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Investors are noticing ripe opportunity in Cytokinetics, a late-stage biopharma company targeting medicines for specialty heart diseases, that has seen shares skyrocket in recent months.
Shares of Cytokinetics have jumped about 69% over the past three months and are up 31% year to date. The stock is one of the top-performing San Francisco-based companies profiled by CNBC’s Brian Sullivan on Power Lunch this week from the City by the Bay.

The stock surged in early September after the company posted strong phase 3 trial results for its lead cardio drug called Aficamten, a cardiac myosin inhibitor, which showed an improvement in exercise capacity in patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Cytokinetics is now awaiting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its drug, fueling strong investor interest in the company as this drug could disrupt a space dominated by publicly traded biotech giant Bristol Myers Squibb.

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Cytokinetics stock performance over the past month.

Cytokinetics originally discovered and developed drugs that are tied to heart disease, and one of those drugs, called Mavacamten, was later acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2020. Under the transaction agreements, Bristol Myers Squibb obtained the rights to use the drug for products it is developing or commercializing, while Cytokinetics gained capital which it then used to fund more clinical trials.
Now, Cytokinetics’ new drug is looking to compete directly with Bristol Myers Squibb, given that it targets the same disease.
“[Bristol Myers Squibb] are actually commercializing a medicine that was discovered in our laboratories, and ultimately the subject of a company we formed that they acquired. They’re now selling that, doing a great job. Patients are benefiting from that medicine,” Blum said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” We’re now in the process of developing a next-generation medicine that will hopefully enter the same space. It’s in front of the FDA for a potential approval later this year.”
Cytokinetics has received funding from specialized biotech financing firms, and uses a mix of royalty financing and partnerships to secure investments for its drug development.

“That journey required us to do a number of things as we invested in research at the moment, and ultimately did some financial engineering in order to support the billions of dollars that we’ve spent advancing a portfolio of potential medicines,” Blum told CNBC. He added that heart disease is the primary reason for hospitalization among Americans, especially an increasing aging demographic.
“Our pipeline, our portfolio of potential medicines directed to those diseases, we’re in a good position to build an enduring business starting with this first potential medicine,” he said. More

Ray Dalio warned that a bubble could be forming, but that it may not pop until the Federal Reserve tightens monetary policy.
He spoke at an investing summit in Saudi Arabia.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio on Tuesday warned that a bubble could be forming around megacap technology in the U.S. amid the artificial intelligence boom, but said that it may not end until the Federal Reserve reverses its current easy policies.
“There’s a lot of bubble stuff going on,” Dalio told CNBC’s Sara Eisen in an exclusive interview from the Future Investment Institute in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “But bubbles don’t pop, really, until they are popped by tightness of monetary policy and so on.”

Added Dalio, “We’re going to be more likely to ease rates than to tighten rates.”
The hedge fund titan said he uses a personal “bubble indicator” that’s relatively high right now. Dalio joins a growing chorus of well-known market participants that have cautioned about the potential for a bubble tied to AI spending in recent months.
The Fed is set to cut rates for a second time this year on Wednesday and many investors expect the central bank it will do so again at its final meeting of the year in December.
The billionaire investor also pointed out that outside of AI-linked names, the market as a whole has done “relatively poorly” and there’s a “concentrated environment.” He noted that 80% of gains are concentrated within Big Tech. The three major indexes on Monday rallied to all-time closing highs, led higher by technology stocks with more good AI news expected from a series of Big Tech earnings this week.

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S&P 500, all-time chart

Dalio said there’s a “two-part economy,” with the easing of interest rates because of weakening in some places while a bubble develops elsewhere.

He said monetary policy cannot aid both ends of this spectrum given the divergence, making it more likely that the bubble will continue. Dalio said the outcome could be similar to what was seen in 1998 to 1999 or in 1927 and 1928.
“Whether or not it’s a bubble and when that bubble is going to burst, maybe we don’t know exactly,” Dalio said. “But what we can say is there’s a lot of risk.” More

Large-cap companies are seeing steady AI-related productivity gains since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT model in 2022 in terms of their real revenue per worker, while small-cap names are seeing a decline, according to Wells Fargo.
Breakthrough advancements in AI this year have led major corporations, such as Amazon, to notably go all-in on the technology, finding ways to eliminate human roles that can be replaced by AI machines.
The performance of the S&P 500 versus the Russell 2000 small-cap index reflect this divergence in productivity gains.

Amazon Proteus robots demonstrate autonomous navigation using barcodes on the floor during the Delivering the Future event at the Amazon Robotics Innovation Hub in Westborough, Massachusetts, US, on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. 
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Artificial intelligence is widening the productivity gap between large and small companies, lifting up bigger firms that are able to effectively scale the technology and cut costs tied to human workers.
Large-cap companies are seeing steady AI-related productivity gains since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT model in 2022 in terms of their real revenue per worker, according to a Wells Fargo analysis. Small-cap names are witnessing a decline over the same period, the firm found.

