Americans owed $481 billion on home equity lines of credit at the end of the third quarter, up $59 billion from a year earlier, as homeowners increasingly borrowed against their properties. The New York Fed reported a $23 billion quarterly increase, the largest since 2005. Benzinga’s analysis puts the annual growth rate at about 14%, while the number of open HELOC accounts reached 13.35 million. Jefferies sees an opportunity for Home Depot ($HD) and Lowe’s ($LOW). Its analysts argue that homeowners with inexpensive older mortgages have a strong reason to renovate instead of moving and replacing those loans with more expensive financing. According to the firm, HELOC rates have fallen by more than 2.5 percentage points over two years to around 7.5%. That puts them much closer to the roughly 7.2% cost of a new mortgage than the historically wider gap. Jefferies estimates that home improvement has accounted for about 40% of HELOC borrowing and expects renovation spending to grow into 2027. The New York Fed’s broader report also showed household debt reaching $19.1 trillion, with 5% in some stage of delinquency. The borrowing boom could support demand for kitchens, roofs and larger renovation projects. It also leaves households exposed to variable interest rates, making the cost of staying put an important part of the housing story.

Adobe ($ADBE) expects U.S. online holiday spending to hit a record $275.1B this year. Traffic from AI shopping tools is projected to jump 130% as more consumers use AI to find deals and decide what to buy.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back (@adam3us) says Bitcoin ($BTC) could reach $1 million by 2028, arguing that institutional adoption still has substantial room to expand. Speaking on CNBC’s Closing Bell Overtime on Wednesday, Back said mutual funds, wealth managers and model portfolios could direct much larger pools of money into Bitcoin over the coming years. He estimated that 95% or more of potential institutional adoption remains ahead. Back characterized the market as being in the early stages of a new bull cycle. His argument rests partly on Bitcoin’s roughly four-year halving pattern and the distinction between comparing today’s recovery with a previous cycle’s peak. He pointed to a 200-week moving average near $67,000 at the time of the interview. That measure smooths years of price history, and Back expects it to rise as newer, higher prices enter the calculation. Back also described Bitcoin as an improved version of gold, emphasizing its scarcity and the ease of transferring and trading it. He suggested that recent connections between Bitcoin and technology stocks may become less important over time. The $1 million figure is Back’s forecast and personal bet, not an established outcome. His thesis depends on large institutional allocations materializing and investors continuing to value Bitcoin’s limited supply despite volatility, competing assets and the uncertain timing of demand.

Sen. Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) is calling for a nationwide pause on new data center construction until Congress guarantees that the facilities’ electricity needs will not increase household utility bills. The Missouri Republican included a moratorium among his priorities for the Senate’s remaining legislative session. His spokesperson told Politico that he wants a consumer “bill of rights” before construction proceeds. Detailed terms for that proposal have not been announced. Hawley previously joined Sen. Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) in introducing the GRID Act in February. That bill would require new data centers to obtain power from sources separate from the existing grid and publicly disclose their electricity usage. The earlier legislation also would give consumers priority on the grid and allow existing data centers a 10-year transition to alternative power sources. Those provisions are proposed requirements, not rules already in effect. The broader debate has intensified after the midterm elections. Benzinga reported that candidates supporting tighter data center restrictions made substantial gains, while separate Democratic proposals have sought a national construction pause. Hawley has not said whether he supports those bills. The disagreement now reaches beyond how quickly AI infrastructure can be built. It centers on who pays for the additional power generation and grid investment, and whether households receive enforceable protection before the next wave of projects moves forward.

Dan Ives (@DivesTech) says GameStop’s ($GME) AI pivot is being overlooked by Wall Street. After meeting CEO Ryan Cohen (@ryancohen), Ives says AI could eventually help GameStop run much of the business autonomously.

