California Boosts Film Credits Amid Production Slump

 

California earmarked $342 million in film tax credits to jumpstart big-budget production, led by a record $43.9 million for the next Jumanji, set to shoot in November for a December 2026 release. “Heat 2” will receive $37.2 million, and a Universal feature from the Daniels rises to $38.4 million after...

Warner Bros. Discovery Weighs Strategic Alternatives After Interest

 

Warner Bros. Discovery said it is reviewing strategic alternatives after receiving unsolicited interest in the whole company and in a standalone Warner Bros. streaming and studios unit. Options include a sale of WBD, separate deals for Warner Bros. and/or Discovery Global, or a structure that merges Warner Bros. with a...

HBO Max Announces Immediate Subscription Price Increase

 

Warner Bros. Discovery said HBO Max prices are rising as of Tuesday, Oct. 21, with new subscriptions increasing immediately. Existing monthly customers will get 30 days’ notice and see higher rates from their first billing date on or after Nov. 20, 2025; yearly plans rise at renewal. WBD last raised...

Doctorow Outlines Platforms' Three-Stage Enshittification Cycle

 

Cory Doctorow's new book, Enshittification, argues major platforms follow a three-stage slide: generous to users, then to business customers, before squeezing both with degraded feeds, what he calls junk fees, and distorted search. He cites Facebook's ad-targeted feeds and Amazon's alleged cloning of sellers' products and higher-cost search results; Amazon...

Coca-Cola Beats Forecasts, Demand Still Soft

 

Coca-Cola beat Wall Street estimates, posting adjusted EPS of 82 cents on $12.41 billion in revenue, yet said demand remains soft. Third-quarter net income rose to $3.7 billion, and net sales increased 5% as organic revenue grew 6%. Unit case volume edged up 1% but was flat in Latin and...

Apple Hits Record as iPhone 17 Surges

 

Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup is outselling its predecessor in the U.S. and China—up 14% in the first 10 days—sending Apple shares up nearly 4% to a record, Counterpoint says. China’s iPhone Air sold out within minutes, per the South China Morning Post. Despite an AWS outage that hit Reddit and...

GM Set to Report Q3 Amid Headwinds

 

General Motors reports third-quarter results before Tuesday’s bell, with Wall Street expecting $2.31 adjusted EPS and $45.27 billion in revenue, down 22% and 7.2% from a year ago. The update follows a $1.6 billion special item from its EV pullback that won’t hit adjusted figures but will pressure net income....

US-Australia Minerals Pact Lifts Critical Metals Stocks

 

Australian critical metals and rare earths stocks jumped after Washington and Canberra unveiled a minerals pact worth up to $8.5 billion. Signed by U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the framework funds projects to boost supplies for defense and energy security. Lynas rose 4.7%, Iluka more than...

Cramer Hails Apple Surge, Urges Long-Term Holding

 

CNBC's Jim Cramer said Apple's nearly 4% jump to a record close Monday showed why investors should own, not trade, the stock, as the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose 1.12%, 1.07% and 1.37%. He credited three bullish analyst calls. Cramer pointed to an iPhone 17 lineup with strong demand,...

Periodic Labs Debuts With $300M For AI Discovery

 

Periodic Labs, founded by OpenAI’s Liam Fedus and former Google Brain researcher Ekin Dogus Cubuk, emerged from stealth with a $300 million seed round led by Felicis. The startup aims to fuse simulations, LLM reasoning and, soon, robotic powder-synthesis to accelerate materials discovery, starting with superconductors. OpenAI is not an...