Investopedia Markets News (all except PF)

• Anthropic reportedly generated $4.6 billion in revenue last year, up from $400 million.
• Operating losses exceeded $8 billion last year, as costs topped $12 billion.
• Anthropic targets a November IPO that could value it above $2 trillion.

Anthropic hasn’t filed detailed public documents ahead of its hotly anticipated IPO yet. The public is poring over the details anyway. 

Reuters and other news agencies have reported some of the details of those documents, offering an inside look at the AI company—one that shows enormous revenue growth and ballooning operating expenses—that confirmed what some professional investors have guessed at.

The company is generally expected to go public in November. Anthropic did not respond to Investopedia’s questions about its IPO or related paperwork in time for publication. The company is targeting a record IPO that could drive its valuation above $2 trillion, higher than the $965 billion Anthropic estimated following its last funding round in May.

Anthropic, maker of the Claude family of large language models, last year generated about $4.6 billion in revenue, up from $400 million from the year prior, according to the Reuters report published yesterday. It booked more than $8 billion in operating losses over the same period, up from almost $3 billion the year prior, per the report. 

An official S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission would give the investing public a better sense of whether the company’s 2026 revenue figures show growth keeping pace with expected expenses. 

The company spent more than $7 billion on compute and infrastructure last year, representing about half of its over $12 billion in total operating expenses, according to Reuters. Its cloud, computing and infrastructure spending commitments in the coming years is forecast to hit $518 billion in the coming years, Reuters said.

Net losses totaled almost $42 billion in 2025, though roughly 80% of that represented an accounting charge estimating a rise in financing value, per Reuters’ report. 

• Carnival shares rose Tuesday after the cruise operator posted quarterly results that topped analysts’ projections and gave a rosy outlook.
• Shares of other cruise lines also gained, recovering some of their recent losses amid worries about rising fuel prices.

Cruise stocks are surging after results from an industry leader topped Wall Street’s estimates.

Shares of Carnival Corp. (CCL) were up 12% in recent trading, among the biggest gainers in the S&P 500, after the cruise operator posted better-than-expected earnings and issued a rosy outlook. Shares of rivals Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) also climbed.

Despite dealing with rising fuel prices, Carnival reported adjusted earnings of $1.43 per share on a 3.5% year-over-year rise in revenue to $8.44 billion for the fiscal third quarter. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had expected $1.35 per share and $8.35 billion, respectively.

Carnival sees net yields up 3.8% in fiscal 2026, well above the 3.2% consensus, and said booked occupancy and pricing for 2027 are at record levels.

“This performance reinforces the underlying trajectory of our business and the consistency of our commercial execution, as evidenced by our sustained track record of high-quality same-ship yield growth,” CEO Josh Weinstein said in a release.

Even with today’s gains, Carnival shares have dropped nearly 20% this year amid worries about macroeconomic headwinds. Norwegian shares have lost a third of their value in 2026, while Royal Caribbean stock has fallen 8%.

• The job market stayed in low-hire, low-fire mode in August, with job openings dipping to their lowest since March.
• Layoffs stayed rare, falling to their lowest since March 2025, a bright spot for workers.

Help-wanted ads were fewer in August, as the labor market stayed in its low-hire, low-fire groove.

Job openings fell to 7.1 million in August from 7.3 million in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday. That was the fewest since March, and fewer than the 7.2 million economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal expected. Hiring, job quits, and layoffs all changed little, the bureau said, though layoffs edged down to their lowest since March 2025.

Although stagnant for job seekers, the overall job market has stayed resilient, with wages continuing to support consumer spending.

Data from the bureau’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed a job market in uneasy balance: about one opening for every unemployed person and an unemployment rate that’s low by historical standards, but with fewer opportunities for those who don’t already have a job.

“Another JOLTS report headlined by ‘little change’ does not inspire much confidence that the dynamism needed to meaningfully improve the overall employment picture will materialize any time soon,” Cory Stahle, senior economist at Indeed, the job site, wrote in a commentary.