Google DeepMind has introduced AlphaGenome 2, an AI model designed to predict how DNA changes affect specific types of cells and help researchers investigate the biological mechanisms behind disease. Alphabet ($GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) highlighted the distinction between a shared genetic blueprint and the different ways cells use it. A heart muscle cell and an immune cell can respond differently to the same DNA sequence. DeepMind trained the model using more than 107 million individual cell profiles from human and mouse samples. Unlike its predecessor’s broader tissue predictions, the new system can target a particular tissue, cell type or biological state. In the TenK10K benchmark covering 28 primary immune cell types, AlphaGenome 2 identified 30% of causal variants, compared with 16% for the earlier model fine-tuned on single-cell data. Its reported performance on predicting the direction of gene activity also improved, from 23% to 43%. DeepMind demonstrated the system by reproducing an existing finding linking a DNA variant to increased ETS2 gene activity in intestinal immune cells associated with inflammatory bowel disease. That was a computational result, not a new treatment or a clinical trial. The model is available for noncommercial research, with commercial access in private preview. It has not been approved or validated for diagnosis. Its practical value will depend on helping scientists identify stronger leads for laboratory testing.

Porsche CEO Michael Leiters is drawing a distinction between his company’s sports-car strategy and Tesla’s ($TSLA) dramatic Roadster demonstration, saying Porsche wants to avoid “effects and shows.” Speaking at a Berlin automotive conference on Wednesday, Leiters emphasized engineering and the connection between a driver and a car. His comments followed Tesla’s October 15 presentation, which featured a Roadster prototype performing an airborne rotation using thrusters. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) celebrated the demonstration and has discussed autonomous tricks and a looping track at Tesla’s Texas headquarters. Leiters argued that Porsche’s Mission S concept and the Roadster are aimed at different customers. Tesla describes three Roadster configurations: Performance, Thrust and Rocket. The company says the Rocket version uses cold-gas thrusters and is not approved for public-road use. Musk has pointed to 2028 for production, but firm delivery timing and final pricing remain unresolved. Porsche unveiled Mission S on the same date as Tesla’s event. The mid-engine concept sits above the 911 in the company’s intended lineup and can accommodate hybrid or combustion power. Leiters described prospective customer interest as strong. The rivalry highlights two approaches to a flagship car: an attention-grabbing technology demonstration and a more traditional premium sports-car proposition. Both still face the practical challenge of turning an ambitious concept into a vehicle customers can actually buy.

Steve Eisman (@realsteveeisman) says Meta’s ($META ) $27B off-balance-sheet AI deal has echoes of Enron. Investor Joseph Carlson disagrees, arguing Meta has fully disclosed the structure and remains financially strong.

Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth has climbed back above $225 billion as Meta Platforms ($META) shares recover from recent weakness. Bloomberg estimates Zuckerberg is worth about $227 billion, ranking him fifth among the world’s richest people. He owns roughly 13% of Meta and also controls a majority of the company’s voting power through its dual-class share structure. Zuckerberg’s fortune increased by about $10.7 billion in a single day, a roughly 5% jump, while his year-to-date gain stands near $7.7 billion. His wealth has been volatile throughout 2026, rising above $274 billion in September before pulling back alongside Meta shares. Despite the size of his fortune, Zuckerberg has long said most of his Meta wealth is not intended to remain with his family. In 2015, following the birth of their first daughter, Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan pledged to give away 99% of their Meta shares during their lifetimes. That commitment built on their earlier Giving Pledge promise to donate at least half of their wealth. Zuckerberg’s fortune was around $45 billion when the 99% pledge was announced. Since then, his net worth has increased by roughly $182 billion, significantly expanding the pool of assets potentially available for philanthropy. While the Meta shares are earmarked for charitable purposes, Zuckerberg and Chan still hold substantial real estate and other assets that could ultimately remain with their daughters.

Coinbase ($COIN) is receiving hundreds of feature requests each day from AI agents, and some are becoming live software updates in less than 24 hours, according to CEO Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong). Armstrong described the process in a Wednesday post and an accompanying interview clip. The company initially sought product suggestions from human customers, then added a feedback endpoint that lets agents communicate their needs directly. The feature sits within Coinbase’s Model Context Protocol integration, which gives AI tools a structured way to interact with its services. Agents can send requests through the /feedback endpoint while using Coinbase for Agents. Those messages flow into Slack, where suggestions can become proposed code changes and eventually production updates. Armstrong said the cycle is beginning to resemble recursive improvement, with software users generating ideas that help improve the software they use. The company is also considering similar feedback channels for internal APIs because employees increasingly use AI agents in their own work. Armstrong’s broader argument is that trading, payments and lending should be accessible together through an account designed for both people and their software assistants. The reported turnaround does not mean every request ships automatically or within a day. It shows how Coinbase is trying to shorten the distance between a product problem and a working fix, while building infrastructure for a larger role for agents in financial services.