Energy funds rose while chips fell on a weaker OpenAI revenue figure

AXLE, the fund of S&P 500 energy companies, rose 3.0% on Thursday as oil climbed. Chip and AI stocks fell on a weaker OpenAI revenue figure, and AQQQ, the Nasdaq-100 fund, fell 1.3%. The jump in oil added to the drop in the Nasdaq-100 fund.

ASPY, the S&P 500 fund, slipped 0.4%.

Two supply threats lifted oil

Oil rose on an increase in attacks on shipping in the Middle East Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow route for Middle East oil, and on shut-ins in the US Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Isaias headed for the coast.

The Marine Minerals Administration said that as of 11 a.m. Central time, producers had shut in 62.9% of US Gulf oil output, 1.28 million barrels a day. That Gulf accounts for almost 15% of the crude the United States pumps in a year.

Brent crude, the main global oil price, was at $103.48 at 4:36 p.m. ET, up 3.3% from the prior settle, after touching $105.91. WTI crude, the US price, was at $90.77, up 2.8%.

President Donald Trump said the United States would not attack Iran before the November 3 midterm elections, and that a blockade of Iranian ports would stay in place. Crude was still up on the day, but below its high.

Exxonmobil and Chevron, the two largest holdings in AXLE, rose 2.7% and 3.1%. BUSO, which holds contracts on US crude, rose 2.6% at the stock-market close. DBWET rose 5.5%. It holds contracts on the cost of shipping crude, on the Middle East Gulf to China route.

The sharpest losses

The Financial Times reported that OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue was approaching $50 billion at the end of September. That is the current pace of sales, stretched over a year. It was about $20 billion below a figure near $70 billion that Axios reported in late September.

The Financial Times said the higher number came from information OpenAI had shared with investors, which those investors used to compare OpenAI with Anthropic, a rival. Yahoo Finance called that a miscalculation.

ASMH, VanEck's fund of semiconductor stocks, fell 2.8%. Intel, Micron and Broadcom fell harder, down 5.3%, 4.8% and 4.3%. The iShares semiconductor fund, ASOXX, fell 3.4%.

Oracle and CoreWeave fell 5.6% and 7.8% on the report. CoreWeave rents out AI computing power. —NCLD, a fund of companies in that business, fell 7.2%.

—LYTE, a fund of photonics and optics companies, fell 8.2%, a steeper loss than the chip funds. Coherent and Lumentum, two of its largest stock holdings, fell 9.6% and 5.6%.

Staples were the other gain

AXLP, the fund of consumer-staples companies in the S&P 500, rose 2.1%. Walmart, its largest holding, rose 2.2%, and Philip Morris rose 4.1%.

Chipotle rose 6.2% after the Financial Times reported that Starbucks had explored buying it. Brian Niccol, Starbucks' chief executive, led Chipotle before he joined the coffee company. Starbucks finished down 0.4%.

PepsiCo rose 3.7%. Revenue grew 5.6% from a year earlier, and organic revenue, which leaves out currency swings and acquisitions, grew 3.1%. The company beat estimates for revenue and for core per-share earnings, which leave out some one-time items.

It cut its outlook for growth in those core earnings to 2.5% to 3.5%, from the low end of a 5% to 7% range. It raised its outlook for net revenue growth to about 6%, the top of a prior range of 4% to 6%.