, fell 2.05%.

🧾 The S-1 Trade

Anthropic's IPO paperwork has been public for about a week, and Wall Street is still reading it like a supplier list. The filing showed $16.3 billion in first-half 2026 revenue and an $80.7 billion net loss, mostly non-cash charges tied to convertible financing. About 25% of revenue comes from two unnamed customers without long-term contracts.

AMD rose 5.45% on a commitment worth more than $20 billion to supply Anthropic with MI450-based Helios systems starting in 2027. Broadcom gained 4%, and DA Davidson upgraded it to Buy with a $400 target, up from $350, saying its read of the S-1 convinces it the IPO will proceed.

That's not an IPO trade. That's a picks-and-shovels trade that doesn't need the IPO to price.

✈️ Beat, Miss, Doesn't Matter

Boeing fell 10.69% after a third-quarter core loss of $0.34 a share, worse than the $0.20 loss analysts expected. The backlog hit a record $745 billion. Nobody cared.

Xylem dropped 14.21% after cutting its 2026 revenue and EPS outlook and announcing two divestitures. Coca-Cola beat on earnings ($0.91 against $0.88 expected) and sales ($13.4 billion), raised its 2026 free cash flow view to at least $13 billion, and still slipped 1.64%.

The winners had one thing in common. They raised. UPS gained 5.75% after earning $1.69 a share against $1.62 expected and lifting its full-year EPS view to $7.28. SoFi ran 13.42% on record adjusted net revenue of $1.4 billion and a 2027 outlook well ahead of estimates. Herc Holdings jumped 22.76% on $3.91 a share against $2.96 expected.

This tape pays for next year's guidance, not for the quarter you already had.

After hours wasn't kind either. Enphase fell 15.73% on a fourth-quarter revenue outlook far below estimates, Robinhood slid 4.74% on a slight revenue miss, and Seagate gave back 6.04% as holders took profits.

🛢️ Oil Blinked, Bonds Didn't

WTI settled at $99.90, down 1.83% and back under $100. Brent fell 1.67% to $113.88. Middle East peace talks pulled crude lower, though Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura refinery kept supply fears in the room.

The bond market skipped the relief rally. The 10-year Treasury yield ended at 4.995%, a hair under 5%, and the 2-year sits at 4.737%.

Because that's the number that matters at 2 PM.

🏛️ The 2 PM Problem

The Fed wraps its two-day meeting today with the target range at 3.75% to 4.00%. A hold is almost fully priced, roughly 94% on Polymarket. December is where it gets uncomfortable: CME FedWatch puts the odds of a hike at 83%.

So the decision probably won't move much. The 2:30 press conference might. Any sign the committee is getting comfortable with a December hike turns a 5% 10-year from a ceiling into a floor, and growth stocks feel that first.

Then the bell rings. Microsoft and Alphabet report after the close, Amazon follows later in the week, and PCE inflation lands Thursday.

Chips just ran three straight days on the promise of AI spending. Tonight two of the biggest spenders tell us whether that spending is still speeding up. Possible they deliver? Absolutely. Priced for it already? Ask Boeing how a record backlog felt yesterday.

This is the day the AI trade has to clear two bars at once: a Fed that sounds ready to hike in December, and two hyperscalers that have to prove the bill is worth paying.

Sources: Cappnotes Closing Look (Oct. 27), Investrade Market Review, AI Weekly on the Anthropic S-1

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research.

— The Bandicoots 📈🏛️

Welcome to Staten News — where a record quarter gets punished, a presale premium gets cut in a weekend, and the Brewers turn a four-run hole into a 2-0 series lead.

One thread ran through all four desks this week: good numbers stopped being enough. Wall Street wanted to know who pays for the AI buildout. Collectors wanted to know why they should pay presale prices when prereleases just opened. Apple decided the new selling point is a screen, not a chip.

