SpaceX Signed for Airwaves, Carriers Slid | Musalem Set a Clock | Hormuz Got Two Counts | Ether Took the Flush

Three phone companies shed more than $30 billion before the open after a purchase reported near $8 billion.

After Thursday's close, SpaceX (SPCX) agreed to buy the 800 MHz airwaves T-Mobile sold in August. The Wall Street Journal put the undisclosed price near $8 billion in cash, citing people familiar with the deal.

AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ) and T-Mobile (TMUS) traded about 7% lower early Friday. SpaceX gained about 4%, after falling 4.2% in Thursday's session. A Verizon spokesman said spectrum without a network is "just empty airwaves." The FCC still has to approve the transfer.

A missile award moved far less. RTX (RTX) has won three multiyear missile contracts in less than two weeks. The newest, for SM-3 interceptors, is worth up to $6.3 billion. The three ceilings total $51.4 billion, about a fifth of RTX's market value. Its shares, up 2.3% Thursday before the announcement, were little changed in early trades.

S&P 500 futures rose about 0.3%, and Nasdaq 100 futures about 0.7%.

The Network Nobody Has Built

The carriers lost several times the reported price over airwaves with no network built on them yet. Raytheon's newest ceiling was smaller than the spectrum price and barely moved its stock. A ceiling is a maximum rather than an order. Before the open, the airwaves moved far more value than the missile award, on an approval not yet given.

The president's one-night barrel count is more than twice the trackers' daily rate.

Brent traded near $103 early Friday, down more than 1% after Thursday's 4% jump. Washington counts 20 million barrels through Hormuz, and Trump put one night's flow at 22 million. Central Command's 20 million came with no time period.

Kpler data cited by Reuters put last week's crude crossings at 10.1 million barrels a day or more. That was 27% below the wartime high of the week before. One figure is a single night, and the other a daily average.

Hurricane Isaias reached 110 mph early Friday. NHC says it is likely to become a major hurricane, then weaken slightly before landfall. Producers have shut in about 63% of Gulf of Mexico oil output.

EOG Resources (EOG) raised one third-quarter number: its tax bill. The midpoint of its current tax guidance rose about $290 million. EOG tied it to higher crude prices from the Middle East conflict.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) cut its full-year adjusted profit forecast by nearly a quarter at the midpoint. It expects fuel to cost about $6 billion more than last year. Its shares fell about 3% before the open.

Two Ledgers for One Strait

EOG's tax bill and Delta's forecast show the price is real money on both sides of the barrel. Until the two counts converge, supply rests on a disputed number as a hurricane cuts Gulf output.

Two committees got priced this week, and one beat a $30 million market.

The Fed's Musalem put a clock on rate increases. Rates "ought to be going up further" in the next six to nine months, the St. Louis Fed president said.

He would not commit to this month's meeting, and he does not vote this year. New York Fed President John Williams and Vice Chair Philip Jefferson do, and both argued last week against urgency. Kalshi's October-hike contract traded up to 18 cents from 16 overnight, still inside its recent range.

September consumer prices arrive Oct. 14.

Prediction markets put more than $30 million on the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee chose Navi Pillay, the South African jurist and former UN human-rights chief. Polymarket's four favorites carried about 72% of the odds before the 5 a.m. announcement. All four settled at zero.

Pricing a Closed Room

Both markets price decisions made behind closed doors. The Nobel board showed how far a deep market can sit from a secret choice. Kalshi's October contract carries that same blind spot until the Fed's room opens later this month.

Firmus would not list on the terms public buyers offered. Lenders led by PIMCO, Blackstone and Sixth Street gave Waymo $5 billion the same week.

Firmus walked away from an A$11-a-share listing. The Nvidia-backed data-center developer pulled its Australian IPO on Friday in Sydney. It will seek private capital instead. That price valued its equity near $30.6 billion, nearly triple its August round, Reuters reported.

Waymo's first debt is a $5 billion term loan. Bloomberg reported the loan was upsized and priced 5.25 percentage points over the benchmark rate.

The Price of Skipping the Bell

Two AI-era builders looked beyond the stock market for money in one week. Firmus turned there after its board said public terms would not reflect its value. Waymo borrowed before any listing, at a reported spread, without selling shares. In both cases lenders and private investors now set the price, and Firmus's next raise shows where that price sits.

Ether carried the leverage, and one fund in each coin carried the selling.

Bitcoin traded above $82,000 early Friday, back above its 50-day average. It had slipped below $81,000 on Thursday. Ether sat near $2,490, still under its own.

Derivatives data cited by CoinDesk showed about $1.2 billion of bets forced shut. That covered the 24 hours to early Friday. Ether's share was about $356 million, and bitcoin's about $298 million. Scaled by market value, ether bets were liquidated at about six times bitcoin's rate.

Spot bitcoin and ether funds have had nearly $1 billion of net outflows in six October sessions. On Thursday, Fidelity's bitcoin fund accounted for about 80% of bitcoin-fund withdrawals. BlackRock's ether fund accounted for about 90% of ether-fund withdrawals.

One Door per Coin

The forced selling hit hardest where leverage was thickest for its size. Fund outflows ran mostly through one product per coin, and fund data do not show who sold. Friday's numbers show whether fund buyers return after the bounce.

Thursday's figures moved prices by what they could become more than by their size.

The airwaves outweighed a fresh missile ceiling. Two barrel counts sit far apart, and a deep market missed a closed committee.

The FCC still has to approve the airwaves. Consumer prices land Oct. 14, and the Fed's room opens later this month.