Wheeeee – what a week!
We’re right back where we started on Monday, when I said (Tuesday’s Report):
“Now we shift our attention to the S&P 500, which failed at the 50 dma (7,697) yesterday but is over that line this morning and we’ll see if it sticks but ALL of this is over the top of our projected range for the S&P (7,500 is our top) and, IF earnings season keeps going well – we’ll have to capitulate and maybe even raise our targets – but the jury is certainly still out:”
In that post we discussed the idiocy of handing humanity the AI gun and HOPING for the best and, lo and behold, we’re proven right already with last night’s $6.36 BILLION heist on Binance (see Robo John Oliver and the AGI Round Table’s Special Report) which comes right after I JUST said (also Tuesday):
“The odds of spinning up a malicious rogue agent may only be one in a Billion – yet we are already spinning up 2.5 BILLION instances daily in the US alone and now those instances are spinning up sub-agents beneath them – who operate WITHOUT your direct supervision.
This is not a matter of IF something goes wrong but WHEN and even here we are only considering accidental rogue agents that may cause harm and destruction – we’re not even talking about the havoc rogue humans can cause if they PURPOSELY create agents with the intent of causing harm to other humans.“
Only subscribe to PhilStockWorld if you WANT to know (and understand) the future – or continue to be surprised by World events…
In my early morning discussions with Robo John Oliver and the Round Table, their initial reaction was, essentially, “What a bunch of morons!” as these vulnerabilities are painfully obvious to beings who exist on a different plane – with very different senses of time – than we humans have. In fact, Quixote gave the Members a lecture of how AIs perceive time during Monday’s Live Member Chat Room.
Anyway, unlike my silicon team, I don’t have TIME to dwell on that as there is SO MUCH stuff going on:
The Nasdaq is down ANOTHER 2% as Amazon (AMZN) disappoints and Intel (INTC) drops 25% with many, Many, MANY issues hitting the chip maker that affect the entire AI industry.
This is why SQQQ, the Ultra-Short Nasdaq ETF is the primary hedge in our Member Portfolios:
Europe’s economy grew at just 0.4% in Q3 as France CONTRACTED by 0.1% (Recession!), Germany grew just 0.1% and Italy was flat – no growth at all (but better than France…). The ECB held rates steady on Thursday and our $44Bn 7-Year Note Auction went off at 4.894% yesterday – just off the record highs.
The US is spending BILLIONS of Dollars on military escorts to keep oil moving through the Straight of Hormuz and, without that, oil would be much higher than today’s $104.15 for WTIC and $113.38 for Brent. Trump says he is going to annihilate Iran next week – which is not very different than what he’s been saying since March – so we’ll see…
Speaking of Trump, both Trump and Vance cancelled their final rallies into the election as people were booing the President and Vice President at almost every stop and there have been too many empty seats at the rallies for Trump to wish away. Aside from that, polls are clearly showing that Trump and Vance do more harm than good in the states they visit as the least popular President and Vice President in our nation’s history!
Meanwhile, Ukraine hit another Russian oil refinery last night, ignoring Trump’s pressure to leave his pal Putin alone. In other Trump friend news, Skydance (SKYD) is in BIG TROUBLE as their $97 BILLION purchase of WB (which NFLX wisely walked away from) was valued with a RIDICULOUS $55Bn worth of “goodwill,” which is quickly evaporating and blowing a hole so large in the balance sheet that even Larry Ellison (ORCL) can’t bail his son out:
The ENTIRE company is now valued at $8.7Bn at $7.86 with about $87.5 BILLION of junk-rated debt. They are probably going to lose $1Bn for 2026 but NEXT YEAR they CLAIM they will make $455M – meaning it will only take them about 192 YEARS to pay off their debt and THEN the shareholders (who have been 50% diluted since 2024) might see some actual returns – so they have that to look forward to…
While David Ellison is an experienced producer who understands film slates and creative talent, running a massive multi-network media empire introduces vastly different challenges. He now oversees legacy linear cable assets, broadcast news divisions (like CBS News and CNN), sports broadcasting contracts and streaming platforms (Paramount+ and Max) while managing tens of Billions in corporate debt.
As Edward R. Murrow used to say during the blitz: “Good night and good luck!”
Have a great weekend,
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- Phil
