EXCLUSIVE: 21,000+ trades disclosed for 2025 alone. Trump’s accounts hold stocks in sectors his administration directly shapes: chips ($NVDA, $AMD, $MU), defense and surveillance ($PLTR, $AXON), detention ($GEO, $CXW), plus his own Trump Media ($DJT). Read the full breakdown from Benzinga and @unusual_whales here: benzinga.com/news/politics/2…

The typical U.S. homeowner now spends $16,566 a year, or about $1,380 a month, on costs beyond the mortgage, according to Zillow ($Z). Those costs are up 32% in five years, led by a 54% jump in homeowners insurance.

Spotify ($SPOT) analysts raised price targets after strong Q3 subscriber growth and encouraging AI updates. The company expects 10M premium subscriber additions in Q4, while new AI features and audiobooks are helping drive engagement and monetization. benzinga.com/analyst-stock-r…

Cloudflare ($NET) CEO Matthew Prince predicts AI-agent traffic could be 1,000x human traffic within five years. He says the surge could force websites to adopt micropayments and rethink how online advertising works. (Via @tbpn)

China accounted for 74.2% of AI patents granted worldwide in 2024, up from just 18.2% in 2014. The U.S. fell to 12.1%, while Europe dropped to 3.0%, according to Stanford HAI data.

The Average Stock Is Beating the S&P 500 by the Most Since April 2009: Is the Rotation Now Over? benzinga.com/markets/equitie…

Starlink nearly doubled its consumer subscriber base to 13.6M over the past year, but average monthly revenue per user fell 17% to $69. SpaceX ($SPCX) still grew consumer revenue 57%, while enterprise and government revenue jumped 91%. benzinga.com/trading-ideas/l…

Jeff Bezos argued that becoming a billionaire can result from building a product or service that millions of people voluntarily choose to buy, rejecting claims that extreme wealth necessarily requires exploitation. During a May CNBC interview, the Amazon ($AMZN) founder used the example of a small burger restaurant that expands to hundreds or thousands of locations because customers like the food. “If millions of people choose your service, you’re going to end up with $1 billion,” Bezos said, pointing to businesses such as In-N-Out Burger and Raising Cane’s as examples of growth driven by consumer demand. His message was simple: scale follows value creation, but “your chicken has to be good.” Bezos also pushed back on arguments that workers should automatically receive a much larger share of company profits. He highlighted Amazon’s entry-level wages and benefits, citing roughly $23 per hour for some workers in Queens, New York, along with health coverage. He questioned why workers earning around $52,000 annually should face more than $10,000 in taxes, calling that burden “absurd.” Bezos said he would consider paying more taxes himself if there were a convincing argument that doing so would materially improve outcomes for ordinary workers. He also advocated eliminating federal income taxes for the bottom half of earners. That position contrasts with proposals from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna, who support a 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires. Sanders argues the revenue could fund programs including child care, Medicare expansion and higher teacher pay. Bezos’s broader case is that wealth creation should be judged by whether businesses create products people value, while debates over inequality should focus separately on taxes, wages and public policy.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) says the U.S. has spent $11B on missile defense for Israel over the past three years. “That is not a symbiotic relationship. It is a parasitic one,” he said. benzinga.com/news/politics/2…

Evernorth CEO Asheesh Birla says the company chose XRP ($XRP) over Bitcoin ($BTC) because “with BTC you can’t do much on-chain.” Evernorth plans to use its 473M XRP holdings for institutional lending and DeFi opportunities. benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocu…

Meta Platforms ($META) is facing a fresh warning from the bond market as the cost of insuring its debt against default climbed to a record amid growing concern over the company’s AI spending. Meta’s five-year credit default swaps rose 7.6 basis points to 114.79 basis points, signaling that investors are demanding more protection against potential credit risk. The move comes after Meta sold $55 billion of bonds over the past year, including $30 billion in October 2025 and another $25 billion in April. Meta also raised the low end of its 2026 capital spending forecast to $135 billion, keeping the high end at $145 billion as it accelerates investment in AI infrastructure. Free cash flow turned negative by $2.12 billion in the third quarter, marking Meta’s first quarterly cash-flow shortfall since 2012. The company also created a new non-voting Class C stock structure, giving it another potential funding tool for acquisitions, compensation and future capital raising without diluting Mark Zuckerberg’s voting control. Despite the credit-market warning, Meta remains financially strong. It ended September with $82.45 billion in cash and marketable securities, while quarterly revenue jumped 26% to $64.6 billion. The bigger question is whether the massive AI investment will generate adequate returns. Credit concerns are not isolated to Meta. Default-protection costs for Oracle ($ORCL) are also near records, while Amazon’s credit spreads remain around their highest levels since 2020, suggesting investors are scrutinizing the broader AI infrastructure spending boom.

