Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will receive a new stock package in exchange for keeping the company's headquarters in California, under an agreement aimed at preventing him from losing control of the company if a temporary tax is approved in the November elections.
José Joaquín Prat, CEO of PlanVital, defended in an interview the investment decisions of the AFP system's Fund E, which fell 4.92% in September and is down 10.39% so far this year in real terms. Prat said the long durations and use of rate swaps aim to match the pension liability and are not a risk bet. Chile's Pensions Superintendency opened a sanctioning process against all seven AFPs in the system.
Three electoral processes could shift the course of international politics: the elections in Brazil and Israel and the midterm elections in the United States. Although each vote is about domestic issues, their consequences cross borders, according to the analysis. In the United States, a majority favorable to Donald Trump would let him push his agenda more easily, while a divided Congress would force him to negotiate. What happens there will influence the dollar, interest rates and growth prospects for much of the world.
Mercadona is testing Bizum Pay payments at the checkouts of several supermarkets, with its Soria stores as the first testing ground, to measure speed and flow at the checkout line before extending the system. The chain already accepted Bizum for its online store. With Bizum Pay, money leaves the customer's bank account and reaches the merchant's in seconds via instant transfer, without a card, by tapping the phone on the contactless terminal or scanning a QR code. The merchant only needs to activate the service.
Elon Musk invested $1 billion in Skydance, as first reported by CNBC citing sources familiar with the process. The injection gives the company liquidity to address its debt and the restructuring ahead. It comes two weeks after the absorption of Warner Bros Discovery was completed for close to $110 billion, following Netflix's withdrawal from the bidding. The Ellison family holds the largest stake and, together with RedBird Capital Partners, all voting shares. Class B shares debuted on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SKYD.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, of Gemini, and Barry Silbert, founder of Digital Currency Group, are investing millions in Zcash mining and competing to attract capital through rival funds, according to Bloomberg. The privacy token is up nearly 3,000% this year, driven by a US court ruling in March 2025 and by concerns that AI makes it easier to track financial activity on public blockchains. Cypherpunk Technologies and Fortitude Mining are among the largest miners of the cryptocurrency.
The US Treasury Department proposed expanding controls on capital destined for strategic sectors, including artificial intelligence, supercomputing, biotechnology and hypersonic systems. The measure would apply to investments above $50,000 and would exclude numerous financial operations, including many stock purchases. The countries covered include China, Russia, North Korea and others considered of concern to Washington. The proposal must still go through review and public comment before becoming a final rule.
Spain is heading for a third consecutive year of falling total car production, but EV manufacturing has surged: since June, each month has doubled the figure from a year earlier, according to Anfac. Industry sources expect more than 200,000 pure electric units by year-end, versus 107,732 last year. The push comes from Volkswagen's four new B-segment EVs built in Pamplona and Martorell, which have accumulated more than 150,000 orders.
According to KPMG's report "Zoom, preparados para la disrupción", 78% of banking companies place cybersecurity as an investment priority given AI risks, compared with 39% of Spanish business leaders overall and 42% of the insurance sector. The study is published as European banks must submit contingency plans to the ECB on the threat posed by Anthropic's AI model, Mythos.
A study analyzed about 78,500 earnings calls between 2010 and 2020, covering 10,864 executives at nearly 2,500 listed companies. Executives who invited colleagues to speak were seen as more cooperative and were more likely to become CEO: the promotion rate was 13% versus 6.7% for the overall sample. In addition, when a company promoted a more cooperative CEO than the previous one, the stock rose an average of 0.6% in the three days around the announcement.
A MarketWatch analysis warns that holding Nvidia, CoreWeave and Vertiv shares may look like diversification, but all three depend on the same data center spending cycle. After last week's selloff driven by concerns over data center debt and rising financing costs, the piece proposes three questions: what funds each position's growth, who needs new financing, and what happens if growth merely slows.
French bonds are facing a sell-off and the 10-year yield has topped 5%, the highest since 2002, with a public deficit set to exceed 5% in 2026. Citi compares the situation with the European periphery crisis (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) and points to five lessons: fiscal consolidation takes years, loss of market confidence can turn the crisis into a self-fulfilling prophecy, private deleveraging makes adjustment more painful, contagion hits the weakest link and foreign investors sell before domestic banks.
SpaceX is negotiating an off-balance-sheet debt structure worth US$40 billion to finance the purchase of Nvidia chips and expand its artificial intelligence division. According to Bloomberg, volatility in credit markets has raised financing costs and complicated the pricing agreement. Bankers led by Goldman Sachs are discussing the deal with investors led by Apollo Global Management, and Atlas SP would manage the entity. The debt would be issued in three tranches of 144a bonds.
Valenciaport moved 498,837 TEUs in September, up 5.48%, with exports rising 5.68% and imports 11.68%, according to the Statistics Office of the Port Authority of Valencia. Tonnage rose 2.05% to 6.6 million. Over the past twelve months it handled 5,623,753 TEUs, 30 containers fewer than the previous year, and 78.7 million tonnes (-1.56%). China remains its main trading partner, with 714,691 TEUs between January and September, up 15.07%.
Australian miner Lynas Rare Earths acquired Meteoric Resources through a scheme of arrangement governed by Australian law, in a deal announced on September 30 worth 671 million US dollars. The transaction consisted solely of a share exchange of 0.0207 Lynas shares for each Meteoric share, a 68.4% premium, and is expected to close in March 2027 subject to regulatory, judicial and shareholder approvals. With the deal, Lynas takes control of the Caldeira ionic clay project in Minas Gerais.
Argentina's country risk closed the week at 707 basis points, one of the highest levels of the year, according to the index compiled by JP Morgan. Doubts about debt maturities and investors' perception of the Argentine government's ability to meet its obligations are pressuring dollar-denominated sovereign bonds, which have accumulated losses of up to 6.6% over the past month. Analysts warn that the persistence of these levels raises warning signs about the cost of access to international credit.
Shares of Hermès and LVMH are trading at their lowest valuation levels in more than a decade, after results that dashed hopes of a sector recovery. Hermès trades at about 27 times future earnings, versus a post-pandemic peak of roughly 70 times, and LVMH at about 16 times, its lowest level in over ten years. Both have plunged around 40% this year. Kering also disappointed on weak consumption in China.
Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi dismissed the case against Argentine President Javier Milei, his sister Karina Milei and nine other defendants over the $LIBRA cryptocurrency, concluding that the investigated crimes were not proven, including fraud, influence peddling and abuse of authority. The ruling granted the request of prosecutor Eduardo Taiano. Milei celebrated the decision on X and denounced a "political and media operation" against him.
Michael Hartnett, strategist at Bank of America, wrote in a note to clients that he remains "tactically risk-off until mid-November" and expects a downward trend in yields, stocks and the US dollar. The market has yet to fully price in a Democratic victory in both the House and the Senate, which would be negative for earnings growth. Fears of an AI bubble and the midterm elections are weighing on markets.
Brazil's central bank approved three resolutions to strengthen consumer protection against credit offers, broaden banking transparency and prevent excessive household indebtedness. The measures will be rolled out gradually from 2027: from March 31, institutions must offer mechanisms to block advertising and active credit proposals, with prior authorization required for financially vulnerable clients; from July 1 a Consolidated Debts Panel will be created, and from July 1, 2027, credit offers linked to Pix will require prior, specific consent.
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