One thread ran through all four sections this week. The headline number hit a record, and the stuff underneath told a thinner story. Three out of four S&P 500 stocks sit below trend. One Pokémon deck is a third of the meta and still lost. Twenty-year-old Pikachus nearly tripled while the brand-new anniversary cards bled.
📈 Finance
The S&P 500 closed Tuesday at 7,818.95, its first finish ever above 7,800, and the Nasdaq set a second straight record at 27,599.79.
The rally was narrow: only about 25% of S&P 500 stocks trade above their 50-day moving average.
Marvell jumped about 8% after lifting its fiscal 2028 revenue target to roughly $20 billion, and Constellation Energy ripped more than 12% on a nuclear power deal with Alphabet. Utilities led every sector, up 3%.
Constellation Brands beat on earnings ($3.74 a share) and sales ($2.63 billion) and still fell 4.9% premarket Wednesday to about $110, under its 52-week low. Beer depletions slipped 0.6%, with Corona down about 5%.
The 10-year Treasury yield eased to 5.27% from 5.31%, and the Fed's September meeting minutes land at 2 p.m. ET today.
Delta Air Lines reports Friday, and September CPI follows on Oct. 14.
Full story: Wall Street Hit a Record. Corona Drinkers Didn't Show Up.
⚾ Sports
The Rays beat the Yankees 5-2 in Game 2 to take a 2-0 ALDS lead. New York committed four errors, and Richie Palacios' two-run single keyed a four-run fifth.
The Yankees have two runs in 18 innings this series, both on Ben Rice home runs. Max Fried faces Nick Martinez in an elimination game tonight at 8 p.m. in the Bronx.
The White Sox came back to beat Cleveland 4-3 for a 2-0 lead, with Braden Montgomery's two-run double erasing Gavin Williams' 11-strikeout start.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out a postseason career-high 10 over seven innings as the Dodgers beat Atlanta 3-1 for a 2-1 NLDS lead.
The Padres held off Milwaukee 4-3 to avoid a sweep. Jake Cronenworth's solo homer broke the tie, and Michael King stranded the tying run in the ninth.
The Falcons ran for a franchise-record five touchdowns in a 45-24 Monday night win in New Orleans, with Bijan Robinson going for 145 yards.
Full story: The Yankees Are One Loss From Winter. Game 3 Is Tonight in the Bronx.
💻 Tech
Satya Nadella, Pavan Davuluri, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang share the stage at Microsoft's Windows and Surface event at 1 p.m. ET today in San Francisco.
The star is Nvidia's RTX Spark, an Arm CPU and Blackwell GPU on one chip. Inside the Surface Laptop Ultra it pairs with up to 128GB of unified memory and runs models up to 120 billion parameters locally.
Microsoft still hasn't priced the Surface Laptop Ultra, and nobody credible expects Windows 12 today.
Schneider Electric agreed to buy design software maker PTC for $22.6 billion in cash, the biggest deal in its history. PTC jumped 33.5% to $192.26.
Cerebras rose about 9% after Sam Altman called it a close partner. He announced no new order, and the existing deal is still the $10 billion, 750-megawatt contract from January.
Apple is reportedly planning smart home announcements for Oct. 13, though Apple hasn't confirmed an event.
Full story: Nvidia Wants Your Laptop Next. Microsoft Is Handing It the Stage Today.
🃏 TCG
Victor Carreira Rodrigues won the 1,074-player Recife Regional with Ogerpon/Meganium.
Dragapult took 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 9th in Recife and holds 33.43% of the meta per Limitless. N's Zoroark is next at 9.35%.
The Louisville Regional starts Saturday, Oct. 10, and it's the first real test of whether Meganium is a Dragapult counter or a one-weekend story.
A 2002 Legendary Collection Reverse Holo Pikachu PSA 10 sold for $780,000 at Fanatics Collect, nearly triple its $264,000 record from June.
A 2006 Holon Phantoms Gold Star Pikachu PSA 10 went for $480,000, even with 119 PSA 10 copies in existence.
Delta Reign drops Nov. 6 with Mega Rayquaza ex on the box. Miniature Market's $209.99 booster box preorder is already out of stock.
Full story: Dragapult Is a Third of the Meta. A Meganium Deck Won Recife Anyway.
This is not financial advice. Always do your own research.
Stay sharp. Signal over noise. — The Bandicoots 🔥