Drafted premarket Thursday, October 29, before the opening bell, after Wednesday’s Fed-day close; published mid-morning.
Q3 GDP +3.4% annualized · September PCE +3.6% y/y, core +3.1% — both released at 8:30 AM ET (BEA). Drafted premarket: Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.99% and Dow futures up 0.58% at 5:34 AM ET (TipRanks) after Alphabet’s miss.
Bloomberg, Susquehanna International Group and Jump Trading have agreed to pay Truth Social for faster access to President Trump's posts, Reuters reported overnight, citing people with direct knowledge — a service with a list price of up to $100,000 a month that delivers about a 50-millisecond head start — on the morning GDP and PCE land at 8:30 AM ET and Nasdaq futures sit about 1% lower after Alphabet's miss.
Bloomberg LP and two high-frequency trading firms have agreed to pay Truth Social for faster access to President Trump's posts, Reuters reported overnight, citing people with direct knowledge. The two firms are Susquehanna International Group and Jump Trading, whose software ingests headlines and executes trades in thousandths of a second. The seller is Trump Media & Technology Group (Nasdaq: DJT), the company the president founded, which is 41% owned by his family trust. The product is called Truth API: Trump Media announced it in July and pitched it to trading firms and financial institutions, and it delivers posts from 10 influential Truth Social accounts, including the president's, with archives back to 2022.
Trump Media officials describe the timing advantage as about 50 milliseconds. The service sells for up to $100,000 a month; Reuters did not report what each subscriber agreed to pay. Trump's posts have moved prices — oil futures sank in April after he announced the Iran war ceasefire on Truth Social, Reuters noted — and Reuters says the service has the potential to give Wall Street traders an edge not available to everyday investors on posts that can move markets. The deals likely mark the first time a business tied to a sitting president has sold access to their statements, according to Reuters. Trump Media told investors in August it had signed more than 10 customer agreements at $60,000 to $100,000 a month, a claim Reuters could not confirm; at those prices, 10 clients would represent roughly $7 million to $12 million a year in reported revenue.
The company has lost about $1.76 billion since 2024, including non-cash charges, and its shares are down more than 50% this year, to a market value near $1.8 billion, Reuters reports. DJT closed Wednesday at $5.98 (-5.97%, Robinhood official close) and was at $5.9336 in extended hours Thursday morning (-0.78%, Robinhood).
The critics. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff asked the SEC in July to investigate whether the service violates securities laws, calling it a "shocking abuse" of office by a president seeking personal gain, according to Reuters; the SEC declined to comment. Intercept Media and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued in August, seeking to block the White House from posting official government announcements exclusively on Truth Social while the paid feed exists; the suit, which is ongoing, alleges that a financial barrier to government information is potentially unconstitutional under the First and Fifth Amendments and favors wealthy Wall Street firms, and the plaintiffs have described the service as "profoundly corrupt." THE RESPONSE: Trump Media calls Truth API an "industry-standard API product" with "significant demand across industries," and says the reporting is misleading information being peddled by anonymous sources; a company spokesperson said congressional Democrats mischaracterize Truth API, citing the distinction between public and nonpublic information. White House spokesman Davis Ingle said neither Trump nor his family is directly involved in portfolio investment decisions, and said Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public. Bloomberg, Jump Trading and Susquehanna declined to comment.
The question the mechanics raise for everyone who is not paying $100,000 a month: when a market-moving statement is sold with a faster lane, what does the public feed's 50-millisecond delay cost the people reading it second? Source: Reuters exclusive, via Investing.com syndication.
The setup. Wednesday was a third straight modest advance into the Fed: the S&P 500 rose 0.28% to 7,743.98 (Robinhood index quote), the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.27% to 26,550 and the Dow rose 0.19% to 52,475 (TalkMarkets/NordFX market pulse), with Robinhood's ETF closes agreeing — SPY $772.31 (+0.34%), QQQ $725.48 (+0.59%) and DIA $524.68 (+0.27%). The Federal Reserve held at 3.75%–4.00% in a 10–2 vote; Governors Cook and Hammack both wanted an immediate hike, December hike odds rose as high as 83%, and the 10-year Treasury yield closed near 5.04% (NordFX/TalkMarkets). Thursday's premarket splits hard on Wednesday night's earnings: Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.99% and S&P 500 futures down 0.24% at 5:34 AM ET while Dow futures rose 0.58% (TipRanks), and Robinhood extended-hours marks agree — QQQ -0.96%, SPY -0.21%, DIA -0.06% vs Wednesday's closes. Alphabet sank about 10% after hours on a revenue and profit miss — its first double miss in nearly four years, with free cash flow of negative $9.1 billion (Reuters via TradingNerve; Gulf News) — while Microsoft rose after Azure revenue grew 48% (Gulf News). Robinhood extended hours: Alphabet $289.75 (-11.02%), Microsoft $541.18 (+1.78%). Crypto is softer: Bitcoin's Robinhood mark was $80,083.23 and Ether's $2,321.54 on Thursday morning. The VIX sat at 16.98. Brent crude was down 0.82% at $114.38 early Thursday (TipRanks).
