Donald Trump asked the Pentagon to draw up new options for striking Iran before Americans vote in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. He had previously said he would wait until after the election to resume strikes. Republicans are facing a difficult campaign stretch, with the Iran war becoming a political drag.

Data center operator Applied Digital reported first-quarter results showing revenue rose by more than fourfold from a year earlier. Net loss widened over the same period as the company increased investment to meet rising demand for AI and high-performance computing services. The stock swung in after-hours trading on Wednesday and was up nearly 2% at one point.

Applied Digital released its latest earnings report, posting a 322% year-on-year surge in revenue. The results indicate the company’s data center strategy is gaining traction. The company is focused on AI computing infrastructure. Its rapid growth suggests its push into high-performance computing is starting to deliver tangible returns.

Anthropic has introduced Claude Haiku 5.5, a lightweight model aimed at high-volume work such as classification, summarization, customer support and voice agents, while pricing is about 75% lower than Haiku 4.5. The launch comes as the company moves toward a planned November IPO. The listing is expected to value Anthropic between $1.8 trillion and $2 trillion, according to a report.

Bitcoin has repeatedly failed to break above its yearly open at $87,700 and is trading near $84,000. Futures-market leverage has cooled, with aggregate open interest down to about 625,000 BTC, the lowest level since January 1. Spot demand has also softened, as US spot Bitcoin ETFs took in just $241.1 million in net inflows from September 28 to October 2, down about 90% from $2.39 billion the prior week. Data show long futures traders closed positions in size after key releases, leaving overall momentum subdued.

U.S. household heating costs are expected to split sharply this winter, with spending falling 9% for homes primarily heated by natural gas and 3% for propane users, while heating oil users could see a 21% increase, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Regional gaps are also pronounced for natural gas, with the West projected to post a 7% increase. In other regions, natural gas spending is forecast to decline by 10% to 15%.

US spot XRP ETFs have built up about $1.7 billion in holdings, equivalent to roughly 1.13 billion XRP, but recent inflows have cooled sharply. Aggregate net inflows were $3.14 million on Oct. 6, while the past week totaled about $3.9 million. Flows diverged by issuer, with Bitwise posting about $11 million of inflows as Franklin and Canary saw outflows of roughly $4.1 million and $3.3 million. XRP traded near $1.43, down more than 5% over 24 hours.

Walmart and Alphabet-owned Wing said they will expand drone delivery to the Seattle and Denver metro areas next year, extending the service to nearly 20 major U.S. markets. The partners ultimately plan to offer drone delivery from more than 270 Walmart stores. The service is already available to more than 3 million customers in markets including Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Houston and Orlando.