Category: 3. Business

Story Continues

VICI Properties (VICI) has recently caught the attention of investors following its latest performance numbers. The real estate investment trust posted annual revenue growth of 3% and net income growth of 5%. These trends invite a closer look at current valuation.

See our latest analysis for VICI Properties.

This year, shares of VICI Properties have gradually lost momentum, with the 1-year total shareholder return slipping to -5.53%. The short-term share price return sits just below flat, but over the past five years, investors still hold a substantial 45% gain. Recent weakness may reflect changing sentiment or sector pressure. However, the broader picture points to solid long-term value for those who have stayed the course.

If you’re looking for more investing ideas beyond real estate, now could be the perfect time to broaden your search and discover fast growing stocks with high insider ownership

With VICI now trading at a notable discount compared to analyst targets and a strong five-year return, the question remains: Is the current price a genuine buying opportunity, or has the market already priced in future growth?

At $28.82, VICI Properties trades meaningfully below its most widely followed fair value estimate, enticing investors with the potential for substantial upside if assumptions hold true.

Inflation-protected leases, disciplined funding, and strategic acquisitions position VICI for resilient earnings, dividend growth, and long-term asset value expansion. Structural shifts in consumer spending toward experiences such as travel, sports, group events, and entertainment are expanding opportunities in VICI’s experiential and non-gaming real estate segments, creating new revenue streams, lowering tenant concentration risk, and providing a long runway for top-line growth.

Read the complete narrative.

Want to know what bold projections are powering this potential 22% upside? The linchpin of this narrative is an impressive combination of future growth, margin profiles, and a profit multiple that could reset investor expectations. Uncover which key assumptions hold the secret to this valuation; only the full narrative reveals the complete story.

Result: Fair Value of $36.91 (UNDERVALUED)

Have a read of the narrative in full and understand what’s behind the forecasts.

However, ongoing shifts toward online gaming and reliance on a handful of major tenants could challenge VICI’s future growth narrative if conditions change.

Find out about the key risks to this VICI Properties narrative.

If you have a different perspective or want to take a hands-on approach, you can quickly shape your own view in just a few minutes. Do it your way.

A great starting point for your VICI Properties research is our analysis highlighting 4 key rewards and 1 important warning sign that could impact your investment decision.

Don’t let opportunities slip away. Smart investors are taking action now by expanding their search beyond the obvious. The next market winner could be just a click away on Simply Wall Street.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Companies discussed in this article include VICI.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com

Steam Generation

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By Kristina Hooper

AI relies on rare-earth elements to grow its infrastructure – and the U.S. relies on AI to grow GDP

Capital spending on AI has been a key driver of U.S. stock market returns and continues to exceed expectations, comprising a large portion of S&P 500 SPX capital expenditures.

Jason Furman, a Harvard University economics professor, calculated that 92% of total U.S. GDP growth for the first half of 2025 could be attributed to AI spending. Without AI-related data-center construction, he reported, GDP growth would have been an anemic 0.1% on an annualized basis.

Given so much riding on the AI capex boom, it’s important to consider what could derail U.S. economic growth and the U.S. stock market

One major risk is access to rare earth elements. Limited rare-earth access could present the U.S. with challenges similar to what it faced in the 1970s from its dependence on oil.

Rare-earth elements are used extensively in artificial intelligence, including disk drives, cooling servers and especially semiconductor fabrication. Artificial intelligence has enormous computational and memory demands, which is why high-capacity, high-performance semiconductors are the linchpin of the AI build-out. Rare earths are also integral for national security – used in radar, lasers and satellite systems.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, the U.S. was the leader in rare-earth elements production. In 1995, two decisions were made that had far-ranging consequences, dramatically changing the trajectory of U.S. leadership in rare earth elements.

First, the U.S. approved China’s purchase of U.S. rare-earth magnet company Magnequench from General Motors, thereby acquiring a highly advanced technology that arguably would have taken many years to develop.

Second, China applied to join the World Trade Organization, ultimately enabling it to sell its rare-earth elements to a global market. China was able to sell at a lower cost than the U.S., contributing to the closure of the U.S. mining company that produced rare earth elements, MP Materials Corp. (MP), in 2002.

MP Materials was reopened for national defense use in 2017. U.S. production has since ramped up, with rare-earth production reaching 45,000 tons in 2024 – yet that’s still less than one-sixth of China’s production.

