Welcome to Staten News — where the AI bill came due, the presale bubble sprang a leak, and two franchises are four wins from their first title.
One thread ran through three of today's four stories. Everybody wants AI capacity, and somebody has to pay for it. This week the market found out who.
📈 Finance
Meta beat on revenue with $64.6 billion, up 26%, and still fell 7% Thursday once investors saw the cash flow.
Capex of $34.91 billion topped $32.79 billion in operating cash flow, leaving Meta with negative free cash flow of $2.12 billion, its first cash outflow in more than a decade.
Meta also announced nonvoting Class C shares, effectively a two-for-one split, taking effect January 19, 2027.
The Philadelphia semiconductor index dropped 6.7%, the Nasdaq lost 2.6% to 26,008.86, and the Dow somehow finished up 11.89 points.
Brent crude traded around $114 early Friday, a five-month high, after Houthi attacks on Saudi energy sites.
Through Thursday, the Dow was up about 1.7% on the week, the S&P 500 was flat, and the Nasdaq was down about 0.5%.
Prediction markets put the odds of a Fed hold Wednesday at about 94%, with December hike odds around 72%.
Full story: Meta Spent More Than It Made. The Nasdaq Paid for It.
🏆 Sports
Milwaukee and Tampa Bay open the World Series tonight at 8 p.m. ET on Fox, and neither franchise has ever won a title.
The Brewers won a franchise-record 103 games and swept the Dodgers; the Rays came back from 2-1 down to beat Cleveland in six.
Kevin Cash is starting Nick Martinez (15-6, 3.10 ERA) in Game 1 and giving ace Drew Rasmussen an extra day of rest.
Jacob Misiorowski starts for Milwaukee after hitting 104.8 mph on his first pitch of the NLCS.
The Knicks opened 0-1 after a 106-100 home loss to Philadelphia, with Brunson going 6 of 19, and they visit Boston tonight.
The Giants (3-2-1) blew a 10-0 lead in a 34-27 loss to New Orleans and play at Houston on Sunday.
The Jets (2-4) lost 26-19 at New England and host Miami on Sunday.
Full story: Two Teams That Have Never Won It All Open the World Series Tonight
🤖 Tech
Jensen Huang at GTC Berlin: "Capacity is the constraint."
Nvidia named six suppliers for capacity deals, including a $1.1 billion advance to KYEC for new U.S. testing facilities.
Nvidia is aiming for 2.5 times more substrate capacity over three years, plus a 300%-plus jump in Amkor's interposer capacity by the end of 2028.
Lam Research posted record revenue of $8.22 billion, then fell more than 10% after flagging supply constraints and clean room limits into 2027.
Micron's Taoyuan union ran a 24-hour warning strike over profit sharing, while the larger Taichung union signed its own deal.
The bottleneck has moved from GPUs to substrates, packaging, testing and clean rooms.
Full story: Nvidia Is Prepaying Its Suppliers. That Tells You Where AI Is Stuck.
🃏 TCG
The Delta Reign Elite Trainer Box presale fell from $135.71 in late September to $106.19 today, against $49.99 retail.
Per pack, the Delta Reign booster box is the cheapest presale route at $6.60, versus $11.80 for the ETB and $10.90 for the bundle.
Prereleases run October 24 through November 1, and the set releases November 6, headlined by Mega Rayquaza ex.
The 30th Celebration ETB is holding at $118.66, five weeks after release.
The top 30th Celebration chase is the Mew R/RGB RGB Rare at $4,824.92.
The Classic Collection pack inside the November 6 Ultra-Premium Collections trades at $305.31 on its own.
Full story: The Delta Reign ETB Preorder Fell 22% in a Month. Prereleases Start Tomorrow.
Stay sharp. Signal over noise. — The Bandicoots 🔥