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Claire Yubin Oh

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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Opendoor surges on bullish options bets as traders look to potential real estate tokenization

Opendoor Technologies is surging on Friday amid bullish options bets and social media posts referencing unconfirmed rumors about the company.

The stock moved higher in the premarket session after the soft inflation report boosted stocks and briefly pushed long-term bond yields lower (positive for a real estate company). But the real gains came after the opening bell rang and options demand picked up.

As of 12:11 p.m. ET, roughly 664,000 call options have changed hands versus a 10-day average of about 364,000 for a full session.

What seems to be galvanizing members of the “$OPEN Army” is the potential for the company to pursue the tokenization of real-world assets, with Robinhood often bandied about as a potential partner in this endeavor.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Opendoor bulls have often pointed to signs that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev appears to be fond of the company, from what appeared on-screen during a demo of a social trading feature at HOOD’s conference in Las Vegas in September to offering support to Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian in setting up an opportunity for retail shareholders to ask questions during the online real estate company’s next earnings call.

Opendoor is currently in a quiet period ahead of earnings, which restricts what type of announcements a company can make.

The call options seeing the most demand expire this Friday with strike prices of $8, $8.50, and $9.

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Beyond Meat gains amid slightly better-than-expected Q3 sales, positive commentary on legal issues

Shares of Beyond Meat built on their premarket gains after the plant-based meat seller reported preliminary Q3 sales a bit ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, before paring this advance after the market opened.

For the three months ended September 27, management said net revenue would be approximately $70 million. That’s in line with their guidance range of $68 million to $73 million, but Wall Street was expecting sales to skew toward the lower end of that range, at $68.7 million.

However, its anticipated gross margin of 10% to 11% is lower than analysts had been expecting (13.8%). That’s still the case even adjusting for expenses related to its downsizing of operations in China, which would have left margins around 12% to 13%, per Beyond.

Perhaps more importantly, the company provided positive commentary regarding arbitration discussions with a former co-manufacturer that appear to bring it closer to a resolution while limiting potential damages:

“As previously disclosed, in March 2024, a former co-manufacturer brought an action against the Company in a confidential arbitration proceeding claiming that the Company inappropriately terminated its agreement with the co-manufacturer and claimed damages of at least $73.0 million. On September 15, 2025, the arbitrator issued an interim award (the ‘Interim Award’) and found that the Company had a valid basis to terminate the agreement with the Manufacturer. The details of the Interim Award are confidential, and a final arbitration award has not been issued. Additional proceedings will be held to determine the award of attorneys’ fees, prejudgment interest and costs, if any, before a final arbitration award will be issued. On September 25, 2025, the Manufacturer filed a request with the arbitrator to re-open the arbitration hearing. On September 29, 2025, the Company opposed this request. On October 20, 2025, the arbitrator denied the Manufacturer’s request.”

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