Yet the U.S. Department of Defense’s lofty goal of meeting defense-related demand for light- and heavy rare earths by 2027 may not be achieved, given America’s rare-earth mining and processing limitations. Even if it is, significant commercial demand, including the enormous AI build-out, will not be met.

China controls the supply

China controls around 70% of the world’s rare earth resource output and about 90% of the world’s rare earth processing capabilities. Access to rare-earth elements has been a key bargaining chip in U.S. trade negotiations with China.

As a result, the U.S. has been increasing efforts to diversify its rare-earths supply and gain reliable and adequate exposure to these elements through its allies. Australia and Canada, for instance, have significant rare-earth resources that can help support America’s rare-earth element needs.

New technologies may also lessen or eliminate the need for rare-earth elements in various uses and make rare-earth element recycling more efficient (currently, just 1% of rare-earth elements are recycled). In addition, U.S. government policies can discourage or at least disincentivize demand for rare earth element-intensive products such as electric vehicles, as the Trump administration has done by eliminating EV tax credits.

Rare earth element independence should be as high a priority for the U.S. as energy independence was 50 years ago. Until there’s a viable alternative to the China-dominated rare-earth supply chain, AI capital spending – and both the U.S. economy and stock market – are vulnerable. Accordingly, stock investors should pay attention to trade deals and policymakers’ comments, and consider supply-chain risks when evaluating AI-related investments.

Kristina Hooper is chief market strategist at Man Group, which manages alternative investments. The opinions expressed are her own.

More: Big Tech is spending on power for AI – whether Washington functions or not

Also read: AI has real problems. The smart money is investing in the companies solving them now.

-Kristina Hooper

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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  11-22-25 1347ET
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Plenary Session “Geriatric oncology: from research to clinical practice” at SIOG 2025 showcased something very tangible: geriatric oncology is no longer a niche concept or a research slogan. Across the world, cancer centers are building structured models of care for older adults, adapting treatment decisions, and reshaping how multidisciplinary teams work.

Chaired by Lore Decoster (Brussels), Cindy Kenis (Leuven) and Hans Wildiers (Leuven), the session moved from individual institutional models to a global overview, with a clear theme: the evidence exists — now the challenge is scaling and embedding it in everyday oncology practice.

Setting the Stage: Research Only Matters if It Reaches the Clinic

Opening the session, Lore Decoster emphasized the core mission of geriatric oncology today: not only generating data, but making sure it changes how older adults with cancer are actually treated. Evidence on geriatric assessment, toxicity prediction, and patient-centered decision-making is strong; the bottleneck is implementation — workforce, pathways, culture, and funding.

The subsequent talks then demonstrated, in very practical terms, how different centers are trying to solve that problem.

Building a Geriatric Oncology Pathway at The Royal Marsden

From Toronto, Susie Monginot highlighted the 10-year journey of the Older Adults with Cancer Clinic at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Nearly half of new patients are 65+, many frail, driving the clinic’s expansion from a small 2015 pilot to four half-day clinics supported by geriatricians, fellows, social work, and dietetics.

The team delivers full Comprehensive Geriatric Assessments and actively implements recommendations — from medication adjustments to allied-health referrals. Despite challenges with space, funding, and wait times, the model shows clear demand and meaningful impact on treatment planning.

Embedding Patient Goals and Nurse Input into Tumor Boards

Hanneke van der Wal-Huisman (Groningen, Netherlands) described the Integrated Oncological Decision-Making model, created to bring patient goals and nurse insights directly into MDT discussions.
Her team found that functional status, psychosocial factors, and what truly matters to patients were often missing from decision-making, even though nurses knew this information well. In the new model, nurses conduct a structured assessment focused on goals, priorities, and daily functioning, and this input is formally included in the MDT.

The approach leads to more individualized care and stronger communication. Patients feel heard, and clinicians feel decisions better reflect the whole person. The team emphasized the importance of collaboration, leadership support, clear documentation, and a culture open to reflection and challenge.

A Continuum-of-Care Model in a Geriatric Hospital

From Chennai, Rejiv Rajendranath presented a very different, but equally comprehensive, model: a geriatric cancer care program embedded within a dedicated geriatric hospital.

This center combines acute geriatric beds, long-term and transitional care, home visits (over 330,000 home visits in three years), assisted living facilities, and community clinics. Cancer care for older adults is integrated into this ecosystem rather than carved out as a separate silo.

