Oil giants slide as OPEC+ eyes another output hike

Oil stocks sank Wednesday after reports that OPEC+ is weighing another 1.65 million barrels per day in output hikes, beginning to undo prior rounds of cuts a year earlier than previously planned, and could even agree on further production increases at its meeting this weekend.

Oil names including ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, APA Corporation, Diamondback Energy, Devon Energy, Halliburton, and EOG Resources were all in the red as investors digested the prospect of a supply boost.

The pullback comes as traders consider the group’s next move ahead of its fall meeting, with speculation growing that Saudi Arabia and Russia could push for higher output to maintain global market share.

Despite steady prices earlier this summer, a ramp in supply would likely pressure US producers, who are already grappling with signs of softening demand and rising costs.

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Claire Yubin Oh23m

UPS spikes after reporting Q3 profits way ahead of expectations, as cost savings flow through to bottom line

UPS delivered a rosy set of results which sent the stock up as much as 17.7% in premarket trading on Tuesday, after reporting better-than-expected profit in the third quarter, with the logistics giant’s cost-cutting efforts beginning to show results.

The company’s adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.74 for the quarter, beating the $1.32 average analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue also topped expectations, coming at $21.4 billion, and UPS now expects ~$24 billion for Q4 — above analysts’ prior expectations, who were penciling in $23.8 billion.

The company’s CEO, Carol Tomé, said in the press release:

“We are executing the most significant strategic shift in our company’s history, and the changes we are implementing are designed to deliver long-term value for all stakeholders. With the holiday shipping season nearly upon us, we are positioned to run the most efficient peak in our history while providing industry-leading service to our customers for the eighth consecutive year.”

Indeed, UPS has been on a large-scale turnaround plan lately, focusing on efficiency, after its demand was hit by tariff uncertainties and stiff competition. The company has trimmed down less-profitable deliveries from Amazon and says it has cut a whopping ~34,000 jobs from its operational workforce so far this year, as of Tuesday. The company’s also closed or consolidated a number of packaging facilities, and says it is on track to achieve $3.5 billion worth of total cost savings in 2025, relative to last year.

Luke Kawa26m

Strive’s new wave of retail bulls have nearly completely vanquished the shorts

Shares of Strive Inc. are on the back foot this morning as a torrid two-day rally that saw the stock rise 90% amid back-to-back records for call options traded begins to cool.

JPMorgan strategist Arun Jain observes that the short interest in the stock tumbled from north of 20 million shares to a negligible amount, as the stock soared thanks to heavy retail buying in recent sessions.

JPM ASST retail imbalance and short interest

(20 million in short interest, for the record, pales in comparison to the nearly 1.3 billion in volumes over the course of Friday and Monday, another reminder that even successful short squeezes are defined more by the enthusiasm of new buyers.)

The elimination of that forced buyer base might be serving as a bit of a “mission accomplished” signal for bulls in the near term.

Tom Jones47m

PYPL leaps after signing OpenAI deal, enabling users to check out instantly using PayPal within ChatGPT

PayPal soared almost 15% at one point in premarket trading on Tuesday, after the online transactions giant announced it had signed a deal with OpenAI, enabling instant checkout on the chatbot for millions of users.

The deal — which was signed over the weekend and will reportedly go into effect next year — will also see PayPal connect tens of millions of merchants with OpenAI, allowing massive companies and independent sellers alike to integrate their businesses into ChatGPT in 2026. The agreement makes PayPal the first payments wallet in ChatGPT, per CNBC.

In the press release announcing the new partnership, PayPal CEO, Alex Chriss, confirmed:

By partnering with OpenAI and adopting the Agentic Commerce Protocol, PayPal will power payments and commerce experiences that help people go from chat to checkout in just a few taps for our joint customer bases.

The agreement will also see PayPal expand its use of OpenAI tech at a corporate level, opening up ChatGPT Enterprise to its almost 25,000 employees and enabling some to use other software and APIs.

Even with the rise, which has been pared back a little at the time of writing, PayPal is still down around 10% so far this year.

J. Edward Moreno

52m

UnitedHealth Group rises after earnings beat, boost to full-year profit guidance

The industry has been reeling amid rising costs of care, particularly for government-sponsored plans.

Toby Bochan, Luke Kawa

Market Wrap

16h

US stocks close at record highs on US-China trade truce optimism

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all started off the week with record highs ahead of a big earnings week, with five of the members of the Magnificent 7 reporting.

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