Good Afternoon. Welcome to Afternoon Finance’s new look. We’ve added one big story, quick briefs and clearer sections to help you follow the day’s news. Same smart finance news, with a smoother read—and a later start as we launch it.

—Rosie, Wyatt, Evan & Conor

In this edition

Supplied by StockTwits. ONEQ tracks the Nasdaq Composite; IEF holds U.S. Treasury bonds; GLD tracks gold. These three references are ETFs.

The read: U.S. stocks gained Monday as AI shares kept swinging. The S&P 500 rose 0.7%, with the Dow up 0.3% and Nasdaq up 0.8%. Big Tech earnings and the Fed’s rate call come later this week. Brazil’s election result sent its shares sharply lower.

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SpaceX has a payment plan for its next wave of AI chips. It has a binding commitment for a roughly $40 billion equipment lease with an entity managed by Apollo. That’s a financing deal for its next wave of AI computing.

The plan covers Nvidia’s next Vera Rubin chips and related equipment. SpaceX would use the hardware to expand its ground-based computing network for Grok and cloud customers. GPUs, the chips at the center of the deal, handle many tasks at once to power AI systems.

Each lease would run a little over five years, Reuters reports. A lease spreads payments over time. It also adds bills the business must cover as the equipment gets older. SpaceX’s finance chief says the deal broadens its funding sources and helps it add computing power faster.

Apollo and Goldman Sachs led the group backing the deal. Funds linked to BlackRock and KKR also made commitments.

The deal still has closing conditions. It is expected to close before the end of 2026, with leases starting as equipment arrives in the first half of 2027. The funding is lined up; the chips and the business they support still have to arrive.

📊 Growth gets back above the line

The U.S. economy picked up in September, though shoppers and housing didn’t share the lift. The Chicago Fed’s broad activity index rose to +0.07 from a revised −0.08 in August. Zero marks growth at the economy’s long-run pace, so the latest reading was slightly above that line.

Production and income did most of the lifting. Consumer spending and housing pulled the other way. The three-month average rose to +0.03, giving a steadier view than one month’s swing. Growth improved, but the gains weren’t spread evenly.

🏭 Texas factories ease off the gas

Texas factories kept growing in October, just with less speed. The Dallas Fed’s production index fell to 15.8 from 29.5 in September. A positive reading means more firms reported rising output than falling output. It doesn’t mean production grew by 15.8%.

New orders slowed sharply, while the index for raw-material prices rose. Yet firms felt better about the wider business climate: that measure climbed to 13.4 from 9.8. The survey’s split is useful: better mood can sit beside slower orders and higher costs.

🔥 A gas giant adds more range

EQT plans to buy Range Resources in an all-stock deal that would create a natural-gas business valued at more than $50 billion, including debt. Range holders would get 0.987 EQT shares for each share they own. Their payout will move with EQT’s share price.

EQT’s current owners would hold about 73% of the combined firm; Range’s owners would hold 27%. Both boards approved the deal, but shareholders and regulators still have a say. The companies expect to close in the first quarter of 2027.

Verizon is adding phone customers while spending less to win them. It gained a net 406,000 postpaid phone lines in the third quarter, its strongest third-quarter result in five years. These are phone plans billed after use. Spending on promotions to attract customers fell 41% from a year earlier.

The trade-off showed up in sales. Total revenue rose 1.5% to $34.3 billion, while equipment revenue fell 9%. People are keeping their phones longer, and Verizon is cutting device subsidies. Service sales can grow even when fewer people take home a new handset.

Net income rose 5.2% to $5.3 billion. Verizon raised its full-year forecast for phone-line gains to 1.1 million–1.2 million. It also signed an AI infrastructure agreement worth more than $2 billion with Amazon Web Services. The network has two growth jobs now: connecting people and serving AI systems.

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Brazil’s election upset brought a sharp reset for its markets. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won reelection, reversing bets that his right-wing rival would take power. During Monday’s trading, the Bovespa share index fell more than 15%, Reuters reported.

Trading stopped for 30 minutes after an earlier 10% drop triggered the exchange’s safety halt. The real, Brazil’s currency, also fell sharply. The Treasury cancelled bond auctions planned for Tuesday and Thursday as the selloff spread to government debt.

Investors are watching how Lula balances social spending with a growing debt bill. His rival, Flávio Bolsonaro, refused to accept defeat. That added to the strain. Analysts told Reuters that the next finance minister and a clear budget plan will matter. Those choices could shape what Brazil pays to borrow, well beyond one rough day for stocks.

🇩🇪 Germany’s outlook brightens

German firms feel better about what comes next than what’s happening now. The ifo business-climate index rose to 90.2 in October from 89.9 in September. Hopes for the next six months improved, while views of current conditions slipped. Factory firms reported stronger orders, a brighter signal for future output.

🛍️ Britain’s shop slump eases

Britain’s shops are still selling less than a year ago, but the decline has eased. The CBI’s retail-sales balance improved to −10 in October from −55 in September. That measures the gap between firms reporting higher and lower sales, not the percentage change in purchases. Retailers still expect sales to fall in November.

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🥸 Dad Joke of the Day

Q: How do you find Will Smith in the snow?

A: You look for fresh prints.

📖 Vocab Word of the Day · Finance lease

Finance lease: A long-term deal to use an asset while taking on most of the risks and rewards of owning it. The firm owes future payments even though it doesn’t buy the asset outright.

In a sentence: SpaceX’s planned finance lease would fund chips as they arrive.

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