In a context where most older adults are self-paying and insurance coverage is limited after age 60–65, the model is built around continuity and proximity:

• geriatricians see almost every patient
• CGA and tools such as G8 and Indian-specific instruments are used selectively but systematically
• oncologists, geriatricians, palliative care, psycho-oncology, and rehab work as one team
• home care and assisted living reduce hospital stays, travel burden, and caregiver strain

Cultural factors, such as family-centered decision-making and reluctance to discuss prognosis directly with the patient, are addressed through multi-session counseling and gradual, sensitive communication. Treatment is often tailored through escalation/de-escalation decisions grounded in both biology and patient/family preferences.

The model is still evolving, but it illustrates how geriatric oncology principles can be adapted to middle-income settings, self-pay realities, and strong family involvement — without losing the core of individualized, goal-concordant care.

Building a Senior Adult Oncology Programme

Nicolò Matteo Luca Battisti presented the Senior Adult Oncology Programme at The Royal Marsden (UK), developed over four years in a hospital without geriatricians. With initial cancer-alliance funding, the team built a multidisciplinary service — nursing, rehab, pharmacy, dietetics, psychology, and admin support — and anchored it in a screening-based pathway using tools like the G8/SIOG 2 and structured goal-setting questions.

The programme was deliberately aligned with hospital priorities such as reducing unplanned admissions and improving efficiency, helping demonstrate its value and secure long-term institutional funding. It has since expanded across more disease sites.

Education is central, with international fellows rotating through the service, geriatric oncology concepts integrated into training, and a new research fellowship supporting ongoing development.

Scaling Through “Practical GA” and Smart Nudges

Ramy Sedhom (Philadelphia/Princeton) presented a highly implementation-focused approach: embedded “practical geriatric assessment” and multidisciplinary pathways designed to be scalable across a large system.

Recognizing that full CGA for every older patient is unrealistic, his team leveraged behavioral economics and EHR design:

• A concise geriatric assessment is built into Epic and automatically pushed to patients ≥70 as a pre-visit survey.
• Results appear in a structured flowsheet, making it easy for oncologists to see impairments at a glance.
• Pop-up prompts “nudge” clinicians toward appropriate referrals based on detected deficits (falls, nutrition, mood, social issues, etc.).

A geriatric nurse navigator and a weekly multidisciplinary conference (oncologists, APPs, psychosocial oncology, palliative care, navigation) ensure that high-risk cases are proactively addressed. Structured emails summarize recommendations and close the loop with treating teams.

In two years, over 200+ practical GAs have been completed, each generating multiple referrals on average. Most older adults had unrecognized functional or psychosocial vulnerabilities; most prioritized quality of life rather than pure survival. Early analyses suggest better end-of-life care and, for those under enhanced navigation, longer hospice stays and smoother transitions.

Global Models: Different Pathways, Same Principles

Finally, Colm Mac Eochagain (Dublin) presented a global overview of 38 geriatric oncology services worldwide, synthesizing their structures into broad model types:

• Consultative clinics (one-off GA and recommendations)
• Co-management models (shared responsibility across the cancer trajectory)
• Screen-and-refer models (systematic screening to triage who needs GA)
• Comprehensive units (fully integrated geriatric-oncology-supportive care continuum)
• emerging hybrid/digital models that use telehealth, patient portals, and regional networks

Despite local differences in staffing, funding, and health systems, some constants emerged: routine use of geriatric assessment (full or pragmatic), multidisciplinary decision-making, and at least some structured way to identify older adults at risk.

Take-Home Message from this session

The science of geriatric oncology is mature enough .The pressing task now is implementation — building models that fit local realities, securing funding, embedding assessment tools in workflows, and making sure that every older adult with cancer receives care that reflects both their biology and their goals.

for more information click here.

By Brett Arends

The latest jobs shock shows he’s been right all along

The Fed chair has refused to be intimidated.

The latest jobs numbers show, once again, just how right Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has been all year long – and just how wrong President Donald Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others on Team MAGA have been.

The numbers show that the economy is much stronger than people realized. Companies are still hiring at a healthy rate. And inflation, as reported yesterday, has been ticking up lately, not down.

And that’s with the Fed holding short-term interest rates in a range of 3.75% to 4%.

Can you imagine where we would be if Trump had gotten his way earlier this year and the Fed had slashed short-term rates to “less than 1%”?

The likeliest scenario would be that inflation would be rocketing higher again and the bond market would be in a panic.

