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It was a packed week. Here is how the elites and big money reacted.

AI: From Record Valuation to Record Drop

On Monday, Anthropic filed for an IPO, disclosing revenue growth of 1,368% over the past year. On Wednesday, SK Hynix jumped 13% on a sevenfold rise in profit. Then the bill arrived. Alphabet fell 12% between Tuesday and Thursday, wiping out roughly half a trillion dollars in market value. Amazon posted a cash outflow of $42.4 billion. Intel was down about 25% in premarket trading on Friday, and Nasdaq 100 futures were off 2.5%.

The takeaway: big money is

Serbia: Vučić loses the election, and the "Student List" says it won't impose sanctions on Russia

The opposition took roughly 53% of the vote and 140 of 250 seats. Its representative, Bakić, said Belgrade will not introduce sanctions and has no plans to give up Russian gas. If those words become policy, Moscow will keep its footing in Serbia but lose a familiar interlocutor in Vučić.

Russia and the EU: Putin may demand NATO roll back to its 1997 borders

The Telegraph reports that at the next round of talks Moscow could demand the withdrawal of alliance troops from Poland

Russia and the United States: Putin and Witkoff hold three-hour talks at Konstantinovsky Palace

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff have held three hours of talks at Konstantinovsky Palace. Witkoff handed over documents outlining approaches to a settlement following his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo.

Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said Russia was ready to resume trilateral talks “in the first ten days of November,” but described the new proposals from Kyiv and the European Union as of little practical value. The dialogue continues, though there is still no sign of a substantive breakthrough.

Trump

United States: AI Rebounds, but Nerves Remain Frayed

On October 19, the Nasdaq rose 1.1% to 26,431, the S&P 500 gained 0.4%, and the Dow slipped 0.1%. A week earlier, the S&P 500 had dropped almost 2% and the Nasdaq 4.5%. By Moscow time on the evening of October 20, the Dow was trading roughly 1% higher, at about 52,458, though the session's final results have yet to be confirmed.

The takeaway: investors are buying tech after the selloff, not buying into the economy. The elites are catching the bounce while keeping a finger on the sell button.

Oil: A

United States: The Record Rests on a Handful of Chipmakers

On October 12, the S&P 500 closed at 7,807 (-0.1%), the Dow rose 0.4% to 51,850, and the Nasdaq lost 0.4%. The semiconductor index has fallen for a fifth straight day and now stands 17% below its June peak. More than 4 in 10 S&P 500 stocks are in the red this year. Takeaway: the market is being held up by 5 to 10 names, while the broader economy sags under the Fed's rate policy. The elites are feeding the storefront, and everything else is being quietly sold off.

Oil

"A Technical-Level Meeting": How Talks About Talks Became the Main Weapon of the Autumn

Over the week of October 5–10, the map did not move, but the diplomatic calendar has grown to the size of a suburban commuter-train timetable: Kyiv is ready, Washington offers, Moscow "does not rule it out." The only thing missing is the train itself.

The fact. Zelensky said that the American team is proposing a trilateral meeting at the technical level before the end of October. Witkoff and Kushner are meeting the Ukrainians in Miami on October 9, and they may travel to Moscow later. At

US and Europe: Bonds Dictate, Stocks Obey

On October 1, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 7,666, the Dow held at 50,926, and the Nasdaq barely moved. The yield on 10-year US Treasuries first hit a 24-year high, then pulled back. In Europe the picture is harsher: London lost 1.7%, Paris 1.6%, and Frankfurt 1%. The conclusion: elites fear not a specific war, but the price of money. Europe, where the debt market is more fragile, pays for it first.

Oil: The $100 Line Holds

Brent settled above $100 and ended the week at $102.25, with WTI at about $91.10

Russia strikes Kyiv with ballistic missiles for the second time in a row
The attack, which used Zircon/Onyx missiles, Iskanders and 188 drones, mostly hit energy infrastructure in the Kyiv region. Strikes on the power grid a month before winter are clearly systematic.

US–Iran talks mediated by Qatar reach a deadlock
According to Axios, the parties are unwilling to make concessions on a compromise plan that would lift the blockade in exchange for limits on Iran's nuclear program. Trump may resume strikes after the November congressional elections. The diplomatic window has narrowed sharply amid mutual ultimatums.

Iran attacks four vessels

US-Ukraine: "A Very Good Meeting" — How 40 Minutes in New York Were Sold as a Breakthrough That Never Happened

The week of September 21-25, 2026 gave the world the most talked-about forty minutes of the year: the Trump-Zelensky talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Headlines exploded with words like "breakthrough" and "hope before winter." The actual outcome of the meeting can be summed up in a single sentence — and that should alarm people far more than it should cheer them.

The fact — what happened. On September 22, at UN headquarters, Trump and Zelensky held

Peskov Invites Zelensky to Moscow for Talks Under Full Security Guarantees
The invitation came immediately after Kyiv's statement of readiness for a ceasefire, with the Kremlin setting out conditions for holding the summit. The Moscow format looks less like a genuine proposal and more like a test of Kyiv's actual willingness to negotiate.

Ukraine and 51 UN Member States Declare Support for a Full and Unconditional Ceasefire
A joint statement by Sybiha and Kallas at the UN General Assembly called on Russia to do the same, without specifying any mechanism for monitoring the truce. Broad diplomatic backing does not change