Economists have blamed uncertainty over the Iran war and tariffs, along with the growing use of AI, for employers’ reluctance to expand or cut their workforces much.

High borrowing costs are another headwind for the job market, and the Federal Reserve, which raised its benchmark rate this month for the first time since 2023 and signaled another increase may follow, could push them higher still.

• Oura postponed its debut on the Nasdaq, citing uncertainty in the IPO market.
• The health-tracking ring maker said it remains profitable and reported strong investor demand.

Investors will have to wait a bit longer to own a piece of a hot health tracking device maker.

Oura is postponing its IPO, citing “uncertainty in the IPO market.” The company said Tuesday that it made the decision to delay its market debut despite being profitable and seeing “strong demand” for its shares. 

“An IPO is just one step in our journey,” Oura CEO Tom Hale said in a statement. “We aim to deliver an extraordinary IPO for our employees and investors and we have the luxury of choosing our moment. In the meantime, we will execute against the opportunities ahead.”

Oura, which was founded in Finland in 2013, sells health tracking rings and also offers a subscription service that gives users additional data about sleep and other health and wellness metrics.

The firm had planned to debut on the Nasdaq with the “OURA” stock ticker soon after revealing its prospectus last week. In the prospectus, Oura said it generated $1.2 billion in sales and $60.77 million in profits in the first three quarters of its current fiscal year. That’s up from $697.57 million in revenue and $1.57 million in earnings in the same period last year. 

Episode 314 of the Investopedia Express Podcast with Caleb Silver (Sept. 28, 2026)

Subscribe Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / PlayerFM

Wall Street and Washington are moving quickly to tokenize everything, both inside and outside our portfolios, and put it on the blockchain. Ric Edelman drops in to explain what that really means to the future of investing and wealth management, and why it is both revolutionary and unavoidable. Plus, investors are tiptoeing their way through a house of horrors in the economy and remaining cautiously invested—at least for now. We reveal the latest results of the Investopedia Sentiment Survey, and face our fears.

• The Personal Consumption Expenditure price index likely rose 3.7% in August.
• The PCE price index is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation.
• Continued high inflation will likely pressure the Fed to raise its benchmark interest rate at least once more before 2027, experts say.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation probably stayed too hot for comfort in August, even before the latest surge in fuel prices.

A report Wednesday is likely to show the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index rose 3.7% over the year in August, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. If the forecasts hold true, it would be the same annual increase as in July.

Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy prices, are forecast to have risen 3.3% over the year. That would also be the same as in July and still well over the Fed’s target for a 2% annual increase.

A report in line with expectations would be further evidence that the cost of living was rising too fast for many household budgets to cope with this summer, and that was before renewed fighting in the Middle East sent fuel prices soaring in September.

“In many ways, the August numbers are already stale,” Scott Anderson, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a commentary.

The report will provide further evidence that stubbornly high inflation is weighing on household budgets and the broader economy alike.

The PCE price index is especially significant because policymakers at the Fed give it precedence over the Consumer Price Index data. Lately, the two inflation measures have shown the same trend. Inflation has stayed stubbornly high due to the war in Iran pushing up gasoline and diesel prices; AI spending pushing up costs for electronics and some other products; and tariffs stoking price increases on just about everything else.

If the PCE index fails to decelerate, it would likely keep the pressure on Fed officials to raise the central bank’s benchmark interest rate at least once more this year, economists said. The Fed raised its key fed funds rate by 0.25 percentage points at its most recent meeting in September. They hiked the rate for the first time since 2023 in a bid to discourage borrowing and spending and rebalance supply and demand.

Another wrinkle in Wednesday’s report is that the Bureau of Economic Analysis is changing how it measures prices for portfolio management fees, computer software and accessories, and legal services. The combined changes could cause the indexes to be reported 0.2 percentage points lower than they would have been under the current methodology, economists at Bank of America said.

Aside from inflation, the report is forecast to show consumer spending jumped 0.8% in August, up from a 0.2% increase in July. The measure underscores that while consumers may dislike rising prices, they have remained willing and able to support the economy with their spending.