Stephen Miran, the administration’s guy on the Fed board, has been banging the table since he got there for bigger, faster cuts in short-term rates.

Bessent was urging the Fed to slash rates when he talked to Fox News’ Bret Baier this week.

But Powell has been telling the Trump administration to talk to the hand. He, with the support of most of his colleagues on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, held the line until September. So far this year they have cut just twice, by a quarter-point each time. And Powell surprised the markets by warning that they might not cut rates again at their next meeting, set for December.

Thank heavens. Praise be.

In his impatience to get the Fed to slash short-term rates, Trump has engaged in an unprecedented campaign to pressure the central bank. This includes repeated public attacks on Powell and threats to fire him. (He probably can’t fire him without a strong cause.) He’s also trying to fire board member Lisa Cook, using Beria’s law (“Show me the man, and I’ll find you the crime”).

What Trump, Bessent, Miran and others are not telling the MAGA army is that Powell has been cutting rates.

Successfully. All year.

Longer-term rates. The ones that matter most for the economy.

The yield, or interest rate, on the 10-year Treasury note BX: TMUBMUSD10Y peaked at 4.83% in January, just before Trump took office. One good reason for that was widespread concern and uncertainty about what a second Trump term might mean for government spending and Fed independence. Many would-be bond purchasers were worried that Trump might do what he has in fact been trying to do all year – get control of the Fed and slash short-term interest rates.

If you don’t believe me, look at what happened in July. When Trump fueled fears he was about to fire Powell, the bond market panicked, and the yield on 10-year Treasurys jumped a quarter-point in the span of a couple of days.

But overall since January, the 10-year Treasury yield has trended down, to just 4.1% now.

Bonds are like seesaws: The yield falls when the price rises. Investors have been bidding up the price of Treasury bonds this year, slashing the yield, as their confidence has grown that the Federal Reserve is determined to squeeze inflation out of the system.

You wouldn’t lend Uncle Sam your money for 10 years at, say, 4% interest if you thought inflation was going to be 4% a year over that time. But you might if you believed the Fed was going to bring inflation down to, say, 2% and keep it there.

Inflation is the enemy of retirees and others who need to live off their savings. But it’s also bad for the rest of the economy. So we should all be grateful that we have a Federal Reserve chair who has refused to be intimidated.

-Brett Arends

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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  11-22-25 1324ET
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LISBON, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Portugal’s state holding company Parpublica said on Saturday it had received only three expressions of interest in a minority stake in flag carrier TAP, all from Europe’s largest airlines and none from outside the EU, falling short of government hopes.

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The deadline for airlines to formally express interest closed on Saturday at 1700 GMT.

Parpublica said in a statement it has until December 12 to assess whether the interested airlines meet the criteria, including at least one year of revenue above 5 billion euros in the last three years and financial capacity.

Non-binding offers are due by mid-March, followed by binding offers detailing price and a strategic plan for TAP. The privatisation is expected to be completed in the second half of 2026.

TAP’s most attractive assets are its connections to Brazil, Portuguese-speaking African countries and the United States from its Lisbon hub, which the government wants to keep and expand.

Bernstein analysts valued TAP’s 44.9% stake at least 700 million euros ($810 million), based on a full airline valuation of 1.5 billion euros. They said this represents a roughly 25%–30% premium over European peers, justified by TAP’s strategic upside.

($1 = 0.8687 euros)

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UFC CEO Dana White focused on self-improvement, crushing his opponents, and harnessing his relentlessly competitive mindset to build a multibillion dollar company that transformed fighting.

He recently shared how he did it on a “School of Hard Knocks” show and some of the lessons he learned along the way.

“You have to keep proving yourself every year,” White said.

His path to success involved taking early risks, staying consistent, and breaking rules.

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White said that he worked as a bellman at a Boston hotel when he was in his early 20s, but he quickly discovered that the job wasn’t for him.

“This isn’t what I want to do for the rest of my life,” he said.

White decided to start a fighting business that took the best parts about boxing and removed the worst parts of the sport. He rationalized that he could always become a bellman at the same hotel or another one if his business idea fell flat.

Taking the big risk in his 20s paid off, and by starting young, he had far fewer obligations. White became a parent at 33, so he had plenty of time to grow the UFC before having to raise a family.

Trending: Buffett’s Secret to Wealth? Private Real Estate—Get Institutional Access Yourself

White went through plenty of ups and downs throughout his business journey and stuck with it while other competitors folded. He attributed his success to grinding, competing against himself, and staying true to his word.

