Your Evening Briefing

October 06, 2025

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all post fresh closing highs

The S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, and Russell 2000 all climbed to fresh record closing highs, a feat last performed on September 18. This is the fourth consecutive record close for the S&P 500 and the second consecutive record close for the Russell 2000. The Nasdaq-100 crossed the 25,000 resistance level for the first time.

Gains were led by Advanced Micro Devices on news that the chip designer struck a megadeal with OpenAI that “is expected to deliver tens of billions of dollars in revenue,” which sent Nvidia down but lifted up companies in the AI ecosystem like Oklo, Cipher Mining, Super Micro Computer and IREN.

Oil prices rose as OPEC+ announced that they’d be increasing oil production by 137,000 barrels per day in November — a little less than some had anticipated.

Stocks that moved higher:

Critical Metals skyrocketed after Reuters reported that the Trump administration is in talks to take a stake in the company.
Tesla rose after posting videos online that teased what seems to be an imminent product or event that will be announced tomorrow. Archer Aviation rose as well on speculation that they are somehow involved in Tesla’s announcement.
Plug Power continued its ascent as the AI boom may finally be able to drive positive unit economics for the hydrogen company.
Klarna jumped after a wave of analysts initiated coverage on the “buy now, pay later” giant, as the so-called post-IPO “quiet period” came to an end.
Shares of Sony climbed as Abenomics supporter Sanae Takaichi is likely to become Japanese PM.

Stocks that moved lower:

Quantum Computing fell after the company announced it had reached an agreement to sell 37.2 million shares of common stock in a private placement, raising some $750 million before fees and offering expenses.
Moderna slipped after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Monday that it is adopting a narrower recommendation for when COVID-19 booster shots are appropriate.

Crypto moves:

Ethereum crossed $4,650 for the first time in over three weeks on Monday.
Bitcoin reached another new all-time high, crossing $126,000 for the first time not even two months after hitting its previous record. The asset is up over 100% in the past year.

Can pharma companies put tariff threats behind them?

Big Pharma may have gotten Trump off its back for now. But are drug prices coming down?

Read more.

Everyone is admitting the AI boom might be a bubble

What’s a few hundred billion misspent dollars among friends?

Read more.

The Microsoft-backed OpenAI now has 800 million weekly users for ChatGPT— up from 700 million last month — according to CEO Sam Altman, who spoke during the company’s developer conference today. For those who’re counting, that’s about 736 million more users than Grok has each month.

It’s getting pretty tough keeping all these AI deals straight
Where is all this money supposed to come from? And who gets to keep it?
OpenAI’s Altman: Sora will let copyright holders control how their characters appear
The buzzy AI video generation app is tweaking its lax controls for generating copyrighted characters in users’ videos.
In bad news for protein-hungry Americans, beef is more expensive than ever
Meat-packing giants, meanwhile, are benefiting from beefier prices.
More details about OpenAI’s AI device: Palm-sized with multiple cameras potentially
The screenless AI companion device is supposed to launch next year.
America’s top 1% now holds nearly a third of household wealth
Stock market rallies have added trillions to the fortunes of the wealthiest people in the US.
OpenAI’s social app for AI videos, Sora, spent the weekend at the top of the App Store rankings
Google’s Gemini was knocked off its perch.
Musk’s xAI spending $18 billion for another 300,000 Nvidia GPUs for “Colossus 2”
Musk’s xAI is burning through cash and spending tens of billions to fill its “Colossus 2” data center with 500,000 GPUs.

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