💰 Finance

• Lam Research posted $8.22 billion in revenue, up 22% from June, and still fell 12.82% on the week after guiding to $8.2 billion to $9.0 billion for the December quarter

• Meta pushed 2026 capex to $135 billion to $145 billion, posted negative free cash flow of $2.12 billion, and finished the week down 9.40%

• Zscaler led the board, up 23.04%, on price target hikes after its Investor Day and a security rally that also lifted CrowdStrike 13.27%

• The S&P 500 closed at 7,623.68, down 0.47%, while Brent settled at $116.72, its highest since April 29

• The Fed decides Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET, with futures pricing about a 5% chance of a hike now and roughly 80% for December

• Our calls for the week: Microsoft (MSFT) as the predicted gainer when it reports Wednesday, Amazon (AMZN) as the predicted loser when it reports Thursday

Full story: Lam Research Beat and Still Lost 13%

🏟️ Sports

• The Brewers lead the World Series 2-0 after winning Game 1 3-2 and Game 2 5-4

• In Game 2, Milwaukee erased a 4-0 first inning on Sal Frelick's game-tying homer in the sixth and Cooper Pratt's go-ahead single in the seventh

• Game 3 is tonight in St. Petersburg at 8 p.m. ET on FOX

• The Knicks fell to 0-3 after Franz Wagner scored 21 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter of Orlando's 111-102 win, making New York the first defending champ to start 0-3 since the 2011-12 Mavericks

• J.J. McCarthy won his first Giants start, 27-21 in overtime at Houston, with Cam Skattebo running for a career-high 124 yards

• The Jets lost 28-25 at home to a Dolphins team that hadn't won all season and dropped to 2-5

Full story: The Brewers Are Two Wins From a Title

💻 Tech

• Apple's "Pro and Tell" drop hits Wednesday in Los Angeles, and Bloomberg expects the first touchscreen MacBook Pro

• The OLED MacBook Pro is expected to keep the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, with Apple reportedly skipping M6 Pro and M6 Max

• An M6 entry-level MacBook Pro, an M6 iMac and an OLED iPad mini are also expected, with availability as soon as November 6

• Elon Musk said SpaceX and Tesla boards formed special committees to discuss a merger, and called a deal far from certain

• In Wisconsin, more than three-quarters of voters told the Marquette poll that data centers cost more than they're worth, up from 55% a year earlier

Full story: Apple's Touchscreen Mac Is Expected Wednesday

🃏 TCG

• Delta Reign's Build & Battle Box fell 23.0% from Friday to Monday, from $68.24 to $52.53

• The Pokémon Center Delta Reign ETB dropped from $353 to $295, and the Booster Bundle from $65.38 to $55.83

• The Delta Reign booster box held flat at $237.61, about $6.60 a pack

• Deoxys ex (Attack Forme) from EX Deoxys led all Pokémon cards for the week, up 27.3% to $400, per TCGIndex

• The Mew Figure Collection was the only November 6 product to climb, up 7.5% to $167.48

• Delta Reign and the 30th Celebration wave both land November 6, eleven days out

Full story: Delta Reign's Build & Battle Box Lost 23%

Wednesday is the pressure point for everyone. Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and the Fed all land on the same day, and the Brewers could be a win from the title by then.

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research.

Stay sharp. Signal over noise. — The Bandicoots 🔥

Welcome to Staten News — where prerelease weekend opens the floodgates and the presale board finds out what it was actually worth.

Delta Reign's Build & Battle Box was a $68.24 product on Friday. By Monday morning it was $52.53 on TCGplayer. That's 23% gone in the span of one prerelease weekend, for a product that doesn't even hit shelves until November 20.

Prereleases opened Saturday. The sellers showed up first.

🏆 Last Week's Gainer: Deoxys ex (Attack Forme), EX Deoxys

The biggest Pokémon mover of the past seven days wasn't anything from 2026. Deoxys ex (Attack Forme), the Ultra Rare from 2005's EX Deoxys, climbed 27.3% to $400, per TCGIndex data.

It wasn't alone. Vintage owned the gainers list. Omastar from Legendary Collection jumped 32.5%. The XY Promos prerelease Charizard 11/108 rose 29.8% to $525. Lugia EX full art from Plasma Storm added 19.8% to $752.52. The overall Pokémon index on TCGIndex finished the week up 0.9%, the strongest of the 14 card games it tracks.