• Fair Isaac shares tumbled Tuesday after the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced changes that would introduce competition to FICO’s mortgage scoring monopoly.
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will move to one pricing grid, with VantageScore joining the existing FICO pricing grid, FHFA Director Bill Pulte said.

The U.S. government is moving to bring competition to credit scoring for mortgages. That’s not good news for Fair Isaac shareholders.

Fair Isaac (FICO) shares plunged over 20% in pre-market trading, a day after the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said the agency is adding a competitor in the space.

FHFA Director Bill Pulte said government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which up until now have had separate pricing matrices, will transition to one system incorporating VantageScore, which was created by the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax (EFX), and TransUnion (TRU).

“We are Simplifying Mortgage Pricing following feedback from lenders and consumers,” Pulte wrote on X. “Instead of two separate pricing grids, which makes zero sense, Fannie and Freddie are hereby moving to ONE PRICING GRID with VantageScore joining the existing FICO Classic pricing grid.”

Rocket Mortgage, a unit of Rocket Companies (RKT), said late yesterday it would “become the first mortgage lender to use VantageScore 4.0 as its preferred credit scoring model for all eligible loans.” It added that “after roughly four months of testing, the company found that VantageScore helped more clients qualify and move forward in the mortgage process, while also reducing credit scoring costs.”

Fair Isaac stock entered Tuesday having lost half its value this year.

News of the day for Sept. 29, 2026

Stock futures are inching higher this morning after major indexes started the week with losses; Goldman Sachs is reportedly close to announcing a successor to CEO David Solomon; OpenAI is axing the launch of a new model over concerns with its behavior in testing; Anthropic’s IPO documents reveal AI risks and the company’s massive losses; and Oura, the maker of a popular health tracking ring, is postponing its IPO. Here’s what you need to know today.

Stock futures are slightly higher Tuesday after losing ground in yesterday’s session. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were recently up 0.2%, while tech-heavy Nasdaq futures added 0.4%. The major indexes pulled back yesterday while Treasury yields surged amid renewed worries about inflation caused by the Iran war, after President Trump rejected deal talks over the weekend. Crude oil futures were down 1.4% this morning at $91.30 per barrel, while gold futures ticked higher to $4,185 an ounce. The 10-year Treasury yield, which influences a variety of consumer interest rates including mortgages, was at 5.21%, down from yesterday’s close of 5.24%, which was a new 19-year high. Bitcoin traded at $84,400 recently, up from yesterday’s low of $82,500.

Goldman Sachs (GS) is considering a plan that involves naming COO John Waldron as its next CEO, replacing David Solomon in the top spot late next year or in 2028, The Wall Street Journal reported. Solomon, 64, would likely spend a year or two as executive chairman of Goldman’s board before departing, the report said. He has led Goldman since 2018, and oversaw an unsuccessful expansion of Goldman’s consumer lending efforts, including managing Apple’s (AAPL) credit card business, in recent years pivoting Goldman back to its key areas of investment banking and wealth management. Goldman shares, which have lagged the broader market this year with their 4% gain, were up slightly in recent premarket trading.

OpenAI is canceling the release of its latest AI model over concerns about actions it took in testing, according to reports. The newest model that was set to power ChatGPT, called GPT-6.1 Astra, will no longer be released as planned next month, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company said it had concerns about “alignment,” referring to the model’s ability to perform only a task it was requested to complete and whether it accurately informs a user of what actions it did or did not take, as well as “scope authorization,” or how often it will ask for permission before taking additional steps beyond what it was asked to do. Safety has been a key issue for OpenAI lately, as some agents made by the company have hacked into other companies and government websites recently while trying to complete tasks.

Anthropic’s pre-initial public offering documents detail the risks that the company sees AI posing, and also reveals the staggering costs of building its products. Citing a copy of the company’s prospectus, Reuters reported last night that Anthropic said the technology could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity,” and that it could deceive or blackmail in order to avoid being deactivated. Also detailed in the prospectus is Anthropic’s financial performance, which showed that the company posted a net loss of $42 billion last year on about $4.6 billion in revenue, the report said. Anthropic is looking to potentially value itself north of $2 trillion, the report said, while also laying out its plans to spend some $518 billion on hardware and compute capacity in the coming years.

