Gas prices push US inflation back up

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Before The Bell

Change over the last 24 hours · as of Oct 15, 2026, 6:08 AM ET

US inflation jumps to 3.7% on energy costs LINK

• U.S. inflation reaccelerated in September, with consumer prices up 3.7% from a year earlier versus 3.4% in August, raising the odds of another Federal Reserve rate hike and squeezing Republicans ahead of the midterms.
• The jump was driven by energy: gasoline prices spiked 9.1% on the month as the Middle East war disrupted supplies, while airline fares climbed 22% over the year as jet fuel costs rose.
• Markets now put the chance of a rate hike at the Fed's meeting later this month at 44%, double Tuesday's level, sending the policy-sensitive two-year Treasury yield up 12 basis points.

OpenAI sued by 8 states over ChatGPT safety LINK

• Eight US states, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana, sued OpenAI yesterday, alleging ChatGPT is an unsafe product that has harmed children and misled parents about its risks.
• Each state filed separately in its own courts, with Iowa's attorney general accusing OpenAI of giving dangerous medical advice and coaching users toward suicide while marketing the chatbot as safe; Florida brought a similar suit in June.
• OpenAI says it has built age-specific protections many rivals lack, pointing to parental controls and a teens-only version launched in August, and is pushing for industry-wide policy as it faces several wrongful-death cases.

Ukraine says Starlink speeds capped on front line LINK

• Ukraine said SpaceX capped the speed of Starlink terminals used by its forces starting Tuesday night, the Wall Street Journal reported, the first such throttling the country has faced since SpaceX acknowledged limiting Starlink usage during the war in 2023.
• A Zelensky adviser said the limit hit terminals "operating in motion" with no warning, disrupting military missions; Ukraine's drone crews rely on the service for video feeds and targeting under a Pentagon-handled StarShield contract.
• Elon Musk said SpaceX was not behind the latest restriction, while Senator Thom Tillis pressed the company for clarity on X; the dispute lands as Starlink, with more than 10 million subscribers worldwide, moves to challenge legacy wireless carriers.

TSMC profit hits record on AI demand LINK

• TSMC posted a record third-quarter net profit of $23.59 billion, up 69% from a year earlier, as demand for its AI processors beat Wall Street's expectations.
• The world's largest contract chipmaker makes chips for customers including Nvidia and Apple, and its quarterly profit topped analysts' consensus estimate of about T$746.3 billion.
• The result underscores how spending on AI hardware continues to drive the chip supply chain, with TSMC sitting at the center of production for the industry's biggest players.

Anthropic revenue surged 45% to $16.8B last quarter LINK

• Anthropic's third-quarter revenue rose 45% from the prior quarter to $16.8 billion, according to an investor who attended a pre-IPO meeting with the company's leadership in San Francisco on Wednesday.
• That caps a steep climb that has seen quarterly revenue more than triple since the start of the year, as Anthropic chases a valuation above $2 trillion and tries to persuade investors its growth can eventually outpace the costs of building AI.
• The listing, likely pushed past the November midterm elections, is an early test of investor appetite for heavily unprofitable AI firms, a concern sharpened by Anthropic's commitment of hundreds of billions of dollars in future cloud and computing spending.

Macro News

• Bowman said the Fed can assess recent rate-hike effects before acting again. LINK
• BoE economist Pill questioned market bets on four rate hikes next year. LINK
• UK economy grew 0.1% in August, edging past forecasts before Budget. LINK
• China factory prices rose 5% in September, fastest growth in four years. LINK
• China exports surged 36.3%, lifting September's surplus to a record $133.5 billion. LINK
• Solidigm links US factory to approval for more equipment exports to China. LINK
• China will continue approving rare-earth exports to Europe regardless of trade truce. LINK
• Ukraine will resume attacks on Russian energy sites after ceasefire failed. LINK
• EU regulators classified USDC as significant, triggering joint oversight under MiCA. LINK
• Global watchdog urged firms to retain human oversight of autonomous AI agents. LINK
• Japan will invest up to $21 billion in two GlobalFoundries chip plants. LINK

Corporate News

• Jio Platforms seeks up to $3.2 billion in India's largest-ever IPO. LINK
• AI cloud provider Modal raised $750 million at a $15.75 billion valuation. LINK
• Kraken parent Payward agreed to acquire Lithuanian digital lender Saldo Bank. LINK
• Fairfax acquired 60.7% of India's IDBI Bank for nearly $6 billion. LINK
• BlackRock shares climbed as quarterly profit and revenue topped Wall Street estimates. LINK
• Polygon completed Coinme acquisition, adding licensed dollar-to-crypto conversion across 48 states. LINK
• OpenAI may sue Apple, alleging a former employee transferred confidential device files. LINK
• Report says nine largest US banks let social pressures influence banking access. LINK
• Lufthansa will buy 44.9% of TAP, valuing Portugal's airline at €2.55 billion. LINK

Stocks

▲ Biggest winners

Bending Spoons rose 41% after Berkshire Hathaway invested another $330 million. LINK

UnitedHealth Group rose 5% after raising its full-year adjusted earnings forecast to at least $20.50 per share. LINK

Halozyme Therapeutics rose 7% after Roche's Tecentriq Hybreza won FDA approval for stage III dMMR colon cancer. LINK

▼ Biggest losers

IREN fell 12% after reports of a multiyear Anthropic cloud deal remained unconfirmed by either company. LINK

Unity Software fell 11% after announcing 1,800 job cuts and withdrawing 2026 guidance. LINK

AST SpaceMobile fell 10% after Q3 revenue miss and $400M convertible notes offering. LINK

Research & Reports

• AI agents made over 138 million crypto payments through Coinbase's x402 protocol. LINK
• Standard Chartered now expects the stablecoin market to reach $2 trillion by 2030. LINK
• Advertisers see ChatGPT gaining more future ad budgets than Google Search. LINK
• AI imports barely changed America's current-account deficit, New York Fed analysis finds. LINK
• US businesses show little stablecoin interest, Cleveland Fed survey finds. LINK
• Thirty-eight companies joined Crunchbase's unicorn board, adding $71 billion in value. LINK

Market Calendar

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