DataTrek co-founder Nicholas Colas says the K-shaped economy is “very much alive and well” as wealth and spending trends continue to diverge across income groups. He also says AI funding concerns are taking some pressure off real rates. benzinga.com/markets/equitie…

Nebius ($NBIS) CRO Marc Boroditsky says the company could sell all its planned 2027 AI compute capacity today at current prices. He says pricing is still rising, with demand extending into 2028. (Via @StockSavvyShay, Original source: @CNBC)

EXCLUSIVE: South Korea’s market flashed a rare “capitulation” signal after a 20%+ monthly drop. MarketVector’s Martin Leinweber says 8 of the last 10 signals were followed by gains one month later, with SK Hynix ($SKHY) earnings now the next major test. benzinga.com/markets/asia/26…

Tesla ($TSLA) shares traded lower after mixed third-quarter results, while analysts largely kept bullish ratings but avoided raising price targets as attention shifted toward a possible SpaceX ($SPCX) merger. Bank of America maintained a Buy rating and $460 target, saying Tesla’s robotaxi rollout may have reached an inflection point. Analyst Alexander Perry sees autonomy becoming a meaningful earnings driver by the end of 2027. TD Cowen also kept a Buy rating and $460 target, highlighting improving automotive margins, FSD adoption and positive vehicle-demand commentary. The firm said higher capex and the Optimus timeline could spark debate but were not major concerns. StoneX maintained an Overweight rating and $475 target, but said merger speculation overshadowed Tesla’s quarterly results. Analyst Mickey Legg noted that Elon Musk controls roughly 80% of SpaceX voting power but only around 20% of Tesla’s vote. He argued that Tesla shareholders would need to be adequately compensated if a merger effectively shifted governance toward Musk’s stronger control at SpaceX. Needham maintained a Hold rating and warned that merger discussions could cap Tesla’s upside because the stock already carries a high valuation. Cantor Fitzgerald kept an Overweight rating and $485 target while highlighting strong FSD subscriptions and robotaxi progress. Analysts generally agreed that autonomy remains Tesla’s biggest near-term growth opportunity, but several questioned whether a SpaceX combination would provide enough additional value to justify a meaningful takeover premium for Tesla shareholders.

Alphabet ($GOOGL) is heading into Q3 earnings with Google Cloud growth accelerating and Wall Street focused on a potentially massive TPU opportunity. benzinga.com/markets/tech/26…

Dan Ives (@DivesTech) says Palantir ($PLTR) and Snowflake ($SNOW) are nearing the end of the gap between massive AI spending and real monetization. He believes Wall Street could be underestimating tech earnings by 15%-25% over the next 12-18 months. benzinga.com/markets/equitie…

Hedge funds have run this Coke vs. Pepsi trade for decades. Most people do the exact opposite.

EXCLUSIVE: Paul Kedrosky (@pkedrosky) says AI adoption can soar even if the data center boom disappoints investors. benzinga.com/markets/predict…

Same age, very different bank accounts. Bezos got rich first, so how did Musk end up this far ahead?

Investor sentiment deteriorated sharply Thursday as the Nasdaq Composite posted its worst session since June and CNN’s Fear & Greed Index fell into the “Extreme Fear” zone. The Nasdaq dropped 2.60% to 26,008.86, while the S&P 500 fell 1.21% to 7,663.43. The Dow Jones was nearly flat, adding about 12 points to close at 52,867.98. Technology stocks were among the biggest drags on the market. Meta Platforms ($META) fell roughly 7% after reporting quarterly results, while Nvidia ($NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices also closed sharply lower. Tesla ($TSLA) declined around 3% following its third-quarter earnings report, adding to pressure across high-growth and AI-related names. The weakness was concentrated in communication services and information technology, while more defensive sectors such as consumer staples, utilities and health care finished higher. Economic data were relatively resilient. Initial jobless claims fell to 194,000, below the 200,000 consensus estimate, while the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index was unchanged in September compared with expectations for a 0.2% decline. Despite those readings, market sentiment worsened significantly. CNN’s Fear & Greed Index dropped to 20 from 27, moving deeper into the “Extreme Fear” category. The index tracks seven equally weighted market indicators on a scale from zero to 100, with lower readings signaling greater investor fear and higher readings reflecting stronger risk appetite.