Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and the stories behind them.
OpenAI has landed a significant talent coup, poaching Cat Wu from Anthropic just weeks before Anthropic's hotly anticipated IPO. Wu led product management for Claude Code and will now head OpenAI's core products team. The timing is pointed — pulling a key face away from a rival on the eve of their public debut is as much a strategic signal as it is a personnel move.
Turning to energy, Vistra and other power stocks have been sliding, but some analysts are pushing back, calling the selloff an excessive knee-jerk reaction. The concern driving the pressure is that newly elected officials could slow data center expansion, but analysts argue the structural demand for power-intensive AI infrastructure remains far too entrenched to be derailed by near-term policy headwinds.
And in a settlement with real consumer teeth, Amazon will pay millions to Prime members caught in what regulators described as a cancellation trap. With over two hundred million paying subscribers globally, the company's enrollment and exit practices drew federal scrutiny, and this payout reflects the growing regulatory appetite for holding subscription-based platforms accountable for how they retain customers.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