The EX era in general had a good week. Rayquaza from EX Emerald, another card from the same stretch of sets, gained 10.8% to $364.39. Our read: with a set literally called Delta Reign eleven days out, collectors are revisiting the EX era, home of the original Delta Species cards.

That's the nostalgia trade. New set, old name, old cards move first.

📉 Last Week's Loser: Delta Reign Build & Battle Box, -23.0%

Here's the presale board from Friday's report against this morning's TCGplayer market, per TCGCSV:

• Build & Battle Box (Nov. 20): $68.24 to $52.53, down 23.0%

• Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box: $353.00 to $295.00, down 16.4%

• Booster Bundle: $65.38 to $55.83, down 14.6%

• Elite Trainer Box: $106.19 to $106.18, flat

• Booster Box: $237.43 to $237.61, flat

Three products got hit hard. Two didn't move a cent.

The timing tells the story. Prerelease events run October 24 through November 1, and they put product and pulls in front of players almost two weeks before release. Once people can open the set at a local store, the urgency to lock in a presale price goes away. The products priced furthest above retail feel that first.

The 30th Celebration side of the November 6 board mostly drifted lower too. The Classic Collection pack slipped from $305.31 to $297.48. The Ultra-Premium Collection Night box went from $594.77 to $583.58, and the Day box from $558.82 to $547.37. The exception was the Mew Figure Collection, up 7.5% from $155.74 to $167.48, while the Mewtwo Figure Collection fell 3.7% to $160.37.

🔮 This Week's Predicted Riser: Delta Reign Booster Box

The booster box was the one Delta Reign product that held. It sits at $237.61 with the lowest listing at $235.59, which means sellers aren't racing each other to the bottom.

Run the per-pack math. The box works out to $6.60 a pack across 36 packs. The Booster Bundle, even after its 14.6% drop, is still $9.31 a pack. When people decide they want volume, the box is the cheapest way in, and prerelease weekend is when everyone starts posting their Mega Rayquaza ex pulls.

Possible it just holds flat? Sure. But a product that didn't move while everything around it fell has a floor under it, and floors are where the next move starts.

🧊 This Week's Predicted Faller: Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box

The Pokémon Center ETB dropped $58 in three days, and the market and the lowest listing both sit at exactly $295.00. Translation: one seller is setting the price, and the next seller who wants out sets a lower one.

The regular Delta Reign ETB is at $106.18, still about 2.1 times its $49.99 retail price. The Pokémon Center version carries the exclusive premium on top of that, and exclusive premiums are the first thing to compress when supply shows up. Our bet is it keeps sliding toward release.

📅 The Calendar

• Through Nov. 1: Delta Reign prerelease events

• Nov. 6: Delta Reign release, plus the 30th Celebration Ultra-Premium Collections, Ditto Premium Collection and Figure Collections

• Nov. 20: Delta Reign Build & Battle Box

• Dec. 4: 30th Celebration Binder Collection and ex Tins

November 6 is eleven days out. On Friday we're opening up the release tracker we use for CardSafe HQ, so every presale price swing and release date lands on your phone first.

Sources: TCGplayer Delta Reign prices via TCGCSV, TCGIndex Pokémon market study, Staten News Oct. 23 presale report

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research before buying or selling collectibles.

— The Bandicoots 🃏🔥

Welcome to Staten News — where Apple finally lets you touch the Mac, Elon Musk lets committees decide whether his companies get married, and Wisconsin decides it has had enough server farms.

Apple is about to do the thing it spent years telling everyone the Mac didn't need. On Wednesday, at an event it's calling "Pro and Tell" in Los Angeles, the company is expected to show its first touchscreen MacBook Pro, per Bloomberg.

Apple confirmed the date. It didn't confirm the touchscreen. Everybody covering Apple is treating it as done anyway.