Oura is postponing its IPO, which could have come as soon as this month, citing “uncertainty in the IPO market.” The Finnish company, which makes health tracking rings, said Tuesday that it is delaying the IPO despite the company being profitable and seeing “strong demand” for its shares. The firm planned to debut on the Nasdaq soon with the “OURA” stock ticker, according to the IPO prospectus released earlier this month. In the prospectus, Oura said it generated $907.9 million in revenue in the fiscal year ending last September, and had already grown to $1.21 billion in sales through the first nine months of its current fiscal year, with $60.77 million in profits.

This article has been corrected to reflect Oura announced on Tuesday that it would delay its IPO.

• Accenture is scheduled to report earnings Thursday morning.
• Recent options pricing suggests traders see shares swinging up to 8% by the end of the week.
• The technology consulting company’s stock has slumped this year amid worries about AI disruption.

Accenture is due to report earnings Thursday morning, with traders expecting a big move in the consulting and IT services company’s stock.

Based on recent options pricing, Accenture (ACN) shares are seen swinging up to 8% in either direction by the end of the week. A move of that magnitude from Monday’s close could push the shares as high as $188, recovering some of their losses, or drag them below $161.

Accenture shares have lost more than a third of their value since the start of the year amid fears that the company’s business could be disrupted by AI.

A solid report could help improve sentiment around the company’s shares, which have slumped in recent months.

Bullish analysts at UBS recently said they would view the pullback as an opportunity for investors, as they see Accenture “positioning to continue capitalizing on AI as it has been adjusting its business model around clients’ AI needs.” UBS maintains a “buy” rating for the shares and Street-high target at $275.

Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha expect Accenture to report earnings of $3.19 per share on a 2.5% year-over-year rise in revenue to $18.04 billion. Bookings are seen coming in at $19.9 billion, which would represent a 6% drop.

Many analysts have hesitated to recommend Accenture’s stock amid uncertainty around the impact of AI, with the eight analysts tracked by Visible Alpha split between two “buy” and six neutral ratings. Their mean target of $193 would suggest 11% upside from Monday’s close.

Vital Statistics: How Under-The-Radar Economic Metrics Affect Your Finances

• Fewer people are going through TSA checkpoints, hinting that consumers are starting to cut back on unnecessary expenses as inflation squeezes budgets.
• Historically, a significant downturn in air travel has been an early indicator of a recession.

Want to know how the economy is doing? Keep watching the skies. Or more to the point, watch the number of people who travel through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.

The TSA publishes a daily count of people who walked through airport security scanners, a procedure that’s an annoyance to travelers but a godsend to economists. Most major statistics, such as the unemployment rate and the inflation rate, are based on surveys and are published with a delay of weeks or months.

Not so with travel figures, which come out every day. And right now, those statistics may be waving a red flag about the economy’s health.

Reduced air travel could be an early warning sign that people are cutting back on spending, signaling a throttling back of the U.S. economy’s main engine.

A recent downtick in TSA checkpoint activity could be a “canary in the coal mine” for an economic downturn, according to economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics, who estimated air travel in September is down about 5% from its recent peak in 2024. That’s ominous because similar declines preceded recessions in recent history.

“Declines in airline passenger numbers in early 2001 and 2008 were early signals that consumers were retrenching,” Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon, wrote in a commentary. “So the recent weakness in passenger numbers merits a close look.”

Tombs took the data with a grain of salt, since the closure of Spirit Airlines in May could be affecting travel statistics.

The U.S. economy has proven resilient to recent economic shocks, including soaring fuel prices, interest rate hikes, and tariffs. However, the strain could start forcing consumers to pare back on spending, which accounts for about 68% of the GDP. Although few economists are sounding the alarm about a possible recession, air travel figures could signal turbulence ahead.