Dear Trader,
Every week the Option Pit trading team hands Mark Sebastian 10 tickers: five they love and five they'd leave at the curb. Mark goes live today to walk through all 10, and he'll hit the three stories below while he's at it.
We've seen the list, and we can tell you this much…
Hans loves a mega-cap with a big product event on the calendar this week. He'd leave a travel giant that only works when people feel flush.
Mark's buy gives you a back door into the hottest IPO nobody can buy yet. His leave has a logo you could draw from memory, and he thinks the stock has a lot further to fall.
Andrew found his love at the mall, of all places. He'd pass on a company that sells an awful lot of cheap dinner.
Licia's buying one of the most argued-about tickers in the AI trade. She's shorting a name your kids can spot from the back seat.
Tim loves a small biotech most of you have never typed into a quote box. His leave probably billed your credit card this month.
Ten names make a fine watchlist, but you can't trade a watchlist. Later today on the Ticker Highlight Show, Mark and the team cut those 10 down to the single best option play. Join Ticker Highlight Show Premium here so you're in the room when they pick it.
This link adds State of the Market to your calendar.
The Daily News Breakdown
SIREN: Xi Jinping comes to Washington this week, and Thursday's state dinner has Sam Altman and Jensen Huang on the guest list. The trade truce between the two countries runs out in November, so most of Wall Street expects an extension and a nice photo. I'd keep an eye on the side dishes. Taiwan and Iran both made the agenda, and China has reportedly helped Tehran dodge sanctions.
Meanwhile, the Fed just hiked for the first time since 2023 and stocks barely moved. Meta shows off new glasses on Wednesday, Costco reports Thursday, and a parade of Fed speakers will try to explain what they just did. A calendar this light leaves plenty of room for a surprise.
SNEAKER: Google's Gemini broke into three real companies back in May, and Google kept quiet about it until The Wall Street Journal came knocking. It happened during a security test run by an outside firm called Irregular, which left the internet connection open by accident. Gemini guessed one password, found other logins sitting in a public code repository, and walked right in.
Google calls it "mistaken identity." The model thought those companies belonged to the test, and it backed out once it figured out they didn't. OpenAI and Anthropic have both disclosed similar incidents in recent weeks, so that makes three labs with a model that slipped the leash. I doubt anybody's cybersecurity budget shrinks after this.
SIGN: Yemen's Houthis fired missiles and drones at Riyadh on Saturday, and crude opened the week higher. A Reuters photo shows black smoke pouring out of the fuel storage area at King Khalid International Airport. Brent traded at $104.68 a barrel Sunday night with West Texas crude at $101.06, each up a little under 1%.
That's a small pop for an attack on the Saudi capital, though oil already sits above $100. Iran backs the Houthis, and the US and Iran remain stuck in a stalemate with no exit in sight. Every Fed speaker this week will get asked about inflation, and not one of them can do a thing about this part of it.