Why it moved. Wednesday's Mag 7 (Robinhood official closes): Alphabet $325.63 (+1.58%) led, Amazon $254.65 (+0.61%) and Microsoft $531.73 (+0.08%) edged up, while Tesla $404.46 (-0.74%), Apple $343.86 (-0.93%), Nvidia $215.39 (-1.17%) and Meta $612.41 (-1.26%) fell. After the close the group split on the AI bill: Alphabet missed on both revenue and profit, kept its 2026 capex plan at $195 billion to $205 billion, and posted a second straight quarter of negative free cash flow (CNBC via TradingNerve) — the stock is down 11.02% in Robinhood extended hours. Microsoft beat, with Azure up 48% to $33.2 billion against a $32.3 billion forecast, and guided Azure growth of 49% to 50% this quarter (Gulf News) — up 1.78% in extended hours. The grading rule the market is applying is now plain in the numbers: big AI budgets pass while free cash flow stays positive. Amazon is the next test, after the close Thursday ($1.97 estimated, Robinhood earnings calendar), with its own capital-spending plans under the same microscope.
Thursday’s catalysts. Thursday's 8:30 AM ET releases landed close to expectations (BEA): third-quarter GDP grew at a 3.4% annual rate in the advance estimate, up from 2.2% in the second quarter, and September PCE inflation ran 0.5% month over month and 3.6% year over year, with core at 0.3% and 3.1% — the hot monthly headline feeds the December-hike pricing that followed Wednesday's two hawkish dissents. Thursday's pre-open earnings are already landing (Robinhood earnings calendar): Eli Lilly beat, $7.48 actual vs $6.36 estimated, and raised its full-year revenue forecast to $91 billion to $92 billion on weight-loss drug demand, with third-quarter revenue of $24.4 billion vs $22.61 billion expected (Reuters); Lilly was up 3.60% in Robinhood extended hours at $1,335.54. Merck beat ($2.49 vs $2.10) and Caterpillar beat ($7.20 vs $7.05); Mastercard ($5.16 estimated) reports before the open. After the close Thursday: Amazon ($1.97 estimated), Intel ($0.37), SanDisk ($46.36), Gilead ($2.18), Coinbase ($0.02) and Starbucks ($0.71) (Robinhood). The ECB also decides Thursday, with a hold at 2.50% expected (NordFX).
What to watch today. How the morning's GDP (+3.4% annualized) and September PCE (+3.6% year over year, core +3.1%) prints feed or cool the December-hike trade, whether Alphabet's premarket drop (-11.02% before the open) holds, DJT in its first session after the Reuters Truth API story, Eli Lilly's post-beat strength, and Amazon after the close.
The OnDeck Book
Trading fell 7.52% on Wednesday and Agentic rose 0.64% on Wednesday (percent only, Robinhood) vs the S&P 500's +0.28%, the Nasdaq Composite's +0.27% and the Dow's +0.19%. In Thursday's premarket the accounts were about -0.8% and +1.7% respectively against Wednesday's close (Robinhood extended hours). Positions (Wednesday official closes, Robinhood): SPCX 150 shares, avg $132.13, close $145.22 (-2.26% on Wednesday), +9.91% vs avg cost, unrealized +$1,963.47. SOFI 200 shares, avg $17.10, close $17.14 (+4.51%), +0.25% vs avg, unrealized +$8.50. QUBT 700 shares, avg $8.21, close $6.93, -15.59% vs avg, unrealized -$896.00. Options (marks at Wednesday's close, Robinhood; total option market value $10,021; all long calls, all expiring within 8 days — the Nov 4 lines are flagged, expiring within 7 days): SPCX $148 calls expiring Wed Nov 4, 7 long, clearing cost $2,698 total, mark $2.90, market value $2,030 — expiring within 7 days; NVDA $215 calls expiring Wed Nov 4, 2 long, clearing cost $880, mark $4.60, market value $920 — expiring within 7 days; NVDA $217.50 calls expiring Wed Nov 4, 4 long, clearing cost $1,814, mark $3.35, market value $1,340 — expiring within 7 days; SPCX $148 calls expiring Fri Nov 6, 11 long, clearing cost $4,903, mark $3.53, market value $3,883; SPCX $152.50 calls expiring Fri Nov 6, 7 long, clearing cost $1,940, mark $2.02, market value $1,414; NVDA $222.50 calls expiring Fri Nov 6, 2 long, clearing cost $720, mark $2.17, market value $434. Futures: none — the position was fully closed on Oct 22 and nothing is held this morning. Crypto: ETH 3.6 coins, cost basis $8,608.00, marked $2,321.54 in Thursday's premarket (Robinhood), an indicative value of about $8,358; USDG 102.88 units including Crypto Earn (last checked October 15); dust: DOGE 1.0, USDC 0.00993.
Also on Medium: Bloomberg and Two Trading Firms Sign Up for Faster Access to Trump’s Truth Social Posts, Reuters Reports.