“It’s not like you just get here,” White said on “School of Hard Knocks.”

It’s easy to want success, but it isn’t easy to put in the long hours over a long period of time. White said that all of the most successful people he ever met had consistency. It’s easy to stick with something for one week, but continuing to grow your business for a decade can lead to life-changing financial gains.

“Consistency is the key to everything in life,” White said.

See Also: Bill Gates Invests Billions in Green Tech — This Tree-Free Material Could Be the Next Big Breakthrough

The UFC was a disruptive sport that had naysayers who doubted that it could compete with boxing. However, White proved the critics wrong by leaning into disruption instead of trying to blend in with the fighting industry.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are driven primarily by oncogenic KIT mutations, and breakthroughs such as imatinib, sunitinib, and ripretinib have transformed the disease’s management. Yet resistance emerges almost universally, driven by secondary KIT mutations—particularly those occurring in the activation loop at exon 17/18, a region historically difficult to inhibit. Patients whose tumors harbor these mutations often progress rapidly, with few effective therapeutic options beyond later-line ripretinib.

The PEAK Phase 3 trial of bezuclastinib, a highly selective, next-generation KIT inhibitor from Cogent Biosciences, addresses this critical unmet need. The company’s announcement of positive topline results positions bezuclastinib as a potentially transformative therapy for patients with KIT activation-loop–mutant GIST.

Read About Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor on OncoDaily

A Next-Generation KIT Inhibitor Designed for Precision and Selectivity

Bezuclastinib is an orally administered, highly selective KIT inhibitor engineered to target the activation loop—specifically the exon 17/18 mutations that drive resistance to imatinib, sunitinib, regorafenib, and even many newer TKIs. Unlike broad-spectrum inhibitors with multi-kinase off-target effects, bezuclastinib was designed for clean, potent inhibition of KIT with minimal activity against PDGFRα, VEGFR, or other kinases, potentially offering enhanced tolerability and fewer dose-limiting adverse events.

Preclinical evaluations demonstrated strong inhibition of KIT D816V and analogous activation loop mutations, deep suppression of downstream signaling pathways such as MAPK and PI3K/AKT, and robust tumor shrinkage in xenograft models. Clinically, early-phase studies showed promising activity across heavily pretreated GIST populations, supporting advancement into the PEAK Phase 3 trial.

The PEAK Phase 3 Trial: Study Overview

PEAK is a global, randomized Phase 3 trial evaluating bezuclastinib in combination with sunitinib versus sunitinib alone in patients with advanced GIST who have progressed on or are intolerant to imatinib. The trial specifically enrolled patients whose tumors harbor KIT exon 17/18 mutations, reflecting the subgroup most likely to benefit from activation-loop inhibition.

The trial was designed to evaluate whether bezuclastinib could overcome sunitinib resistance by directly targeting the activation loop mutations responsible for disease progression. Progression-free survival, overall response rate, duration of response, and safety formed the primary and secondary outcomes assessed in this study.

Topline Results: A Clinically Meaningful Improvement

According to Cogent Biosciences’ announcement, the PEAK trial met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival for the bezuclastinib combination compared with sunitinib alone. The magnitude of benefit was consistent with the drug’s targeted mechanism, showing pronounced activity in tumors driven by KIT exon 17/18 mutations.

Initial analyses also revealed favorable trends in overall response rate and depth of response. Patients receiving the bezuclastinib combination exhibited higher rates of tumor shrinkage, delayed progression, and more durable responses than those in the control arm. Although full survival data will mature over time, early signals indicate that the addition of bezuclastinib may meaningfully alter the trajectory of resistant GIST.

One notable observation is that bezuclastinib’s benefit occurred without compromising tolerability. Reported adverse events were consistent with expectations for sunitinib, and no new safety signals attributable to bezuclastinib were identified. The drug’s clean selectivity profile may allow prolonged dosing and better adherence, important considerations for the chronic management of GIST.

Why These Results Matter for GIST Treatment

While first-line imatinib continues to provide long-term benefit for many patients, resistance develops through clonal evolution, most commonly involving mutations in KIT exons 13/14 (ATP-binding pocket) or exons 17/18 (activation loop). Sunitinib and regorafenib offer partial control of ATP-pocket mutations, but activation loop mutations remain highly resistant to almost all approved TKIs.