🍎 The Drop: What Apple Is Expected to Show Wednesday

This isn't a keynote. Apple is flying some press to L.A. for hands-on time and putting out press releases for everyone else, likely around 10 a.m. Pacific. Here's the expected lineup, based on Bloomberg's reporting and MacRumors' roundup:

• OLED MacBook Pro in 14-inch and 16-inch: the first OLED display and first touchscreen on a Mac, with a reinforced hinge and a Dynamic Island replacing the notch

• Chips: M5 Pro and M5 Max, the same as the current high-end models. Apple is reportedly skipping the M6 Pro and M6 Max entirely

• Entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro: M6 chip, no design change

• 24-inch iMac: M6 chip, no external change

• iPad mini: OLED display, A20 Pro chip, a speaker with no holes, expected to cost about $200 more than today's $599 model

Preorders could open the same day. Availability could come as soon as November 6.

🧠 Why This Matters More Than the Spec Sheet

For years Apple kept touch on the iPad and the keyboard on the Mac. That line protected the iPad from being eaten by the MacBook, and it kept Apple out of the touchscreen laptop fight Windows makers have been running for a decade.

A touchscreen MacBook Pro erases that line at the top of the lineup. And the pricing tells you who it's for. MacRumors expects the OLED models to cost more than the current MacBook Pro, with the existing models possibly sticking around as the cheaper option. Apple isn't chasing volume here. It's raising the ceiling on what a Mac costs.

The chip detail is the quiet part. Shipping a brand-new flagship with last generation's Pro and Max chips, while the entry model gets M6, means the screen is the selling point this cycle. Not the silicon.

That's the tell. Apple's pitch this time isn't speed. It's a screen you can poke.

It also fits a pattern under CEO John Ternus. The Duo foldable iPhone landed in September. The HomeView smart home hub followed in mid-October. Now Macs and an iPad, a week later. Reuters reports that analysts see Ternus pushing to speed up product development, and the calendar backs that up.

📊 Same Day, Different Stage

Apple picked a loud Wednesday. Microsoft and Alphabet both report earnings after the close, and the Fed hands down its rate decision at 2 p.m. ET.

Translation: Apple will spend the morning selling hardware, and Microsoft and Google will spend the evening explaining how much they're spending on AI hardware. After Meta's capex jump last week, the second conversation is the one Wall Street is actually waiting for. Our Finance piece today has the full setup.

🚀 Weekend Callout: The Musk Merger Has Paperwork Now

The SpaceX and Tesla merger talk stopped being a meme last week. On SpaceX's earnings call, Elon Musk said both boards have formed special committees of independent directors to discuss combining the companies.

Musk said he's a conflicted party and isn't on either committee. He also said calling a merger a certainty would be overstating it, while adding that there's "a lot of merit to combining the companies," citing AI software, chip design and robotics. Any deal would need shareholder support at both companies.

The overlap is already real. SpaceX acquired xAI in February. Tesla invested about $2 billion in an AI startup that's a SpaceX subsidiary back in January. And SpaceX's revenue more than doubled last quarter, partly from renting computing capacity to other AI companies.

Special committees don't guarantee anything. They do mean lawyers are billing hours.

🏭 Weekend Callout: Wisconsin Is Done Being Polite About Data Centers

Data centers have turned into a campaign issue in Wisconsin's governor race, and the numbers explain why. In the Marquette Law School Poll from July, more than three-quarters of voters said the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits. Last October, that number was 55%.

Republican Tom Tiffany wants to end state subsidies for tech companies. Democrat David Crowley wants guardrails on existing projects. Neither is calling for an outright ban, but both are running away from the industry they used to court. Microsoft is putting more than $7 billion into what it calls "the world's most powerful AI data center" in Mount Pleasant, Racine County.

Because every hyperscaler's AI plan runs through somebody's backyard, this is where the capex story meets the voter. Wall Street is asking if Meta, Microsoft and Google can afford the buildout. Wisconsin is asking whether it wants it at all.

This is the week those two questions land on the same desk.

Sources: MacRumors Pro and Tell preview, Reuters on Apple's Oct. 28 event, NBC News on the SpaceX-Tesla committees, NOTUS on Wisconsin's data center race

— The Bandicoots 💻🍎🔥