Market

File photo: Photo: SpaceX, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

Musk says every US child will get a SpaceX share. There is no plan yet.

Elon Musk has pledged one SpaceX share to every child in America next year. No eligibility rules, timetable or delivery mechanism have been published, so for now it is a promise in search of a plan, and a very large one.

Starbase, Texas · October 20, 2026

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Builders have lost their nerve, and the numbers say why

US builder confidence fell to 29 in October, the lowest since June 2012. A record share for this period, 43 percent of builders, cut prices, and buyer traffic hit its lowest level since April 2012 outside the pandemic.

Washington, United States · October 20, 2026

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French borrowing costs near a 24 year high, and the street is part of the price

Ten year French yields climbed to 4.96 percent on Tuesday, within a whisker of levels last seen in 2002, as the unrest met a budget France cannot pass and a debt it cannot shrink. The street has a vote. So does the bond market.

Paris, France · October 20, 2026

File photo: Photo: Coolcaesar, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Chip stocks lost about $2 trillion in eight days. Monday was a bounce, not a verdict.

The Philadelphia chip index fell 11.4 percent last week, its worst week since March 2025, then buyers stepped back in on Monday. Meta reports on Wednesday, and that is where the argument gets settled.

New York, United States · October 20, 2026

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Amazon jumps as Wall Street bets on a faster cloud

Amazon closed up 4.98 percent at $262.45 after Morgan Stanley named it a top pick and raised its price target to $350. The bank expects AWS growth to reach 47 percent in 2027, and earnings on October 29 are the next test.

New York, United States · October 20, 2026

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Tesla reports on Wednesday, and this stock does not do quiet results days

Across its last eight reports Tesla has swung an average of 7.8 percent the day after earnings. It arrives at this one down about 21 percent this year, with a low bar, rising spending and margins under the microscope.

Austin, United States · October 19, 2026

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Futures steadied in New York. Asia slid anyway.

US futures bounced on Sunday night after the Nasdaq's worst week since June, but Asian markets opened the week lower as the argument over AI spending crossed the Pacific. The rout is pausing in one timezone and continuing in another.

Tokyo, Japan · October 19, 2026

Waymo picks Toronto for its first robotaxis in Canada, with riders due in 2028

Alphabet's driverless unit will start by driving Toronto's streets itself, mapping them the slow way before any robot takes the wheel. Ontario has let it into the province's automated vehicle pilot, and a Toronto winter may be its hardest examiner yet.

Toronto, Canada · October 18, 2026

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SoftBank is weighing an $18 billion move for a security guard giant

Allied Universal supplies guards to businesses, venues and a growing number of data centres. SoftBank, reports say, would pair some of those people with robots. The talks are preliminary, no price is settled, and neither side is saying much.

Tokyo, Japan · October 18, 2026

File photo: Photo: Coolcaesar, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Netflix is cutting 1,000 jobs while the money is still good

The cuts take out about 6 percent of the workforce and are the streamer's biggest round of layoffs since 2022. They land less than a week before third quarter results, and the odd part is the context: revenue is growing, viewing is not.

Los Gatos, California · October 18, 2026

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India's IT stocks just had their best week in 18 years

Results season just handed India's IT stocks their best week in 18 years: the Nifty IT index rose 10.4 percent, its biggest weekly gain since 2008, and Tech Mahindra jumped 8 percent on Friday. One good week has not erased the year, though. The index is still down about 16 percent.

Bengaluru, India · October 18, 2026

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Rich at the top, bleeding below: following football's money

The Premier League's television billions built a global product, and the English game took in £9 billion last season. Further down the pyramid, clubs are losing money they do not have. Our long read follows the numbers to where they stop adding up.

London, England · October 18, 2026

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China wants to lock the recipe, not just sell the product

Beijing's draft Announcement No. 48 would control 40 technologies, from AI models to solar cells, and it treats the know-how itself as a state asset. Selling the product stays easy. Exporting the recipe is what gets harder.

Beijing, China · October 18, 2026

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The AI selloff capped a bruising week for Wall Street

The Nasdaq fell 2.1 percent on Friday and about 4.5 percent on the week, its worst week since June, as investors started asking hard questions about who pays for the AI buildout. Chip stocks took the worst of it.

New York, United States · October 18, 2026