Citigroup's (NYSE:C) venture arm, Citi Ventures, has made a strategic investment in the stablecoin infrastructure startup BVNK.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Thursday, October 9, 2025
OpenAI's Sora poses risk to creators' rights, says Hollywood talent agency CAA: report
Is Hollywood opting in or out? Early signs are that the major studios and talent agencies are now starting to circle the wagons over OpenAI‘s latest product, Sora 2: an invite-only, TikTok-style video app debuting Sept. 30 that allows users to scan their face and place themselves in hyperrealistic clips.
Creative Artists Agency, the Bryan Lourd-led major talent firm repping A-listers like Brad Pitt and Scarlett Johansson, is the latest to publicly draw a line in the sand on Sora 2, which can generate clips of major studios’ characters featuring the likenesses of star talent.
CAA‘s statement, which goes unattributed to a single executive, takes a broader approach than just saying that the major agency is opting its clients out of OpenAI’s latest tool. In fact, it doesn’t explicitly use the words “opt out” at all but frames Sora 2 as a “misuse” of emerging technology that “exposes our clients and their intellectual property to significant risk.”
The missive, which underlines “control, permission for use, and compensation” for its clients, signaled room for OpenAI to develop a “solution” to its own platform’s copyright problem.
The CAA statement takes a slightly different tack than longtime rival agency WME’s approach. That memo, issued by head of digital strategy Chris Jacquemin as guidance to agents, says: “We have notified OpenAI that all WME clients be opted out of the latest Sora AI update, regardless of whether IP rights holders have opted out IP our clients are associated with.”
Other major agencies, including United Talent Agency and Gersh, haven’t yet taken public stands.
Days earlier, even the normally reserved Motion Picture Association, the top lobbying group repping Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Amazon MGM Studios, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery, spoke out against OpenAI’s current plan for Sora 2. MPA chief Charles Rivkin said in an Oct. 6 shot that OpenAI “must acknowledge it remains their responsibility — not rightsholders’ — to prevent infringement on the Sora 2 service” and that Altman’s team “needs to take immediate and decisive action to address this issue.”
Whether Altman backtracks or compromises further is the next question. On Oct. 3, the OpenAI chief at least nodded to the rightsholders issue in a tellingly titled post called “Sora Update #1” acknowledging the company wants to “let rightsholders decide how to proceed (our aim of course is to make it so compelling that many people want to). There may be some edge cases of generations that get through that shouldn’t.”
Altman added, “Please expect a very high rate of change from us.”
CAA’s full unsigned memo on Oct. 8 is below:
“CAA is unwavering in our commitment to protect our clients and the integrity of their creations. The misuse of new technologies carries consequences that reach far beyond entertainment and media, posing serious and harmful risks to individuals, businesses, and societies globally. It is clear that Open AI/Sora exposes our clients and their intellectual property to significant risk. The question is, does OpenAI and its partner companies believe that humans, writers, artists, actors, directors, producers, musicians, and athletes deserve to be compensated and credited for the work they create?
Or does Open AI believe they can just steal it, disregarding global copyright principles and blatantly dismissing creators’ rights, as well as the many people and companies who fund the production, creation, and publication of these humans’ work? In our opinion, the answer to this question is obvious. Control, permission for use, and compensation is a fundamental right of these workers. Anything less than the protection of creators and their rights is unacceptable.
We are open to hearing the solutions that Open AI has to these critical issues and remain steadfast in our work with intellectual property businesses and leaders, and creative guilds and unions, as well as state and federal legislators and global policymakers, to answer these challenges and set an aligned path for the future.”
Kalshi now sees U.S. shutdown lasting for 26 days as Trump not looking to talk on ACA subsidies
Prediction market Kalshi sees the U.S. government shutdown lasting 19.6 days, down from ~22 days on Monday, as President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he is willing to have discussions with Democrats over health care as a way to end the federal government shutdown.
A key reason for the shutdown is that Democrats are opposed to the Republicans' plan not to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits for 2026. If that were to happen, many individuals who obtain their health coverage through state insurance exchanges are likely to face drastically higher premiums without the subsidies.
According to Kalshi, the chances of the shutdown lasting more than 15 days slipped to 62%, while odds of it stretching past 25 days stood at 35%.
Meanwhile, on prediction market Polymarket, the odds of the shutdown lasting 30 or more days slipped slightly to 26%. The odds of the shutdown ranging between 10 and 29 days were at 67%.
The longest shutdown in U.S. history was from December 22, 2018, to January 25, 2019, lasting 35 days. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the shutdown had cost the American economy an estimated $11B.
The latest shutdown came into effect at midnight on Wednesday.
Stock index futures ticked lower on Tuesday, however, largely Wall Street has not been impacted by the shutdown and has shrugged off the concerns related to it.
Here are some exchange-traded funds that track the S&P 500: (NYSEARCA:SPY), (NYSEARCA:VOO), (NYSEARCA:IVV), (NYSEARCA:RSP), (NYSEARCA:SSO), (NYSEARCA:UPRO), (NYSEARCA:SH), (NYSEARCA:SDS), and (NYSEARCA:SPXU).
