Market-moving news for Monday, October 26, 2026

What happened

President Trump extended his 48-hour ultimatum demanding Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz, postponing threatened U.S. strikes on Iranian power plants by five days and saying Iran has 'one more chance' at peace, citing 'very good and productive conversations' and possible progress toward a 'complete and final agreement.' He also paused 'Project Freedom,' the U.S. operation escorting commercial ships through the Strait, while keeping the naval blockade of Iranian ports in full force. Tehran pushed back: parliamentary speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said 'no negotiations have been held with the US' and called the talks reports 'fake news' used to manipulate financial and oil markets, though a senior Iranian official told CBS News that U.S. points received through mediators are under review. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said U.S. offensive operations ('Operation Epic Fury') are complete and 'there's no shooting unless we are shot at first,' but warned Iran must 'pay a price' for trying to control the strait. Oil whipsawed: Brent fell more than 10% on Monday after the de-escalation signals, then held near six-month highs, at $115.15 a barrel as of 0000 GMT Tuesday per Reuters, with WTI at $101.32, as Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia continued and a vessel caught fire off Iraq's coast.

What happened

Cadence Design Systems reported third-quarter results late Monday that beat Wall Street expectations and raised its full-year outlook. Adjusted earnings came in at $2.11 per share on sales of $1.63 billion, versus FactSet consensus of $2.05 per share on $1.61 billion; earnings rose 9% and sales surged 22% year over year. For the full year, Cadence now expects adjusted earnings of $8.40 per share on sales of $6.4 billion at the midpoint, up from $8.10 per share and $6.3 billion three months ago (versus $7.14 per share and $5.3 billion last year). CEO Anirudh Devgan cited broad-based momentum, expanding technology leadership and a record backlog, and shares rose more than 2% in after-hours trading.

What happened

Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to around 60,000 employees — roughly a quarter to 27% of its ~223,000-person global workforce — according to Bloomberg and Business Insider reports on Monday, October 26. Chief People Officer Amy Coleman announced the 'Voluntary Exit Offer' in a memo to staff, calling it 'an important part of how we're evolving our approach to change' and a time-limited program with severance-like financial support and career-planning resources. Eligibility covers employees at level 70 and below (vice president and below) on participating teams in the U.S., Canada, India and the U.K.; some data-center, sales, marketing, commercial and security teams are excluded, while AI experiences, Copilot, finance, HR, Xbox and Windows + Devices are reportedly included. Microsoft has not disclosed expected costs or participation; shares rose about 1% Monday.

What happened

Barclays analyst Dan Levy upgraded Tesla (TSLA) to Overweight from Equal Weight on Monday, October 26, 2026, and raised his price target to $450 from $370 — roughly 20% above Friday's $372.22 close. Tesla shares rose about 5-6% in early Monday trading, to around $392-395, clearing their 200-day moving average for the first time since July. Levy cited a potential premium from an expected Tesla-SpaceX combination, a core auto business returning to growth after two flat years, energy-storage shipments growing more than 50% in 2027, and robotaxi progress reaching an inflection point.

What happened

Anthropic, PBC publicly filed a Form S-1 with the SEC on Monday, October 26, 2026 (accepted 9:00:11 a.m. ET) for an initial public offering of its Class A common stock, to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker ANT. The share count and price range were left blank, so the amount to be raised and the valuation are not yet set; reports put a possible valuation at up to $2 trillion, with some investors now marking it near $1.5 trillion, and bankers reportedly aiming for up to $100B in proceeds. The filing discloses first-half 2026 revenue of $16.3 billion, up about 1,300% from $1.2 billion a year earlier, alongside a net loss of $80.7 billion — but $72.4 billion of that loss is a non-cash fair-value charge on convertible notes, derivatives and SAFEs as Anthropic's valuation rose, leaving an operating loss of $693 million, positive operating cash flow of $3.9 billion, and $131.7 billion in cash and short-term investments at June 30. It also reveals a novel governance structure: a single Class F share held by a founders' company carries 50.1% of votes, and a Long-Term Benefit Trust elects a majority of the board, making Anthropic a controlled company.

What happened

Verizon reported Q3 results Monday that beat profit expectations and raised its full-year guidance for a third consecutive quarter, while signing a deal worth more than $2 billion with Amazon Web Services. Adjusted EPS was $1.31 versus ~$1.27-$1.28 expected; revenue rose 1.5% to $34.3 billion, slightly below the ~$34.7-$34.8 billion consensus as lower device upgrades weighed on equipment revenue. Verizon added 406,000 postpaid phone subscribers — more than double the ~195,000-209,000 expected and its best Q3 in five years — and raised full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $5.04-$5.06 (from $4.99-$5.04) and postpaid phone net additions to 1.1-1.2 million (from 750,000-1 million). Under the AWS deal, Verizon will provide high-capacity fiber-optic connectivity for AWS data centers supporting agentic and generative AI workloads.

What happened

Meta Platforms said Monday it plans to raise up to $95 billion in equity to fund its AI-related expansion of data centers, cloud computing power and other infrastructure. It launched public offerings of about $35 billion in common stock and convertible preferred stock, and plans a separate at-the-market sale program of up to $60 billion after its new non-voting Class C shares begin trading, expected in the first quarter of 2027. Meta had cash, equivalents and marketable securities of $82.45 billion at September 30, slightly above its $80.92 billion of long-term debt.

