In partnership with
Good Afternoon. On this day in 1868, Cornell University welcomed its first 412 students to its campus above Lake Cayuga. The new institution brought practical fields such as agriculture and engineering alongside classical studies. Turning ideas into useful work was part of the plan from the start.
Today, businesses are trying to make growth pay. Constellation’s higher sales come with a tighter margin outlook, while AI suppliers are turning demand into revenue. Households face a different calculation: higher mortgage rates make the same home harder to afford.
—Rosie, Wyatt, Evan & Conor
💰 Markets
S&P 500 | |
Dow Jones | |
NASDAQ 100 | |
iShares 7–10 Year Treasury | |
Bitcoin | |
Volatility Index |
🔍 Today’s Vibe
🔥 _What’s Hot:_ 🔥
Demand that becomes revenue: Penguin Solutions’ AI infrastructure business helped drive a much stronger quarter, giving its spending plans a larger sales base to work from.
🥶 _What’s Not:_ 🥶
Growth with a smaller cushion: Constellation’s sales increased, but its lower margin outlook shows the cost of supporting demand. Higher mortgage rates are squeezing household purchasing power too.
🔢 Big number: 7.49% — the average contract rate for a conforming 30-year fixed mortgage in the latest Mortgage Bankers Association survey, up from 7.30% a week earlier.
Blu Dot surpasses 2,000% ROAS with self-serve CTV ads
Home furniture brand Blu Dot blew up on CTV with help from Roku Ads Manager. Here’s how:
After a test campaign reached 211,000 households and achieved 1,010% ROAS, the brand went all in to promote its annual sales event. It removed age and income constraints to expand reach and shifted budget to custom audiences and retargeting, where intent was strongest.
The results speak for themselves. As Blu Dot increased their investment by 10x, ROAS jumped to 2,308% and more page-view conversions surpassed 50,000.
“For CTV campaigns, Roku has been a top performer,” said Claire Folkestad, Paid Media Strategist, Blu Dot. “Comping to our other platforms, we have seen really strong ROAS… and highly efficient CPMs, lower than any other CTV partner we've worked with.”
Using Roku Ads Manager, the campaign moved from a pilot to a permanent performance engine for the brand.
🇺🇸 Stateside
A can of Modelo Especial Photo credit
Constellation grows sales with less margin room
Constellation Brands sold more beverages in its second quarter, but the maker of Modelo Especial and Corona has less room in its full-year margin forecast. Growth in shipments and revenue doesn't mean every drink is moving faster off retailers’ shelves. The distinction matters when marketing and promotions help support demand.
The news: Net sales rose 6% to $2.63 billion, while comparable earnings increased 3% to $3.74 a share. Beer sales grew 5%, but beer depletions—sales from distributors to retailers—fell 0.6%. Wine and spirits sales rose 17%. The company kept its fiscal 2027 comparable earnings forecast at $11.20–$11.90 a share, while cutting its operating-margin outlook to 31%–32% from 32%–33%.
What’s next: Continued marketing investment needs to translate into stronger retail demand if the business is to protect profitability. Constellation returned more than $800 million through dividends and buybacks in the first half. Those cash returns and the unchanged earnings forecast provide context, but the lower margin range is the constraint to watch.
Source: Proactive
Mortgage borrowers step back as rates rise
The cost of financing a home moved higher again, and fewer borrowers applied for loans. The latest weekly survey catches the response to that increase: refinancing is particularly hard to justify when a new loan would cost more than the mortgage someone already has. Purchase demand weakened too.
The news: Mortgage applications fell 4.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week ended October 2. Refinancing applications dropped 8% from the previous week and were 56% lower than a year earlier. Purchase applications declined 2%. The average conforming 30-year fixed contract rate climbed to 7.49% from 7.30%, with points also rising. MBA attributed the move to higher Treasury rates and wider mortgage spreads amid rate volatility.
Big picture: A quoted interest rate isn't the whole borrowing bill; points and fees matter too. Adjustable-rate loans held 10.3% of application activity as borrowers sought lower initial payments. That can change the upfront affordability calculation, but the later reset remains part of the loan’s cost and risk.
Source: Mortgage Bankers Association
Penguin turns AI demand into record sales
Penguin Solutions’ latest results show AI infrastructure demand reaching the income statement, rather than staying in a list of ambitious construction plans. The company designs, builds and manages data centers, combining computing systems, memory and operating software. Its fiscal fourth quarter accelerated sharply after a much flatter first half.
The news: Quarterly net sales reached $567 million, up 68% from a year earlier. Operating income rose to $69 million, while non-GAAP operating income was $90 million. Adjusted earnings were $1.00 a share, compared with $0.43 a year earlier. Full-year sales grew 26% to $1.73 billion. The company raised its fiscal 2027 outlook and highlighted a new engagement to deploy and operate a 36,000-GPU AI facility in Norway.
Bottom line: Bigger installations bring both revenue opportunities and delivery demands. Penguin also arranged new supply relationships to support component availability. The useful follow-through is whether it can deploy those systems on time and keep earning money from their operation, rather than relying only on the next large equipment order.
Source: Penguin Solutions
Automation Anywhere buys a customer-service connection
Automation Anywhere agreed to acquire Boost.ai, aiming to connect a customer’s question with the business systems that can actually resolve it. A conversational assistant can explain a process; completing that process may require account records, approvals and several applications. The proposed combination is a bet that those pieces should work together.
