📈 Tesla’s $1T pay deal, Berkshire’s cash mountain

Good Morning & Happy Friday.

Futures are making an attempt at clawing back after a tech sell-off, earnings season is punishing the weak, and travel chaos looms as the shutdown drags on. In tech, Tesla gives Musk a trillion-dollar win, Apple flirts with Google’s Gemini, and OpenAI faces trillion-dollar growing pains.

Plus, Berkshire’s cash mountain swells, the Fed fuels a K-shaped economy, and we unpack why chasing sky-high dividends might cost you in the long run.

Grab you Flat White and let’s get into it! ☕️ 

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Market News

😅 Futures eye a recovery from tech-led sell-off
US stock futures barely clung to gains Friday, hinting at a small rebound after Thursday’s brutal tech sell-off. Investors are juggling weak job market signals and growing fears that AI stocks are seriously overvalued. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 are both on track for sharp weekly drops, 2.8% and 1.8%, respectively, while the Dow looks set to fall 1.4%. And with the October jobs report delayed again by the government shutdown, traders are relying on bleak new data, job cuts hit their highest October level in over 20 years, marking the roughest year for layoffs since 2009.

⚾️ Investors Are Punishing the Stocks of Companies that Miss Earnings Expectations
Earnings season’s been brutal. Companies missing expectations this quarter saw their shares drop nearly 5% on average, a far steeper hit than usual, according to FactSet. Even those that beat estimates got barely any reward, stocks rose just 0.1% on average. Names like Chipotle and Netflix got hammered after disappointing results, while EQT’s “beat” barely moved the needle. Analysts say traders are using the stick, not the carrot this time, seeing the glass half-empty, even as S&P 500 earnings beats hit record levels.

✈️ The Shutdown Has Thrown New Uncertainty Into Holiday Air Travel
Holiday travel just got messier. Starting Friday, about 40 U.S. airports will cut flight capacity by 10% as the government shutdown drags on, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed. The move aims to ease pressure on underpaid, overworked air traffic controllers, but could spark major delays. Airlines already felt the hit Thursday, American Airlines dropped 2%, while Delta and United slipped about 1%. With no clear deal in sight between Republicans and Democrats, travelers may want to brace for chaos, or keep a backup plan ready for Thanksgiving flights.

👇️ ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’ Is Postponed Again, Take Two Stock Drops
Take-Two Interactive just hit pause again, the highly anticipated game’s release has been pushed back six months to November 2026, disappointing fans and investors alike. Shares tumbled 7% after hours, even though the company’s quarterly earnings crushed estimates with $1.96 billion in bookings and $1.46 a share in adjusted profit. CEO Strauss Zelnick defended the move, saying it’s “always painful when we move a date” but better than releasing an unfinished game, a mistake rivals have made at their peril.

😵 Duolingo stock plunges 25%, its worst session ever
Duolingo’s stock plunged 25%, its biggest one-day drop ever, after issuing weaker-than-expected guidance despite solid subscriber growth. The company said it’s prioritizing long-term user expansion over short-term profits. For the quarter, bookings came in below forecasts at up to $335.5 million, and EBITDA guidance also missed. CEO Luis von Ahn told CNBC the shift is intentional, calling it a bet on the platform’s “big opportunity ahead.”

This week in Tech

💰️ Tesla says shareholders approve Musk’s $1 trillion pay plan
Tesla shareholders just approved Elon Musk’s nearly $1 trillion pay package, with about 75% voting in favor, despite pushback from proxy advisors Glass Lewis and ISS. The deal grants Musk 12 tranches of stock tied to massive growth goals, including a $2 trillion market cap for the first payout. If Tesla ever reaches $8.5 trillion, Musk would secure the full package, boosting his stake from 13% to 25%, and cementing even more control over the company.

👀 Sam Altman says he doesn’t want the government to bail out OpenAI if it fails
OpenAI’s $1.4 trillion data center ambitions are raising eyebrows, as CEO Sam Altman admitted the company’s $20 billion annual revenue can’t cover those costs alone. CFO Sarah Friar briefly suggested the U.S. government should “backstop” OpenAI’s infrastructure loans, effectively guaranteeing them, before walking it back. The idea sparked debate since a backstop would mean taxpayers shoulder the risk if OpenAI defaults, even as the company races to stay on the cutting edge of AI chip tech.

🍎 What a Google-powered Apple Siri might deliver
Apple may finally give Siri a brain boost, but it might come from Google’s Gemini, not Apple’s own labs. Bloomberg reports the two tech giants are nearing a $1 billion-a-year deal for Apple to run a custom Gemini model on its servers. The move could supercharge Siri’s smarts, but raises privacy and data-sharing questions about Google’s access. Apple says its revamped Siri will arrive next year after multiple delays, and this partnership hints the company may be ditching the “build it all ourselves” strategy for something far more pragmatic.

🏫 Mark Zuckerberg Opened an Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. His Neighbors Revolted
In Palo Alto’s elite Crescent Park, Mark Zuckerberg’s expanding compound has turned heads — and stirred controversy. What began as a single home has grown into 11 combined properties, five of them sharing property lines. Neighbors first sounded alarms back in 2016, fearing his purchases were driving up home prices. Then came a new twist: reports of a school operating inside the compound, which violated zoning laws and sparked a years-long neighborhood battle that finally ended in summer 2025.

Invest & Strategies

🔎 A Closer Look at Berkshire Hathaway's Q3 2025 Earnings Report
Berkshire Hathaway’s Q3 2025 report dropped Saturday, revealing the company’s cash pile hit a staggering $354.3 billion, up nearly $15 billion in just three months. While some outlets cited $382 billion, that figure overlooks Treasury payables and cash tied to Railroad, Utilities & Energy operations. In true Warren Buffett fashion, the focus remains on precision and discipline, and this latest report shows Berkshire’s cash hoard is bigger, cleaner, and more deliberate than ever.

👓️ How the Fed Can Change the K-Shaped Economy
Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the reality of a K-shaped economy, where wealthier Americans keep spending while lower-income households pull back. But as Bloomberg’s Claudia Sahm points out, the Fed’s own rate hikes helped create this divide. Higher borrowing costs have hit low-income consumers hardest, flattening their inflation-adjusted spending since 2022. Meanwhile, credit card data from the Boston Fed shows that upper-income Americans are largely keeping overall spending afloat, a sign that monetary policy isn’t hitting everyone equally.

⚠️ Don’t Fall for This Common Dividend Mistake When Investing
Many investors fall into mental accounting traps, treating dividends and yields as separate from total return. The allure of high-yield securities, especially for retirees chasing income, can be powerful, but it often masks hidden risks. Traditional funds like SCHD offer balanced yield and growth, but newer covered-call ETFs such as JEPI (8.4%) and JEPQ (10.6%) promise eye-popping payouts. The catch? Those big yields come with a cap on upside potential, meaning investors trade long-term growth for short-term income gratification.