What happened

EQT Corp said Monday it will acquire Range Resources in an all-stock deal valued at more than $50 billion including debt, creating what the companies called the largest vertically integrated natural gas producer in the United States. Range shareholders will receive 0.987 EQT shares per share, an implied $54.91 per share — about 20.6% above Range's Friday close, valuing the equity at roughly $12.83 billion on 233.68 million shares outstanding. EQT shareholders will own about 73% of the combined company and Range investors 27%; the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.

What happened

Volkswagen's Audi brand plans a new $4 billion assembly plant in Macon, Georgia, producing about 200,000 SUVs a year and creating about 4,500 jobs, President Donald Trump announced at a rally in Perry, Georgia on Saturday, October 24, with Audi CEO Gernot Doellner on stage. The plant is expected to build the Q7, Q8 and Q9 SUVs, with construction starting next year and vehicle production targeted for the early 2030s. Audi also plans to expand its Scout Motors factory under construction in Blythewood, South Carolina by 25,000 units a year. A final investment decision still has to be taken by Volkswagen's supervisory board.

What happened

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on Friday, October 23, in a video podcast hosted by Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz and general partner Erik Torenberg, that Amazon Web Services capacity for 2026 is already sold out, capacity for 2027 is largely committed, and a significant portion of 2028 capacity is already booked, as reported by Reuters. Jassy described AI infrastructure demand as insatiable, driven by AI labs and enterprises, and said Amazon keeps some capacity available for on-demand services, EC2 and Bedrock inference, but that the large longer-term capacity blocks are largely committed. He said Amazon's roughly $220 billion 2026 capex plan could rise further, adding: 'If we could build more, we would; this would not be an inefficient use of capital.'

What happened

Elon Musk said on Sunday, October 25, in a post on X, that SpaceX has closed $40 billion in debt financing to buy graphics processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia, with deliveries expected in the first and second quarters of 2027. Musk said the debt is primarily callable and 'not a major factor this quarter,' attributing SpaceX's ability to raise it to its investment-grade status and revenue from Starlink and rocket launches. In the same posts, Musk warned that debt markets have 'almost entirely shut off access to money for any company that doesn't have substantial revenue independent of AI data centers,' predicting that 'the 200+ neoclouds are going to see guppy-level death and consolidation' and that SpaceX will not buy any neoclouds. One caveat carried by Reuters: it was not immediately clear from Musk's post what 'closed' means or whether investors have agreed on pricing for the debt, and Musk named no lenders, rate, or maturity.

What happened

Yemen's Houthis claimed seven missile and drone attacks on Saudi targets on Saturday, Oct. 24, including King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and Saudi oil facilities, and on Sunday the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted drones and missiles over Riyadh and ten ballistic missiles fired toward the south, issuing emergency alerts for Riyadh, Abha and Khamis Mushait. Gulf markets fell sharply Sunday: Saudi Arabia's TASI closed down 2.65% at 9,438.50, its worst session in 18 months and lowest close since March 2021, with decliners outnumbering advancers 348 to 30, while most other Gulf bourses also fell. The Houthis warned they could target King Khalid airport again even as it resumed partial operations Sunday. On Monday, the Houthis said they had attacked Saudi Arabia's East-West crude oil pumping stations, an Aramco facility in Yanbu and the Rabigh refinery — claims without Saudi confirmation — while the Saudi coalition said it destroyed five Houthi missile-storage tunnels, four launchers and a missile storage facility in Yemen.

What happened

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won re-election in Sunday's runoff, taking 51.78% of valid votes (64,248,884) against 48.22% (59,822,138) for right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, with 99.99% counted, becoming the first president to begin a fourth term. The upset — prediction markets had favored Bolsonaro — triggered a sharp overnight selloff in U.S.-listed Brazilian assets: the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ) fell 18-19.6% in after-hours trading, Petrobras ADRs lost 11-16%, Itau Unibanco ADRs fell about 13.7%, Vale slipped over 4%, and MercadoLibre dropped about 7%. November real futures fell about 10% on CME, and a Tokyo-listed Ibovespa ETF plunged 15%, with the implied dollar for Monday near R$5.50 versus Friday's R$4.993 close. Bolsonaro's team late Sunday asked courts to annul the runoff over voting issues, according to Investor's Business Daily.

What happened

Instacart (Maplebear, CART) is exploring a possible sale and has held preliminary discussions with potential buyers including Uber and DoorDash, The Information reported on Friday, October 23, citing people familiar with the matter. Instacart has hired an investment bank to evaluate its options, according to the report. Shares of Instacart closed about 9% higher on Friday, while Uber fell nearly 3% and DoorDash dropped more than 4%. Instacart declined to comment; Uber and DoorDash did not immediately respond. Discussions are ongoing and there is no guarantee they lead to a deal. A typical takeover premium of 30-40% would value Instacart at roughly $16-17 billion, versus its roughly $12 billion market value at Thursday's close.

What happened

Whirlpool reported third-quarter results Monday after the close that missed badly and guided to a full-year loss. Net sales fell 8.8% year over year to $3.677 billion, below Wall Street's $3.9 billion expectation, and the company posted a GAAP loss of $3.80 per diluted share (net loss $249 million versus $73 million profit a year earlier). On an ongoing basis it lost $0.21 per share, versus analysts' expected profit of $0.73. For 2026 it now expects a GAAP loss of $4.95 per share and an ongoing loss of $1.30 per share, with operating cash flow of about $700 million and free cash flow of about $300 million. Shares dropped about 8-8.5% in after-hours trading.