☕️ Lula wins fourth term, Brazil stocks dive

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Finpresso.

In today's newsletter:

🇧🇷 Brazil's Lula wins fourth term as markets dive

🛒 The Information reveals Instacart's sale talks with Uber, DoorDash

🇲🇾 SoftBank plans $50B tech push in Malaysia

🚀 SpaceX closes $40B debt deal for AI chips

💰 SK Hynix weighs $12B special dividend

Plus: 🌍 10 macro stories, 🏢 9 corporate stories, and 📑 6 research & reports.

📊 Before The Bell

• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won a fourth term as Brazil's president, overtaking Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in a runoff, as the main US-listed fund tracking Brazilian stocks fell nearly 20%.
• The 80-year-old leftist, who had trailed in the first round, took 51.8% of valid votes to Bolsonaro's 48.2%, a result that splits the country almost evenly and blocks a rightward shift in Latin America backed by Donald Trump.
• Lula will govern from 2027 to 2030 facing a Congress where Bolsonaro's Liberal Party holds its largest bench in decades, and under pressure to stabilize Brazil's public debt.

• Instacart is exploring a sale that could value the grocery-delivery company at as much as $17 billion, with Uber and DoorDash identified as potential buyers in preliminary talks, according to a report from The Information.
• Instacart, currently worth about $12 billion, could fetch up to $17 billion assuming a typical acquisition premium, an estimate rather than a confirmed offer, as the company works with an investment bank to weigh its options.
• The report sent Instacart shares up roughly 9% on Friday, while both Uber and DoorDash fell; a tie-up faces regulatory scrutiny since both suitors already compete in grocery delivery, a concern that helped sink earlier DoorDash-Instacart talks in 2021.

• SoftBank plans to invest $50 billion in Malaysia focused on artificial intelligence, new technologies and data centers, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said, in what would be one of the country's largest-ever technology commitments.
• Masayoshi Son has identified sites in Kuching, Sarawak, and peninsular Malaysia for the spending, Anwar said yesterday after a video call between the two earlier in the week, though SoftBank has not publicly commented.
• The pledge builds on the country's push to become an "AI nation" by 2030 and follows smaller commitments from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google, part of $94 billion in data-center investment since 2021.

• SpaceX has closed $40 billion in debt financing to buy Nvidia GPUs for its AI operations, Elon Musk said yesterday, a sign of the scale of spending in the race to build AI computing capacity.
• Musk said the mostly callable debt was secured on SpaceX's investment-grade status and non-AI revenue from Starlink and rocket launches, with the chips due in the first half of 2027; third-quarter revenue rose 161% from a year earlier to $14.58 billion.
• Musk warned that debt markets have "almost entirely shut off" for firms without revenue outside AI data centers, predicting death and consolidation among the 200-plus "neoclouds" that rent out AI computing power.

• SK Hynix will unveil shareholder-return plans on Wednesday alongside its third-quarter results, after a report that the chipmaker is weighing a special dividend of about $12 billion (16 trillion won).
• The payout would be funded by gains from selling its stake in Japanese memory maker Kioxia, a holding SK Hynix built through a roughly 4 trillion won investment in 2018 that analysts estimate delivered substantial profits.
• The move responds to investor pressure for bigger payouts from AI-memory profits, building on an August plan to cancel 40 trillion won of shares; SK Hynix rose 0.5% on Monday, outperforming the broader Korean market.

🌍 Macro News

• Fed expected to pause Wednesday before resuming rate hikes in December LINK
• Japan's central bank may declare inflation victory but keep December hikes possible LINK
• Oil prices eased after nearing six-month highs late last week LINK
• European gas prices reached their highest level since 2022 as winter approaches LINK
• US will exempt nine categories of Canadian imports from tariffs LINK
• US added helium to critical materials list over semiconductor and supply risks LINK
• DeepSeek and MiniMax registered under China's proposed AI export rules LINK
• Canada proposes stablecoin holders redeem at par, with fees capped at 1% LINK
• UK regulator proposes extra checks on crypto transfers to unhosted wallets LINK
• Hong Kong approved secondary trading of two tokenized ChinaAMC money-market funds LINK

🏢 Corporate News

• Audi says Georgia factory will boost US sales and reduce tariff exposure LINK
• Shein agreed to pay $100 million to settle FTC customer complaints LINK
• Volvo shares plunged as China's slump drove quarterly operating loss LINK
• JetBlue creditors hired advisers to scrutinize $2 billion in airline debt LINK
• American Express will cut 3,850 jobs as it shifts processes to AI LINK
• LSEG agreed to buy Octus for $3.535 billion, expanding its credit-data business LINK
• Infosys lowered revenue outlook despite upbeat deal activity amid weaker demand LINK
• Sezzle seeks national bank charter to offer federally insured deposit accounts LINK
• CoinDCX confirmed a $16 million loss from its retired crypto wallets LINK

📈 Stocks

📑 Research & Reports

• Aleph's FP&A fitness score: scores your planning process and shows where it lags comparable finance teams. Get your free score
• Generative AI has yet to deliver financial gains for non-tech US companies LINK
• Data center spending may exceed $1 trillion in 2026, doubling by 2028 LINK
• More euro-area firms reported higher bank loan rates in the third quarter LINK
• Goldman cut its Kospi target 25% after AI stock selloff LINK
• Companies plan AI compute platform changes despite most graphics chips sitting idle LINK
• Investors are becoming more selective in private credit, not abandoning it LINK

📅 Market Calendar

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