Oracular Spooktacular

After reporting results Wednesday, IBM was on track for its worst trading day since... well, the last time it reported earnings back in July.

(Getty Images) Presented by Hey Snackers, At about two hours long, the series finale of "Stranger Things" is already pushing the bounds of how long something can be and still be considered a TV episode. To make matters muddier, Netflix announced yesterday it'll release the episode live in theaters. After "KPop Demon Hunters" became the streamer's first box office No. 1, earning $19 million in a three-day weekend, it's no surprise that Netflix is eager to embrace ways to make more out of less as one of its biggest hits enters its final chapter.   US stocks bounced back strongly on Thursday, as the S&P 500 erased the prior session's losses with a 0.6% gain, the Nasdaq 100 ended up 0.9%, and the Russell 2000 booked an advance of more than 1%. The iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF snapped its longest streak of underperforming the SPDR S&P 500 ETF in over a year, with both AI-geared megacaps and more speculative nonprofitable tech stocks rallying. 🔮 Quiz time: See if you can predict your score with our "Fun with futures" quiz! Here's the first question:  What was the first known futures exchange? Check your answer. YOU'RE MY BOY, BLUE! IBM's earnings don't inspire confidence. Here's where the weakness seems to come from. After reporting results Wednesday, IBM was on track for its worst trading day since... well, the last time it reported earnings back in July, as analysts combed through the numbers and raised their collective eyebrows at a couple of different issues. Here are some analysts sounding off: BNP Paribas: "Software growth of 9% [constant currency] fell short of cons. for the second straight quarter. Red Hat guidance also seemed to soften." Morgan Stanley: "Software growth accelerated as we previewed, but RedHat and TP — which collectively represent 53% of Software revenue — missed expectations again. Furthermore, we estimate organic Software growth in 3Q was just 5% Y/Y, below our 6% Y/Y forecast and management's 7% target model." Bank of America: "Transaction processing declined 3% in constant currency due to customers continuing to prioritize hardware spend over software, but transaction processing should reaccelerate as we move through the mainframe cycle." Bernstein Research: "Red Hat deceleration appears to have been a worry driving shares down post market close, however the company showed strong bookings growth and confidence that this will help bring Red Hat back to mid-teens YoY growth." They highlighted sluggish growth in the company's transaction processing business — where IBM software is run directly on the mainframe systems used in high-security, high-transaction industries like airlines and banking. THE TAKEAWAY Analysts also called out softness in the company's hybrid cloud business, built around IBM's roughly $35 billion purchase of Red Hat in 2019. Companies using the hybrid cloud can connect systems hosted on the public cloud and on-site mainframes. But the results spotlighted a slowdown in actual revenue-generating usage of IBM's hybrid cloud services by clients.  All that said, IBM managed to pare its losses through Thursday's session as investors remembered that Big Blue's results had some green shoots, too. Read more Presented by State Street Investment Management Don't miss out on a mid-cap allocation Want a smart, time-efficient way to invest in companies like Williams-Sonoma, The New York Times Company, Chewy Inc. and more? Tap into the outperformance potential of 400 mid-sized companies in a single trade with MDY — the original mid-cap ETF. Wherever you're headed, getting there starts here. ACTUALLY, FRANKENSTEIN WAS THE *DIRECTOR* How horror movies revived cinemas from the dead and became the most electric genre in Hollywood Audiences often seem surprised when scary movies — particularly low-budget, gore-intensive, numeral-heavy titles — become blockbuster hits. And yet, moviegoers continually flock to screens to see fight-or-flight-fueling films. Universal and Blumhouse's "Black Phone 2" is just the latest example, having opened to an estimate-exceeding $27.3 million at the domestic box office last weekend, jump-starting a sluggish October for theaters (down 11% from the same point last year, per Comscore). This year has already seen a string of huge successes for the genre: "Sinners" opened to a phenomenal $48 million back in April, and "Weapons" achieved a perfect critical rating on movie review site Rotten Tomatoes before it hit cinemas. "The Conjuring: Last Rites," the ninth installment in the franchise, has made a staggering $482 million around the world since its September release, making it the second-highest-grossing horror film of all time. The share of ticket sales for horror movies at the US box office was at an all-time high of 17.2% as of October 21 — up from the already impressive 14.4% share that we charted just two months ago. Much has been written in previous years about the genre being critically snubbed, and mainstream recognition of "elevated" horror only really kicked up a notch with the release of Jordan Peele's 2017 movie "Get Out." But when comparing the audience scores against critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes for the top 50 highest-grossing horror movies of all time, it's clear that the general population actually often views scary movies more favorably than most professional reviewers. THE TAKEAWAY October typically marks the busiest month for horror, with Netflix's "Frankenstein" currently in the midst of its limited theatrical release and buzzy production house Neon's "Shelby Oaks" landing on US screens this week. Perhaps more so in 2025 than ever before, it appears horror isn't just for Halloween: the sequel to surprise hit "Five Nights at Freddy's" is slated for December, while "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple" is expected to premiere next January — only seven months after its precursor's release. Read more THE BEST THING WE READ TODAY The future of Tesla is really hard to build and increasingly expensive The utopian future Elon Musk describes is awe-inspiring. "Optimus will be an incredible surgeon," Musk said Wednesday, referring to the autonomous robots Tesla is developing that he says hold 80% of the company's future value. But as Tesla tries to make it happen, struggles are emerging and costs are climbing. Profits vs. costs Presented by State Street Investment Management Don't miss out on a mid-cap allocation Wherever you're heading — building wealth, planning for the future, or just making smarter money moves — getting there starts here with MDY — the first mid-cap ETF that provides investors with cost-efficient, liquid exposure to the S&P MidCap 400® — an index tracking the performance of 400 US-based mid-sized companies. What else we're Snackin' Meta says it's replacing jobs with tech in a new round of layoffs, just after making cuts in its AI team Solmate announces "aggressive" solana acquisition plans as spot ETF filings grow Traders on Robinhood's* event contracts for Sunday's NFL matches are positioning the 49ers-Texans early game as the one to watch, with Houston trading at just $0.55 to win Meanwhile, for Sunday Night Football, the prediction market's got a Packers win over the Steelers at $0.61, with Aaron Rodgers returning to his longtime home a distinct underdog *Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company. Snack Fact of the Day Ethereum treasury firms have surpassed bitcoin treasury companies by percentage of total supply. Friday September CPI data  Earnings expected from Procter & Gamble State Street Investment Management Disclosure: Before investing, consider the funds' investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. 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