Verizon (VZ) news that moved the stock

What happened

The Washington Post reported on Monday that SpaceX has been in talks for months with EchoStar about either acquiring Boost Mobile outright or gaining access to its wireless network, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Elon Musk personally met EchoStar chairman Charlie Ergen last month to discuss a potential transaction. The move would support SpaceX's plan to build Starlink Mobile, a hybrid satellite-terrestrial network combining its satellite constellation with ground-based infrastructure to challenge AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile as a fourth national carrier. EchoStar had about 7.38 million wireless subscribers at the end of Q2, mostly through Boost Mobile and Gen Mobile — a ready-made customer base and retail distribution network for SpaceX. SpaceX has also approached AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon about buying network capacity directly; all three rebuffed it, and the carriers may need to approve any Boost transfer since network-leasing agreements are usually nontransferable. Neither SpaceX nor EchoStar commented. Telecom stocks fell more than 2% each on the report while EchoStar rose roughly 4-5%.

What happened

Reports on Friday said SpaceX is pursuing thousands of U.S. cell sites to establish a fourth national wireless carrier. The news hammered incumbent carriers in Friday trading: AT&T and T-Mobile each sank nearly 8%, while Verizon shed 1.2%, dragging down the broader communication services sector. Conversely, U.S. cell-tower operators rallied hard on the prospect of a well-funded new tenant — Crown Castle jumped 9% and American Tower gained 4%. SpaceX shares rose about 1.9% on the session.

What happened

Comcast reported Q3 2026 results on October 22. Adjusted EPS of $1.07 beat the roughly $0.98–0.99 consensus by about 9%, though it declined 4% year over year. Revenue of $29.3 billion beat estimates near $29.2B but fell 6.1% reported year over year; on a pro forma basis (excluding the Versant separation completed January 2, 2026 and the sale of Sky Germany operations), revenue rose 0.5%. Adjusted EBITDA of $9.11 billion topped the $8.9B estimate, and free cash flow of $4.21 billion beat the $3.2B consensus. The trouble spot was connectivity: Comcast lost 144,000 domestic residential broadband customers, worse than the roughly 131,000–133,000 analysts expected and up from 91,000 losses a year ago, and shed 274,000 video customers. On the bright side, Peacock posted its second straight profitable quarter — its only two since launching in 2020 — with $261 million in adjusted EBITDA, $1.8 billion in revenue, and paid subscribers up 17% to 48 million, boosted by the summer FIFA World Cup ($224M incremental revenue). Universal became the first studio to cross $5 billion at the 2026 global box office, led by 'The Odyssey' at nearly $1.8 billion — Universal's highest-grossing film ever. Comcast said the planned separation of NBCUniversal and Sky into two independent companies remains on track, and paused share repurchases through the separation. The stock initially jumped ~2% premarket before reversing to trade down about 1%.

What happened

SpaceX announced a definitive agreement late Thursday to acquire 100% of Grain Management's nationwide 800 MHz spectrum portfolio — up to 14 megahertz of paired low-band spectrum — subject to FCC approval. SpaceX said the 'prime low-band spectrum addresses one of the key remaining technical gaps that will pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile carrier in the U.S.' The low-band airwaves provide the indoor-penetrating coverage layer that complements Starlink Mobile's existing global 2 GHz mid-band capacity; most existing phones already support the 800 MHz band. Starlink Mobile plans a hybrid architecture combining the satellite-to-mobile constellation with a terrestrial network, and the FCC has separately approved its Gen2 plan authorizing 15,000 satellites optimized for 2 GHz. The market read it as a credible carrier-competition threat: Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile all fell about 7% in after-hours trading, with AST SpaceMobile down 3%.