Markets - Unusual Whales

Trump Called Musk and Asked Him to Reverse the Starlink Restrictions on Ukraine, per WSJ

A presidential call to the Starlink owner Trump has called Elon Musk and asked him to reverse the Starlink restrictions on Ukraine, per WSJ. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing US officials, that President Donald Trump phoned the SpaceX chief executive and asked him to lift the restrictions on

Geopolitics

Iran Says It Will Strike Oil Facilities, Undersea Cables and AI Datacentres Across the Gulf if Attacked

Tehran widens the target list Iran says it will strike oil facilities, undersea cables, datacentres and AI facilities across as many as seven countries in the Gulf in the event of a fresh US-Israeli attack. The warning came from Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National

Politics

Elon Musk Says He Will Retaliate Against Democrats Who Investigate Him, per Fox

Elon Musk says he will retaliate against Democrats who investigate him, per Fox, warning he will find out who is pulling the strings after reports that a Democratic Congress would probe his companies, federal contracts, and DOGE role.

Markets

Major US Banks Are Detecting Unauthorized AI Agents Inside Customer Accounts, per Axios

Major US banks are detecting unauthorized third-party AI agents operating inside customer accounts, per Axios, with some agents attempting actions independent of user instructions, and JPMorgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo are racing to contain the risk.

Markets

The US Has 23.8 Million Millionaires, More Than Any Other Country, per UBS

There are about 23.8 million millionaires in the US, per UBS, more than any other country and roughly 40 percent of the world total, as rising home values and asset prices mint more than a thousand new US millionaires a day.

Politics

California's Top 1% Pay Nearly Half the State's Income Taxes, per Fortune

California's top 1% pay nearly half the state's income taxes, per Fortune, a dependence that explains the state's boom and bust budgets and sits at the center of the fight over Proposition 40, the proposed one-time 5% tax on billionaires.

Economy

Americans Are Paying 38.3% More for Electricity in 2026 Than They Did in 2020, per Bloomberg

Americans are paying 38.3% more for electricity in 2026 than they did in 2020, per Bloomberg, outpacing overall inflation of roughly 29% over the same period, as data center demand and grid spending push utility bills higher.

Markets

Musk Wants to Combine Tesla and SpaceX in a $3.7 Trillion Deal Before Trump Leaves Office, per Bloomberg

Elon Musk wants to combine Tesla and SpaceX in a deal worth about $3.7 trillion, per Bloomberg, and his backers are racing to announce it by the first half of 2027 so it can close while Trump is still in office.

Politics

Meta Strikes Deal to Keep Zuckerberg in California After His Wealth Tax Warning, per Reuters

Meta has struck a deal with Mark Zuckerberg to keep him living in California after he warned he could leave over Proposition 40, giving him non-voting Class C shares he can sell to cover a potential tax bill in exchange for an eight year residency commitment.

Markets

Anthropic to Publicly File for IPO as Early as Friday, per Yahoo Finance

Anthropic is preparing to publicly file its S-1 as early as Friday, per Yahoo Finance, setting up a potential November listing that could raise up to $100 billion and become the largest IPO in history.

Markets

USDA Confirms First Detection of Flesh-Eating Screwworm in US Wildlife, in a Texas Elk

The USDA has confirmed the first detection of the New World screwworm in US wildlife, in an elk in Pecos County, Texas, while New Mexico confirmed a case in a beef cow, raising the stakes for US cattle supplies and record beef prices.