Bezuclastinib directly addresses this resistance mechanism. By selectively targeting the activation loop, it attacks the mutational drivers responsible for disease progression at a molecular level traditional TKIs cannot reach. The positive PEAK results therefore mark one of the most meaningful advancements in the sequential TKI strategy for GIST since ripretinib entered the landscape.

For clinicians, this means the potential for a more precise, biomarker-driven approach: identifying patients with KIT exon 17/18 mutations and offering them therapy specifically designed to neutralize the resistant clone.

Safety Profile and Clinical Considerations

The safety data emerging from the PEAK study align with bezuclastinib’s design principles. The drug appears to maintain a favorable tolerability profile without introducing the broad off-target toxicities often associated with multi-kinase inhibitors. The lack of new safety concerns in combination with sunitinib is encouraging, as combination TKIs can sometimes amplify adverse effects.

The cleaner profile may make bezuclastinib particularly advantageous for patients who experience dose-limiting complications with less selective TKIs, providing an opportunity for sustained treatment exposure necessary for durable disease control.

Implications for Clinical Practice and Future Development

If the PEAK results are supported by full data presentation and regulatory review, bezuclastinib may soon become the preferred treatment option for KIT exon 17/18 mutant GIST after imatinib failure. The drug’s specificity, tolerability, and clear clinical benefit position it to reshape the treatment sequence in a mutation-guided manner.

Beyond PEAK, bezuclastinib is also in development for systemic mastocytosis—another KIT activation loop–driven disease—illustrating the drug’s broad potential across KIT-dependent malignancies. Its success in GIST underscores the value of highly selective inhibitors capable of countering resistance mechanisms that have limited the durability of existing TKIs.

Conclusion

The positive results from the PEAK Phase 3 trial highlight bezuclastinib as a promising and potentially practice-changing therapy for patients with KIT exon 17/18 mutant gastrointestinal stromal tumors. By addressing one of the most formidable resistance mechanisms in GIST biology, bezuclastinib fills a long-standing therapeutic gap and offers clinicians a new pathway toward sustained disease control in a population with limited options.

Pending further analyses and regulatory submissions, bezuclastinib has the potential to become a new standard of care for this genetically defined subset of GIST, bringing precision oncology one step closer to everyday practice.

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Written by Armen Gevorgyan, MD

Thursday began with a massive rally with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 700 points, regaining some ground after an earlier AI-related selloff. Upbeat results from retail giant Walmart helped too.

But the market suddenly turned lower, and the Dow lost 300 points, leaving Wall Street wondering what the heck happened.

Some commentators pointed to persistent worries about an AI bust, while others cited the mixed September jobs report that showed strong payroll gains but an uptick in the unemployment rate to the highest level in four years.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve policymakers have been sounding increasingly hawkish, putting a rate cut next month in doubt.

Market veteran Ed Yardeni, cited these factors in a note late Thursday along with the selloff in the world’s leading cryptocurrency.

“We attribute some of today’s stock market selloff to the ongoing plunge in bitcoin’s price,” he wrote. “There has been a strong correlation between it and the price of TQQQ, an ETF that seeks to achieve daily investment results that correspond to three times (3x) the daily performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index.”

Yardeni blamed bitcoin’s slide on the GENIUS Act, which was enacted on July 18, saying that the regulatory framework it established for stablecoins eliminated bitcoin’s transactional role in the monetary system.

“It’s possible that the rout in bitcoin is forcing some investors to sell stocks that they own,” he added.

Bitcoin has tumbled more than 30% from earlier highs, suffering its worst slump since 2022. Traders who used leverage to make crypto bets would need to liquidate positions in the event of margin calls.

Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, also said bitcoin could swing the entire stock market, pointing out that it’s become a proxy for speculation.

“As a long-time systematic trader, it tells me that algorithms are acting upon the relationship between stocks and bitcoin,” he wrote in a note on Thursday. “Traders have always sought to find relationships between asset classes, and there are teams of skilled quants who pore through data, both long- and short-term, seeking inputs that guide their decisions. We called them ‘leads.’”

And in recent days, Sosnick added, bitcoin has become one of the most reliable leads. 

Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors’ head of research, linked crypto with the AI trade in particular, noting that investors with big holdings in AI-related stocks also tend to own bitcoin. 

“I think crypto, bitcoin and ethereum are in some ways a leading indicator for equities because of that unwind and now this sort of limping and weakened liquidity,” he told CNBC on Thursday.