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Claire Yubin Oh10/2/25

Credit bureaus sink as FICO launches a direct program for FICO scores, eliminating reliance on credit bureaus

Nationwide credit bureaus Equifax and TransUnion are down 11% and 5% in premarket trading on Thursday, respectively, after Fair Isaac Corp. announced a new program to enable tri-merge resellers to directly distribute FICO scores to customers.

Dublin-based Experian PLC also dropped as much as 5% on the news.

Per FICO’s press release: “With the launch of the FICO® Mortgage Direct License Program, tri-merge resellers have the option to calculate and distribute FICO Scores directly to their customers, eliminating reliance on the three nationwide credit bureaus. This shift will drive price transparency and immediate cost savings to mortgage lenders, mortgage brokers, and other industry participants.”

Through this streamlining effort, resellers that buy and merge reports from Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian into one would rely less on these intermediaries in the chain to directly distribute their FICO scores. In effect, FICO hopes to eliminate “unnecessary mark-ups on the FICO Score” and put “pricing model choice in the hands of those who use FICO Scores to drive mortgage decisions,” according to Will Lansing, chief executive officer of FICO.

FICO calculates this shift will reduce the average fee per score by some 50%, with the royalty fee under the new model set at $4.95 per score, compared to the $10 fee per score in the previous system. Once a FICO-scored loan is closed under the new Mortgage Direct License Program, a funded loan fee of $33 per borrower per score will be applied additionally.

Despite the new program, firms can continue to still work through the credit bureaus if preferred.

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Claire Yubin Oh42m

Bumble soars on better-than-expected Q4 and strong first-quarter profit outlook

Bumble surged more than 20% in premarket trading on Thursday after the dating app operator posted better-than-expected Q4 results and provided Q1 profit guidance that also beat estimates, powered by its ongoing turnaround efforts.

For the quarter ending December 31, 2025, the company reported:

Revenue of $224.2 million — down 14% year on year, but above the Wall Street consensus of $221 million (per data compiled by Bloomberg).
Adjusted EBITDA of $71.6 million, beating analyst estimates of $63.5 million.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2026, Bumble forecasts:

Adjusted EBITDA of $76 million to $80 million, well ahead of analysts’ consensus of $57.7 million.
Revenue in the range of $209 million to $213 million, roughly meeting Wall Street estimates of $210 million.

Since founder Whitney Wolfe Herd returned to the top job around a year ago, Bumble has been undergoing a broad turnaround plan, featuring the introduction of new AI-enabled features to compete with stiff competition in the dating app market.

In the company’s press release, Wolfe Herd commented on its strategic overhaul: “With the heavy lift of our quality reset behind us, we are accelerating product innovation and prioritizing member experience enhancements. We are building from a stronger base and positioning Bumble for its next chapter of product-led growth.”

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Claire Yubin Oh46m

UiPath dips despite revenue beat, as guidance fails to excite analysts about longer-term growth

UiPath is down 5% in premarket trading on Thursday after the software and agentic automation company’s guidance failed to fully address investors’ growth concerns, despite posting upbeat results for the quarter and full-year ending January 31, 2026.

For the final quarter of FY2026, UiPath posted revenue of $481 million, just above analyst consensus of $465 million (compiled by Bloomberg) and adjusted EPS of $0.30, topping Wall Street estimates by 18%. The company’s annualized recurring revenue, grew 11% year-over-year to $1.853 billion, and the quarter also rounded out the company’s first profitable full year, with a GAAP operating income of $57 million for fiscal 2026.

Despite the better-than-expected results, shares slumped seemingly on the company’s conservative growth guidance. UiPath expects the following for the full year ending January 31, 2027:

Revenue between $1.754 billion and $1.759 billion, which would signal a slowdown in year-over-year growth to at least 9%, compared with 13% in the latest full year results.
ARR in the range of $2.051 billion to $2.056 billion as of January 31, 2027.
Non-GAAP operating income of approximately $415 million.

In the wake of the results, a number of analysts have cut their price targets, suggesting that Wall Street was implicitly hoping for more exciting guidance. Morgan Stanley's analyst cut their price target to $17 (from $19), Canaccord dropped theirs to $15 (from $19), and UBS lowered it to $13 (from $17).

TOPSHOT-WAR-IRAN-US-ISRAEL-THAILAND-ATTACK-LOGISTICS

Oil jumps back over $100 per barrel with tankers ablaze after being struck near the Strait of Hormuz

Plans to release strategic reserves have offered some relief, but the IEA warns the conflict is causing the largest oil supply disruption ever.

Hyunsoo Rim, David Crowther1h

Tasha Matsumoto

Stocks dip slightly, crude oil climbs amid conflict with Iran

Despite the largest-ever release of oil from the International Energy Agency’s strategic reserves, crude oil continued to climb.

Growling Polar bear

markets

Matt Phillips17h

AI “bottleneck” stocks are the big winners halfway through a tumultuous week

Memory stocks and chip machinery companies are bouncing Wednesday, following a strong Oracle earnings report that bolstered confidence in the durability of the AI data center build-out.

In fact, Sandisk is the top performer of the S&P 500 so far this week, rising more than 21% from Friday’s close, as of shortly after 2 p.m. ET. Memory chip maker Micron is second in line, up more than 13% in weekly gains, and hard disk drive maker Western Digital is also getting a lift.

Other big winners so far this week are some of the so-called semicap shares — makers of the ultraprecise machines that turn silicon into actual semiconductors — with Lam Research and KLA Corp both racking up gains of about 10% on the week. Applied Materials is up about 8% this week.

Thematically speaking, both memory stocks like Sandisk and Micron as well as semicap shares like KLA have been part of the “buy the bottleneck” trade, in which investors buy companies they believe sit at key pinch points in the AI supply chain and therefore have pretty tremendous pricing power. Through that lens, the stocks’ bounce might reflect some additional excitement about the durability of the data center boom after Oracle’s results, which included a larger-than-expected capex number as well as sales guidances that was higher than Wall Street was forecasting.

But the bounce also may be the less interesting market phenomenon of mean reversion rearing its head, as these stocks were also some of the most beaten down in the S&P 500 last week, when Sandisk lost 17% and Lam lost about 15%, for example. So, some snapback may merely be a market reflex.

Oracle jumps after Q3 results exceed expectations, boost to sales guidance

Oracle jumps after Q3 results exceed expectations, boost to sales guidance

Other big winners so far this week are some of the so-called semicap shares — makers of the ultraprecise machines that turn silicon into actual semiconductors — with Lam Research and KLA Corp both racking up gains of about 10% on the week. Applied Materials is up about 8% this week.

Thematically speaking, both memory stocks like Sandisk and Micron as well as semicap shares like KLA have been part of the “buy the bottleneck” trade, in which investors buy companies they believe sit at key pinch points in the AI supply chain and therefore have pretty tremendous pricing power. Through that lens, the stocks’ bounce might reflect some additional excitement about the durability of the data center boom after Oracle’s results, which included a larger-than-expected capex number as well as sales guidances that was higher than Wall Street was forecasting.

But the bounce also may be the less interesting market phenomenon of mean reversion rearing its head, as these stocks were also some of the most beaten down in the S&P 500 last week, when Sandisk lost 17% and Lam lost about 15%, for example. So, some snapback may merely be a market reflex.

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