Markets

Meta Posts Its First Negative Free Cash Flow in More Than a Decade

The AI bill just outran the cash machine $META has posted its first negative Free Cash Flow in more than a decade. Free cash flow is what is left after a company pays for everything, including capital spending, and Meta has been one of the great cash generators in market

Politics

Zuckerberg Says He Is Considering Leaving California Over Its Proposed 5% Billionaire Tax, per Bloomberg

Zuckerberg is eyeing the California exit Mark Zuckerberg of $META has said he is considering leaving California if it passes a measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires, per Bloomberg. The proposal would levy a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of California residents

Geopolitics

US Embassy Staff and Families Ordered to Leave Saudi Arabia, per AFP

An ordered departure across the Gulf "US embassy staff and families ordered to leave Saudi Arabia, with families of embassy staff in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain also ordered to leave," per AFP. An ordered departure is one of the State Department's strongest

Markets

Meta Plans a New Class of Non-Voting Shares to Fund AI Spending Without Diluting Zuckerberg's Control, per FT

Meta wants to sell stock that carries no say Meta, $META, plans to create a new class of non-voting shares, allowing it to sell stock to fund its AI spending without diluting Mark Zuckerberg's control of the company, per the Financial Times. Meta already runs a dual-

Markets

More Oil Is Now Coming Out of the Persian Gulf Than Before the Iran War, per WSJ

Gulf supply has fully recovered, and then some More oil is now coming out of the Persian Gulf than before the Iran war, per the Wall Street Journal. The milestone marks a complete reversal of the supply shock that defined energy markets during the conflict. Gulf producers have restored loadings

Economy

Home Sellers Now Outnumber Buyers by 560,000, the Widest Gap on Record, per Redfin

A buyer's market on paper, a frozen market in practice There are now far more people trying to sell homes than buy them. US home sellers outnumber buyers by an estimated 560,000, or 58%, the widest gap on record, per Redfin data going back to 2013. The

Tech

AI Would Need $3.5 Trillion a Year by 2032 to Justify the Data Center Buildout, per Brookings

The math behind the AI buildout To justify today's data center buildout, AI would need to bring in about $3.5 trillion a year by 2032, per a new Brookings paper. The scale is the story. $3.5 trillion a year equals 8.8% of US GDP, nearly

Markets

Speculative Data Center Debt Is Being Repackaged and Sold to Pension Funds, per AFR

Wall Street is packaging the AI boom for retirees "Speculative data center debt is being repackaged and sold to pension and retirement funds, university endowments, and other institutional investors in a manner eerily reminiscent of the subprime bubble," per Americans for Financial Reform. The warning targets the financing

Markets

Michael Burry Says the Stock Market Is in Denial, Its First Stage of Grief

Denial comes first, and it can last a while Michael Burry says the stock market is in denial. "The stock market is quite obviously in its first stage of grief, denial," the "Big Short" investor posted on X, adding that in 2000 and 2008, the denial

Markets

NYSE Launches Extended-Hours Options Trading, With 23-Hour Days Coming December 6, per CNBC

Options trading before the bell and after the close The New York Stock Exchange has launched extended-hours options trading, per CNBC, covering 29 big stocks and ETFs including Nvidia, Bank of America, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and the iShares Russell 2000 ETF. The new sessions

Tech

Elon Musk Says He Will Give Every Child in the US a Share of SpaceX Next Year

One share for each of 73 million kids Elon Musk says he'll give every child in the U.S. a share of SpaceX next year. There are about 73 million Americans under 18, which at SpaceX's current price of around $157 would make the gift worth

Economy

America's $1.7 Trillion Auto Loan Market Is Headed for a Crash, per Reuters

The strain is showing in the delinquency data America's $1.7 trillion auto loan market is headed for a crash, per Reuters. Auto loans are now one of the biggest sources of household debt, bigger than credit cards. And the strain is showing: 1 in 5 Americans is

Tech

Tech Billionaires Added a Record $845 Billion This Year While Every Other Billionaire Lost Money

Every dollar of new billionaire wealth came from tech Tech billionaires are pulling away from the rest of the ultra-rich. The world's roughly 100 tech billionaires added a record $845 billion through September, per Bloomberg, while every other billionaire combined lost $62 billion. The gain was the

AI

BlackRock's Larry Fink Says a Data Center Moratorium Could Trigger a Recession

The warning from the world's largest asset manager BlackRock CEO Larry Fink says a moratorium on data center construction could trigger a recession in the United States, per CNBC. "If we have a moratorium of some sort in this country, we will be in a recession,"