U.S. stocks split Thursday as energy strength masked a sharp break in the AI trade. OpenAI’s lower-than-expected revenue run rate hit chipmakers, while higher crude kept inflation risk alive. Tech fell back while energy stocks climbed.

$SPY fell 0.4% and surrendered 7,800, $QQQ sank 1.3%, $IWM finished flat, and $DIA added 0.1%. This was not a quiet session. It was a tech selloff hiding behind a flat Dow.

Eight sectors finished green, but Energy’s 3.0% gain did the covering while Technology fell 1.8%. $COP climbed 3.4% and $CVX gained 3.1%. On the other side, $INTC sank 5.3% and $MU lost 4.8%. Oil was up nearly 3% after data showed 10 tankers were struck by missiles in the strait through the end of September, nearly double the week before.

A roughly $20B hole in OpenAI revenue expectations hit the market’s most crowded trade.

Stocktwits traders chased $CMG’s 6.1% takeover pop, while $AAOI’s 12.4% plunge produced the loudest stream. Friday brings jobless claims at 9:00 a.m. ET and consumer sentiment at 10:00.

Today's Briefing: Powered by Stocktwits Community API.

OpenAI is private, but it dragged the public AI trade lower Thursday after investors learned its revenue run rate was about $20B below the figure they had been using.

The RIP: The Financial Times reported OpenAI had pulled a measly $50B on an annualized basis, way lower than the $70B previously reported. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 did not like it, and fell 1.4%. $CRWV sank 7.9%, $ORCL lost 5.8%, $AVGO dropped 4.6%, $MU fell 4.9%, and $NVDA slid 3%. NBIS was down 7%.

The higher estimate included gross revenue generated through OpenAI’s partners so investors could compare it more directly with Anthropic. Different math, same expensive problem. 🧮

The investor presentation still showed 77% total run-rate growth during the third quarter and 107% growth for the enterprise business. That is plenty fast. That ~70% growth was from a $30B annualized revenue number in July, landing the new rate at 50.

But CNBC reported that OpenAI is trying to justify an $852B valuation while discussing another funding round that could raise roughly $30B. About what it expects to make in a year.

ZenaTech’s ($ ZENA) subsidiary ZenaDrone is building a mobile drone operations trailer, with testing expected in the coming months.

Why it matters: the trailer targets faster job completion, less downtime and lower
operating costs. “The opportunity is to serve more customers with each crew and drone fleet, supporting stronger margins and a more scalable service business,” says ZenaTech CEO Shaun Passley, PhD.

*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.

You think your corporate slop bowl is expensive? Starbucks reportedly explored buying Chipotle, a deal that would unite two of America’s biggest restaurant chains and put Brian Niccol back in charge of his former company.

The RIP: $CMG jumped 6.2% to $32.68 on 70M shares, four times its recent pace. $SBUX fell 1.1%. CNBC reported that no offer has been confirmed, and D.A. Davidson put the odds of a completed deal at 20%.

The logic starts with Niccol. He ran Chipotle from 2018 to 2024, nearly doubling revenue and lifting profit almost sevenfold. CNBC also noted that roughly 90% of Chipotle locations sit within one mile of a Starbucks, creating room to share real estate work, corporate costs, and loyalty programs. Burritos and lattes already share the neighborhood. 🌯

Then comes the bill. Chipotle is worth roughly $42B, while Starbucks carried about $9.4B of debt at the end of June. CNBC reported that paying a 20% premium mostly with debt could push Starbucks’ leverage to six times. An all-stock deal could still dilute earnings per share by about 10%.

Niccol knows Chipotle. That does not make buying it cheap.

325.1K WATCHERS · NEUTRAL · LOW ACTIVITY

Palantir rose after Goldman Sachs upgraded it to Buy and set a $230 target, arguing sovereign AI and custom software could expand its market faster than packaged applications.

26.3K WATCHERS · EXTREMELY BULLISH · HIGH ACTIVITY

Applied Optoelectronics sank in the broader AI-infrastructure selloff, days after completing a $600M at-the-market share sale that raised nearly $588M and left traders staring at the dilution bill.

23.9K WATCHERS · BEARISH · NORMAL ACTIVITY

Cipher Digital slid as Bitcoin weakened and long-term yields climbed, squeezing a former miner now trying to finance its way into the capital-hungry AI data-center business.

8.9K WATCHERS · BULLISH · EXTREMELY HIGH ACTIVITY

Accenture jumped after expanding its Dell partnership with a dedicated business group for private AI and infrastructure modernization, giving enterprises one more place to buy the picks and shovels.

Bearish 🐻 | Bullish 🐮 | It’s Complicated 😵‍💫

AI, remote work, and global hiring are reshaping HR. This report from Oyster breaks down the biggest trends shaping teams in 2026.

See the trends

*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.

📺 Rapid bond yield moves have preceded nearly every major financial blowup: Chart of the Day

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🛢️ Oil Jumps 5% as Two Threats Collide

₿ Bitcoin’s $81K Break Liquidates Nearly $1B

🌐 U.S. suspends Microsoft, Adobe from green card labor program in foreign worker crackdown

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🪙 The crypto move you missed today, explained before you wake up to it

Macro: State Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (9:00 AM ET), Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid speaks (9:30 AM ET), University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (preliminary) (10:00 AM ET), Factory orders (10:00 AM ET). 📊
Pre-Market Earnings: $DAL Delta Air Lines, Inc., $HOVR New Horizon Aircraft Ltd - Ordinary Shares - Class A. ☀️
After-Market Earnings: $LNAI Lunai Bioworks Inc.. 🌙

P.S. You can listen to all of these earnings calls on Stocktwits.

Want to see some change? Respond to this email and reach me, Kevin Travers, with feedback. Follow me on Stocktwits. Send me charts and ideas! Refer a friend for this quarter’s edition of The RIP Forecast 😎

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