The world can stop worrying about an AI bubble, at least for now: AI chip-making linchpin Nvidia dropped a stellar earnings report yesterday that has at least temporarily eased concerns that the economy is on the verge of collapsing like a New York Mets team in September.

• Revenue for Q3 reached $57.01 billion, above analyst estimates of $54.92 billion.
• Data center sales totaled $51.2 billion, exceeding predictions of $49.09 billion and indicating that the appetite for AI is still growing.
• CEO Jensen Huang said sales of the company’s next-generation Blackwell chips are “off the charts” and cloud GPUs are “sold out.”
• The company is expecting $65 billion in revenue for the current quarter, also outpacing the $61.66 billion that analysts expect.

The better-than-expected report sent Nvidia stock soaring 5% after hours. “The AI ecosystem is scaling fast—with more new foundation model makers, more AI startups, across more industries, and in more countries,” Huang said.

Much-needed good news: This comes after weeks of AI stock selloffs, including Peter Thiel’s hedge fund unloading its entire stake in Nvidia, and Michael Burry, the 2008 housing market implosion soothsayer, revealing he bought put options on Nvidia, betting the stock price was going to drop, and warning of an AI bubble.

Big Tech is in this together

Since October 2022, the S&P 500 has been propped up by the Magnificent Seven stocks, which account for 75% of the gains that have pushed the index to record highs. Meanwhile, fellow members of that club—Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta—account for more than 40% of Nvidia’s sales. Then there are the circular investments involving OpenAI, Nvidia, CoreWeave, AMD, Microsoft, and Oracle that include billions in equity stakes between them.

This has led to fears that if the tech giants and small circle of AI companies doing most of the spending pull back on their AI infrastructure buildouts, it will create a disastrous chain reaction for the economy.

Zoom out: While trepidations about an AI bubble have been kicked down the road, fears about an economy on shaky footing could be stoked by this morning’s delayed jobs report for September.—DL

The Fed is deeply divided, and it won’t have full October data. Central bankers cut interest rates last month, but they were split over whether to focus on the weak job market or inflation—and over whether more cuts will be necessary going forward, minutes from the Fed’s last meeting show. That leaves the outlook for whether they’ll opt for another cut in December murky. And Jerome Powell and co. won’t have all the data when making the decision: Yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said it won’t publish a full jobs report for October due to the government shutdown. Instead, it’ll include some information about the labor market in October with its November report, but it won’t have an unemployment tally, as the information “could not be collected.” It also delayed the November data drop until six days after the Fed’s December meeting.

President Trump signed the bill requiring the Epstein files’ release. The legislation signed by the president yesterday obliges the Department of Justice to release all files and communications related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including information about the investigation into his death in prison, within 30 days. Trump could have released this information without Congress; however, he opposed the legislation, which divided his party. He abruptly pivoted over the weekend to say that Republicans should support it—after which the bill passed with near-unanimous bipartisan support. In announcing he had signed the bill, Trump characterized the issue as something Democrats used “to try and distract from our AMAZING Victories.”

Target still not hitting the bull’s-eye. The big-box chain’s struggles continued last quarter, with Target reporting yesterday that sales continued to slump, marking the 12th quarter in a row with weak or declining sales. The company’s stock is down nearly 35% for the year. But incoming CEO Michael Fiddelke plans to boost investment next year to $5 billion to improve stores, digital offerings, and merchandise in hopes of turning things around. “If you’re frustrated with our recent performance, we are too,” Fiddelke told analysts.—AR

Put on your monocle and pour up the Macallan—the art market is so back. Following three years of slowing action at auctions, Sotheby’s banged the gavel this week on a record-setting painting that signaled a possible reinvigoration in the collector world.

After a 19-minute bidding war, Gustav Klimt’s 1914–1916 “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” sold for $236.4 million to an anonymous buyer, making it:

• The most expensive work ever sold at Sotheby’s.
• The most expensive 20th-century artwork ever auctioned, knocking Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portrait to second place.
• The second-most expensive art sold at any auction, with the top spot belonging to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” which sold for $450 million at Christie’s in 2017.

A piece of history: The Lederers were one of the wealthiest dynasties in Vienna before Nazi Germany invaded Austria. The Nazis looted the Jewish family’s art, except for the family portraits. To avoid persecution, Elisabeth convinced the Nazis that she descended from Klimt, who was not Jewish.

In today’s art market: Sotheby’s and Christie’s each auctioned off more than $700 million worth of art this week. After dialing back their splurges, in part due to geopolitical unrest and tariff fears, collectors are out to play once again, per the Wall Street Journal.—ML

Grocery chains have a hot new trick to win your loyalty: slashing turkey prices. Despite inflation ripping through every grocery aisle like a group of unsupervised teens with a motorized scooter cart, retailers are offering huge savings on Thanksgiving Day meal deals.

It’s mainly marketing. The cost of shopping cart staples has risen nearly 29% since before the pandemic. But big grocery stores hope a brief holiday inflation break will earn faithful shoppers—and some are eating the cost to make it happen. While the wholesale price of a frozen turkey clocks in at $1.73 per pound right now, it’s retailing at places like Walmart for $0.97 per pound:

• Aldi announced a $40 bundle that includes a 14-pound turkey and traditional fixings to feed 10 people, a $7 drop from what it offered last year.
• Walmart, which bundled its first holiday dinner four years ago, is keeping its deal at the same price as last year—around $4 per person for a table of 10—but has removed some items from its 2024 meal.

Big picture: The American Farm Bureau Federation priced the classic dinner at $55.18 for a party of 10 this year (based on wholesale prices, not retail bundles). That’s about $5.52 a person, which is down 5% from last year, but still about 13% higher than it was in 2019.—MM

When Curaçao’s soccer team qualified for the 2026 World Cup after achieving a 0–0 draw with Jamaica this week, it not only fulfilled a gooooooooal for the team, it also made history. With a population of ~156,000, the Caribbean island is now the smallest nation to ever make it into the competition, taking the crown from Iceland (population: 350,000), which qualified in 2018.

• Curaçao became an autonomous country within the Netherlands in 2010, and its squad recruited from its diaspora, bringing on players who had previously played for the Netherlands as youths.
• The odds were also more in the country’s favor than usual, as the 2026 cup will feature 48 teams, instead of the typical 32.

And it’s not the only nation making its World Cup debut: Fellow first-timers Cape Verde, Uzbekistan, and Jordan will also play. Haiti qualified for its second time (its first was in 1974). Meanwhile, eight of the 10 most populous nations did not qualify for this year’s cup, according to The Athletic.—AR