This business report for October 26, 2026 covers a Monday when Wall Street rallied after Anthropic made its long-awaited IPO filing public, Meta unveiled a $95 billion plan to sell new stock, Microsoft offered buyouts to tens of thousands of workers, and JetBlue, one of Boston’s biggest airlines, posted a wider quarterly loss after a brutal day for its shares.
Markets: Anthropic Filing Lifts Chip Stocks
All three major U.S. indexes finished higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 146.42 points, or 0.28%, to 52,361.58, the S&P 500 rose 0.7% to 7,676.77 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.82% to 26,169.38, according to CNBC. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq came into the day on back-to-back weekly losses.
Semiconductors did the heavy lifting. The iShares Semiconductor ETF climbed nearly 3%, with Nvidia up 2.4%, Micron up 3%, Broadcom up 2.3% and AMD up 2.8%. Even after Monday’s bounce, CNBC noted that the chip fund is roughly 25% below its high, which puts it in a bear market, and is still down 13% for October. Defense names also moved: Lockheed Martin rose 3% after a Morgan Stanley upgrade, and CACI International jumped 6% after Jefferies raised it to buy.
Oil eased from recent highs. Brent crude settled down 0.8% at $115.81 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate fell 1.7% to $101.57. CNBC reported that the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve held 282.6 million barrels last week, its lowest level since 1982, as the government draws down stocks to offset supply disruption in the Middle East. In late trading, the 10-year Treasury yield sat near 4.99%, the U.S. Dollar Index was up about 0.2% at 102.01, gold futures traded around $4,031 an ounce and bitcoin hovered just under $80,000, based on CNBC market data.
Anthropic Files to List on the Nasdaq as “ANT”
The Claude developer filed its public S-1 registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday and plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker “ANT,” CNBC reported. The numbers are enormous in both directions. Revenue for the six months through June reached $16.29 billion, up 1,304% from $1.16 billion a year earlier, while the company lost $80.7 billion over the same half-year.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the lead underwriters. Under the filing, Anthropic’s seven co-founders, including siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, will control a vehicle called Founder LLC that holds 50.1% of the voting power. Insiders will also be allowed to sell some shares on day one, with further lock-up releases at 27, 48, 62 and 76 days after the debut instead of the usual single 180-day wait. The Financial Times described the prospectus as a 240,000-word document that pairs explosive growth with steep losses and a long list of risk factors. For background on the company’s product push, see our look at Anthropic’s Claude Duet agent preview.
Meta’s $95 Billion Raise and Microsoft’s Buyout Offer
Meta said it will raise $95 billion to pay for AI infrastructure, starting with $35 billion in underwritten public stock offerings and following with $60 billion through an at-the-market program, CNBC reported. Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom signaled interest in buying up to $5 billion of the shares, a role the FT described as cornerstone investors. Meta recently lifted the low end of its full-year capital spending forecast to $135 billion, with a top end of $145 billion.
Microsoft, meanwhile, opened a voluntary exit offer for employees in the U.S., Canada, India and the United Kingdom. About 60,000 people are eligible, roughly 27% of its 223,000-person workforce, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. Workers must decide in early December, and those who accept will leave on Dec. 31. The FT tied the move to cost control as Microsoft spends as much as $175 billion on AI infrastructure this year.
The American Prospect showed what that spending looks like on the ground. Reporters Larkin Cleland and Madhumita Dutta documented the land rush around New Albany, Ohio, where more than 60 operating or planned data centers sit in a business park that now covers over 10,000 acres. Property records they reviewed show Meta paid more than $36 million for 323 acres that a local developer had assembled for about $8 million, while remaining homeowners describe constant construction noise and dust.
JetBlue Loss Widens: The Boston Angle
JetBlue lost $257 million in the third quarter, compared with a $143 million loss a year earlier, as its fuel bill climbed 61% to $868 million, CNBC reported. The adjusted loss of 60 cents a share was wider than the 55 cents analysts expected, and revenue of $2.81 billion came in just shy of estimates. Average fares rose more than 19% to $245.11.
The stock fell about 12% during the regular session following a Wall Street Journal report that senior creditors are working with a restructuring adviser, then rebounded roughly 11% after hours on the results. JetBlue said it ended September with $2.2 billion in liquidity and $8.4 billion in total debt. “We believe we have the liquidity and financing options to create a strong bridge to at least $1 EPS and positive free cash flow in 2028,” CFO Ursula Hurley said. Executives take analyst questions on Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET. Our Oct. 25 business report details how large JetBlue’s Logan operation is.
Deals and Enforcement
The Federal Trade Commission and 20 states sued Dollar General, accusing the discount chain of charging shoppers more at the register than its shelf tags and ads showed; the stock fell about 4%, CNBC reported. Dollar General had not responded to CNBC’s request for comment. Elsewhere, nonprofit U.S. hospital chain Bon Secours agreed to a $5.7 billion takeover of Bain-backed Surgery Partners, and EQT agreed to buy Range Resources in a deal that would create the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., the FT reported.
The broader backdrop remains politically charged ahead of next week’s midterms. The Economist’s latest look at the winners and losers of Trumponomics argues the president’s economic record has delivered something quite different from his promise to help ordinary Americans.
What to Watch This Week
The Federal Reserve announces its rate decision on Wednesday, and fed funds futures pointed to about a 90% chance it holds the target range at 3.75% to 4%. It is also the peak week of earnings season, with 163 S&P 500 companies reporting, including Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon. Closer to home, Marlborough-based Boston Scientific reports on Oct. 28 after a cyberattack disrupted its third quarter.
Sources
- CNBC: Stocks close higher as excitement over Anthropic IPO filing propels tech sector
- CNBC: Anthropic’s IPO plans, record losses, AI risks and growth potential in the S-1
- CNBC: Meta announces $95 billion stock offering to fund AI expansion
- CNBC: Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees
- CNBC: JetBlue posts bigger loss on fuel costs
- CNBC: FTC and 20 states sue Dollar General
- CNBC: U.S. 10-year Treasury quote
- The American Prospect: Ohio’s Silicon Heartland data center land rush
- Financial Times: Anthropic begins countdown to IPO with prospectus filing
- Financial Times: Microsoft offers buyouts to 60,000 staff
- Financial Times: Meta plans $95bn stock offering to bankroll AI expansion
- Financial Times: Bon Secours agrees $5.7bn takeover of Surgery Partners
- Financial Times: EQT to buy Range Resources in natural gas megadeal
- The Economist: The winners and losers of Trumponomics
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