Piper Sandler upgrades Supernus on Onapgo potential
Piper Sandler upgraded Supernus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SUPN) from Neutral to Overweight on Thursday, while significantly raising its price target to $65.00 from $40.00. The $2.69 billion market cap company has seen its stock surge over 51% in the past six months, trading near its 52-week high of $49.66.
The upgrade comes after Piper Sandler reassessed the sales potential of Onapgo, Supernus’s apomorphine-based continuous subcutaneous infusion pump for advanced Parkinson’s disease, which launched in late April. The firm now projects U.S. peak sales potential exceeding $300 million for the treatment.
Piper Sandler highlighted that Onapgo requires minimal promotional investment since Supernus is leveraging its existing Parkinson’s disease-focused commercial infrastructure that previously supported Gocovri.
The research firm expects Onapgo to become an anchor product alongside Qelbree and Zurzuvae in Supernus’s portfolio, potentially driving long-term EBITDA compound annual growth rate in at least the mid-teens from 2026 onward.
Piper Sandler forecasts Supernus’s 2026 EBITDA at approximately $227 million, which is substantially above consensus estimates, noting the company currently trades at an enterprise value to 2026 estimated EBITDA multiple of about 10x.
Cidara Breakthrough Therapy Designation for CD388 in Seasonal Influenza Prevention
Cidara Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CDTX) announced the U.S. FDA has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for CD388 for prevention of influenza A and B in adults and adolescents at higher risk of complications or for whom vaccines are contraindicated. The designation follows a statistically significant Phase 2b NAVIGATE result in healthy unvaccinated adults and complements an existing Fast Track designation. Cidara initiated the Phase 3 ANCHOR trial at the end of September, six months ahead of schedule, and expanded enrollment to include generally healthy adults >65 based on FDA feedback. Benefits include priority review and rolling submission eligibility.
U.S. stocks decline as Powell passes on policy outlook commentary
The major U.S. index futures are currently pointing to a roughly flat open on Thursday, with stocks likely to show a lack of direction after ending the previous session mostly higher.
A lack of major U.S. economic data may keep some traders on the sidelines, as the ongoing U.S. government shutdown continues to indefinitely delay the release of key reports.
The Labor Department was due to share its report on weekly jobless claims this morning, but the release has been delayed as the shutdown enters its ninth day.
Traders have largely shrugged off concerns about the economic impact of the shutdown but may start to pay greater attention to developments in Washington as the suspension of non-essential government services drags on.
Lawmakers in Washington continue to struggle to pass a temporary funding bill due in part to Democrats' demands that the legislation include an extension of enhanced Obamacare tax credits.
Remarks by several Federal Reserve officials may also attract attention, although Fed Chair Jerome Powell's welcoming remarks at a Community Bank Conference did not provide any insight into the outlook for interest rates.
Fed Governor Michael Barr and Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman are also scheduled to deliver remarks later this afternoon.
Following the pullback seen in the previous session, stocks moved back to the upside during trading on Wednesday. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 more than offset Tuesday's losses, reaching new record closing highs.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way higher, jumping 255.02 points or 1.1 percent to 23,043.38, while the S&P 500 climbed 39.13 points or 0.6 percent to 6,753.72. The narrower Dow ended the day little changed, edging down 1.20 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 46,601.78.
The strength on Wall Street partly reflected a notable advance by shares of Nvidia (NVDA), with the AI darling and market leading surging by 2.2 percent to a record closing high.
Nvidia moved high after CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC's "Squawk Box" artificial intelligence computing demand has increased "substantially" in the last six months.
Stocks saw continued strength even after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's September revealed participants expressed a range of views about the likely future path of monetary policy.
Most judged that it likely would be appropriate to ease policy further over the remainder of this year, the Fed said, although some noted financial conditions warrant a cautious approach in the consideration of future policy changes.
Computer hardware stocks showed a substantial move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index up by 4.3 percent to a record closing high.
Networking and semiconductor stocks also turned in strong performances, contributing to the jump by the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
Outside of the tech sector, gold stocks saw considerable strength amid a continued surge by the price of the precious metal, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index shooting up 2.8 percent.
Steel and airline stocks also showed notable moves to the upside, while some weakness was visible among banking stocks.
https://www.rttnews.com/3580926/u-s-stocks-may-lack-direction-after-yesterday-s-advance.aspx
Neogen First-Quarter 2026 Results
Revenue of $209.2 million
Net Income of $36.3 million; Adjusted Net Income1 of $9.4 million
Adjusted EBITDA1 of $35.5 million
Completed divestiture of Cleaners & Disinfectants business, repaid $100.0 million of debt
Welcomed Mike Nassif as Chief Executive Officer and President, effective August 11
Restructuring actions taken at the end of September to right-size the cost base
Reaffirming full-year outlook
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