The news: The San Jose-based company plans to buy Boost.ai from Nordic Capital, with closing expected in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions. Boost.ai serves hundreds of organizations, with a strong European base in banking, insurance and telecommunications. Automation Anywhere acquired employee-service AI provider Aisera in late 2025. This purchase would add more customer-facing chat and voice capabilities. The announcement doesn't disclose a purchase price.
What’s next: Integration needs to connect conversation tools with reliable execution, while retaining human judgment for exceptions. That’s especially relevant in regulated businesses where an incorrect account change can matter more than a fluent answer. The proposed deal broadens the product offering; it doesn't yet establish the savings customers will achieve.
Source: Boost.ai
Healthcare Services Group adds a dining business
Healthcare Services Group acquired NEXDINE Hospitality, expanding further into senior living and hospitality services. Dining is an everyday part of operating care facilities, and the purchase adds a business built around that work. The buyer is using its own cash to broaden the services it can provide.
The news: The upfront price is $93.5 million, with possible additional payments if specified performance targets are met. The company funded the transaction with cash on hand and expects NEXDINE to contribute more than $150 million in annual revenue. That is a management expectation, rather than revenue already earned under the new ownership. NEXDINE will keep its brand, remain based in Mansfield, Massachusetts, and continue under its existing leadership.
Big picture: Revenue scale is only part of the purchase calculation. Labor, food and other supply costs affect what service contracts ultimately earn, and the buyer flags inflation and customer collection risks. Keeping the operating team provides continuity; converting the added business into profitable growth is the financial test that follows the transaction.
Source: Healthcare Services Group
Take the prompts our creative team actually uses
The key to maintaining brand quality at scale? Mastering how to communicate with AI models and embedding them into your creative strategy.
Join our honest discussion with Ari Murray, Chief Digital Officer at Salt and Stone, and get 5 tips for expert LLM prompting with ready to run prompts.
🌎 Around The World
Reykjavík’s rooftops Photo credit
Iceland holds rates as inflation climbs
Iceland’s central bank kept its key interest rate at 8.00%, choosing restraint even as economic activity slows. The Reykjavík-based institution sees inflation moving in the wrong direction for now. A weaker economy can make rate cuts attractive, but persistent price increases make that decision harder to justify.
The news: Every member of the monetary policy committee supported leaving rates unchanged. Headline inflation reached 5.9%, its highest level in two years. The bank attributed the increase mainly to the Middle East conflict and higher public levies. Underlying inflation has been steadier, at just over 4%, but the committee said both inflation measures and expectations remain too high. The key policy rate applies to seven-day term deposits, rather than every household or business loan.
Bottom line: The bank expects inflation to fall fairly rapidly in 2027, while stressing uncertainty around the global economy and domestic labor market. That forecast hasn't persuaded it to ease today. Evidence that price pressure and expectations are cooling will matter alongside weaker activity when policymakers assess the next decision.
Source: Central Bank of Iceland
Construction lifts Germany’s production rebound
Germany’s August production report looks stronger at the top than it does across every factory sector. Construction drove a large part of the improvement, while carmaking declined again. The mix explains why a rebound in total output can coexist with pressure on some of the country’s best-known manufacturing businesses.
The news: Price-adjusted production rose 2.0% from July after seasonal and calendar adjustment. Construction increased 9.3% and machinery output rose 5.3%, while automotive production fell 5.4%. Factory holidays contributed to the carmaking decline, according to the industry association cited by Destatis. Excluding energy and construction, industrial output increased only 0.6%. Energy-intensive industries recorded a 0.5% monthly fall. These are provisional production figures, rather than a GDP estimate.
What’s next: The less volatile three-month comparison showed total production up 0.4%, a smaller improvement than the monthly headline suggests. The next question is whether manufacturing joins construction in sustaining growth. A broader recovery would offer stronger support for suppliers and employment than one month dominated by a single sector.
Source: Destatis
Kenya keeps its policy rate unchanged
Kenya’s central bank retained its benchmark rate at 8.75% at Wednesday’s monetary policy meeting. The decision leaves the policy setting in place while households and businesses face a separate set of actual lending and deposit rates. A central-bank benchmark influences financing conditions, but it doesn't specify what every borrower will pay.
The news: The bank’s October 7 notice confirms the unchanged rate. Its current indicators show September inflation at 6.8%, while the reported average lending rate for August was 14.34%. The overnight interbank measure was 8.7513% on October 6, close to the policy rate. Those observations describe different parts of the financial system and different reference periods; the retail lending figure isn't a new rate announced by this meeting.
Big picture: Holding the benchmark preserves a policy anchor without guaranteeing immediate relief on a business loan. Credit pricing also reflects borrowers’ risk and banks’ funding costs. Tracking subsequent inflation alongside changes in actual lending rates will show more about financing conditions than assuming the policy rate passes through directly to every customer.
Source: Central Bank of Kenya
💰 Money Moves
|
🥸 Dad Joke of the Day
Q: What lights up a soccer stadium?
A: A soccer match.
What if your best growth marketing hack cost $0? Well, @MarketingMax reveals how to find the angle that makes people foam at the mouth for what you sell. Takes 10 minutes & includes 20+ examples. STEAL Max’s Growth Hack Here →
📖 Vocab Word of the Day
Dividend payout ratio: The share of a company’s net earnings paid to shareholders as dividends, usually expressed as a percentage. Share repurchases aren't included in this ratio.
In a sentence: Constellation’s dividend payout ratio measures its dividend commitment relative to earnings, while buybacks represent another way to return cash.
📚 Build a Better Inbox
📬 Need more smart reads? See newsletters we recommend →
You can choose one, a few, or none. Completely up to you.
