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NASDAQ 24,579.42 ▲ +1.09%
SPX 7,376.86 ▲ +0.31%
DJI 51,285.73 ▼ -0.46%
BTC $75,741.65 ▼ -0.26%
GOLD $4,074.00 ▼ -0.96%
SLVR $51.94 ▼ -0.83%
OIL $90.83 ▲ +0.34%
10Y 4.86% ▲ +0.48%
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Good Morning! It’s a big week for anyone watching inflation. The government reports October consumer prices Tuesday and wholesale prices Friday, two readings the Fed will weigh before its December meeting. Bond markets close Wednesday for Veterans Day, though stocks trade as usual, and chip-equipment maker Applied Materials reports Thursday.
Airbnb is growing faster than it has in years, and much of the lift comes from letting guests book now and pay later. Check out the Company Spotlight for an in-depth look at how it’s affecting the stock overall.
Wall Street now sees another Fed rate hike as likely. If rates go up again, would you move more of your money into bonds or savings, or stay the course? Hit reply and tell us.
Buying in bulk doesn’t always mean spending less. Today’s sponsor, FinanceBuzz, shares 18 Weird Little Hacks Costco Shoppers Should Know to help you rethink your next warehouse run.
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Data Center Worries Dragged Down AI Stocks Last Week
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Let’s start with stocks. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% on Friday and trimmed its loss for the week as AI stocks bounced back from a brutal selloff. The Nasdaq rallied 1.1%, while the Dow slipped 0.5%. Stocks tied to AI data centers had tumbled earlier in the week on worries that Democratic wins in statehouses could slow construction, particularly in Texas. The S&P 500 finished the week down 2.7%, its worst since the April 2025 tariff shock. Even so, it’s only 5.7% below the record it set last month. This morning, Dow futures were up 1.1% and S&P 500 futures were up 0.9%, while U.S. oil prices fell below $89 a barrel.
Interest rates may be headed higher again. The Fed held its key rate at 3.75% to 4% in late October after raising it in September for the first time since July 2023, and two officials voted for another increase. On Friday, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said more hikes will probably be needed because prices for services outside of housing haven’t cooled the way officials expected.
Consumer borrowing jumped in September. Americans added $27.84 billion in consumer debt, such as credit cards and car loans, about twice what economists expected and more than three times August’s increase.
 What to watch today: Occidental Petroleum and video game maker Take-Two report earnings after the close today. On Tuesday, the government releases October consumer prices at 8:30 a.m. ET, and defense-parts maker TransDigm reports before the bell. AI cloud company CoreWeave reports after the close.
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Flying together with our sponsor
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18 Weird Little Hacks Costco Shoppers Should Know
You went in for paper towels and rotisserie chicken. You came out with a cart full of things you didn’t know you needed. Sound familiar?
Costco can be a great place to stock up, but a warehouse full of bargains can still put a dent in your budget. Before your next trip, check out FinanceBuzz’s roundup of 18 weird little hacks for Costco shoppers.
Whether you’re a longtime member or still figuring out your shopping routine, give the list a look. You might find an idea worth keeping in mind before you fill your next cart.
See the Costco hacks here.
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➤ Buy: Wells Fargo upgraded medical-device maker Becton Dickinson (BDX) from Hold to Buy and raised its price target from $170 to $242. BD’s sales grew 5.6% last quarter, well ahead of the roughly 3% Wall Street expected, and the bank thinks the company’s forecast for the year ahead leaves room to beat. (More)
➤ Buy: Cantor Fitzgerald kept its Buy rating on chipmaker Microchip Technology (MCHP) after the company’s forecast disappointed. Cantor blames tight supply rather than weak demand, since some orders now take up to 32 weeks to fill and high-profit sales are slipping into next quarter. (More)
➤ Hold: Citi downgraded BJ’s Wholesale Club (BJ) from Buy to Hold. Citi worries that some of BJ’s recent sales growth came from one-time boosts like tariff refunds, and Walmart’s Sam’s Club is competing harder for warehouse-club members. (More)
➤ Sell: Bank of America downgraded travel-review site TripAdvisor (TRIP) from Buy to Sell. Revenue fell 11% last quarter, worse than the company had forecast, and both its CEO and CFO are leaving in the middle of a restructuring. (More)
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2023 – October 2026
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Hiring jumped back to its 2023–24 pace in October, at 165,000.
➤ Employers added 165,000 jobs in October, about the same monthly pace as in 2023 and 2024. Hiring nearly stalled in 2025 and recovered only partway in the first nine months of this year.
Traders now see about a 77% chance the Fed raises rates in December, up about 10 percentage points from Thursday. With baby boomers retiring and lower immigration levels, the economy now needs only about 5,000 new jobs a month to keep unemployment from rising, a fraction of what it took in late 2023.
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Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Company Spotlight
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Airbnb is growing at its fastest pace in years.
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Airbnb’s revenue rose 19% last quarter to $4.87 billion, its fastest growth in more than three years. Nights booked climbed 16%, and North American bookings grew at their quickest pace in four years. Shares jumped about 12% on Friday.
A payment change gave bookings an extra push. Airbnb now lets guests reserve many stays without paying until closer to the trip, and more than 40% of its bookings by value qualify. Guests who pay later tend to book earlier and pick pricier listings. The option added about 3 percentage points to nights booked. Without it, growth was about 13%, still faster than the quarter before.
New customers are showing up, too. First-time bookers grew 13%, the most since early 2022, and all five of Airbnb’s core markets sped up, including the U.S. Profit rose 38% to $1.89 billion. An AI assistant now settles about 40% of customer-service issues without a person, and support costs per booking fell more than 17%. Airbnb raised its forecast for the year and set aside another $12 billion to buy back its own stock.
Wedbush raised its price target from $200 to $237 and expects the AI work to keep speeding up new products and cutting costs.
The pay-later push has a cost, though. Cancellation rates rose to about 19% from about 16% a year earlier, and finance chief Ellie Mertz expects the feature’s lift to shrink this quarter as those cancellations come through.
By the Numbers: Airbnb
- Market value: about $114 billion
- Stock, past year: up about 55%
- Annual sales: $12.2 billion in 2025, up 10%
- Profit: $2.5 billion, or about 21 cents of every dollar of sales
- Employees: about 8,200
- Dividend: None
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➤ Nvidia’s board is investigating reports that CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by Chinese intelligence but says it has no reason to believe company secrets were compromised. (More)
➤ Gas prices fell below $4 a gallon over the weekend for the first time since August, according to GasBuddy. (More)
➤ Audi is weighing a $3 billion expansion of its first U.S. plant, where Georgia is giving it land and $458 million in tax breaks. (More)
➤ Investors pulled $430 million from U.S. bitcoin funds on Thursday as the tech selloff spread to crypto. (More)
➤ Elon Musk says Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production in Texas around the middle of next year to make room for its Cybercab robotaxi. (More)
➤ World food prices slipped in October as grain and dairy got cheaper but remain nearly 6% higher than a year earlier. (More)
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▼ BEARISH · 38%
Composite score based on our previous edition’s votes.
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Does federal law still limit savings accounts to six convenient withdrawals per month?
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