“While productivity for the S&P 500 has soared 5.5% since ChatGPT, it’s down 12.3% for the Russell 2000,” Wells Fargo equity strategist Ohsung Kwon wrote in recent note to clients. “We see other examples of diverging trends in consumer, industrial, and financial markets.”

Arrows pointing outwards

Wells Fargo analysis comparing real revenue per worker between Russell 2000 and S&P 500 indices
Wells Fargo

Breakthrough advancements in AI this year have led major corporations such as Amazon to notably go all-in on the technology, finding ways to eliminate human roles that can be replaced by AI machines.
The performance of the S&P 500 versus the Russell 2000 small-cap index reflect this divergence in productivity gains. The broad market index is up 74% since ChatGPT’s 2022 launch, while the Russell is up only 39%.
The biggest U.S. companies have been internally deploying AI tools over the past few years to improve their productivity and supply chains and, in some cases, cut head count. A World Economic Forum survey published at the start of 2025 found that roughly 40% of companies around the world expect to reduce their workforces over the next five years in roles where AI can automate tasks.
Layoffs this year have been on the rise. Several big-name companies, including Target, Amazon, Meta, Starbucks, Oracle, Microsoft and UPS, have announced significant cuts to their total head count. For Target, the cuts are historic. Amazon is expected to announce historic cuts on Tuesday. Companies have mostly cited efforts to streamline operations and growth strategy as reasons for cuts, but many are nodding at AI as part of the reason that human worker roles can be axed now or in the future.

For one, Amazon has been a leader in robot deployment across its facilities, which the e-commerce giant has said is improving costs and delivery times. The New York Times reported this month that Amazon executives believe the company is on track to replace more than half a million jobs with robots, which they think will save about 30 cents on each item Amazon selects, packs and delivers to customers. Morgan Stanley said Amazon’s robotics efforts can save the company between $2 billion and $4 billion by 2027.
Klarna, which has been among the most transparent in how AI is affecting its head count, said it has shrunk its workforce by about 40%, in part due to its AI investments. CrowdStrike in May announced cuts to 5% of the company’s global workforce, citing AI efficiencies and saying that the technology “flattens our hiring curve.” IBM’s CEO has forecast 30% of non-customer-facing roles will be cut by 2028 and told The Wall Street Journal earlier this year that AI chatbots have replaced 200 HR employees, freeing up investments to hire more people in sales and programming.
Palo Alto Networks, Walmart and McDonald’s are other companies that have notably been leveraging AI in ways that analysts expect will improve margins, CNBC previously reported.
An Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Insights survey of 5,000 small businesses in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia in September revealed that 68% of businesses have integrated AI into their daily operations, with roughly two-thirds reporting an increase in productivity.
“The numbers don’t lie,” Wells Fargo’s Kwon said in his report. More

The Federal Reserve is expected to lower interest rates at the end of its two-day meeting on Wednesday.
Many types of consumer loans are impacted when the Fed trims its benchmark.
Here’s how a rate cut could affect your mortgage, credit cards and auto loans going forward.

The Federal Reserve is expected to lower borrowing costs again on Wednesday.
Another quarter-point reduction, on the heels of September’s cut, would bring the federal funds rate to a range between 3.75%-4.00%.

The federal funds rate, which is set by the Federal Open Market Committee, is the interest rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another overnight. Although that’s not the rate consumers pay, the Fed’s moves do have a trickle-down effect on many types of consumer loans.

The FOMC has also set expectations for another reduction in December, but after that, the path is unclear. President Donald Trump — who has said a pick to replace current Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell could come by the end of the year — has repeatedly weighed in on Fed policy, arguing that rates should be sharply lower.
It’s not a given that rates will continue to fall, and even if they do, not all consumer products are affected equally.

‘The Fed is not cutting every single interest rate’

When the Fed hiked rates in 2022 and 2023, the interest rates on most consumer loans quickly followed suit. Even though this would be the second rate cut in a row, many of those consumer rates are likely to stay higher, for now.
“The Fed is not cutting every single interest rate that exists in the world,” said Mike Pugliese, senior economist at Wells Fargo Economics.

Depending on their duration, some borrowing rates are more sensitive to Fed changes than others, he said: “At one end of the spectrum, you have shorter floating rates, and on the other end, you have a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.”
Those shorter-term rates are more closely pegged to the prime rate, which is the rate that banks extend to their most creditworthy customers — typically 3 percentage points higher than the federal funds rate. Longer-term rates are also influenced by inflation and other economic factors.

Credit cards won’t ‘go from awful to amazing overnight’

Olga Rolenko | Moment | Getty Images

According to Bankrate, nearly half of American households have credit card debt and pay more than 20% in interest, on average, on their revolving balances — making credit cards one of the most expensive ways to borrow money.
Since most credit cards have a short-term, variable rate, there’s a direct connection to the Fed’s benchmark.
When the Fed lowers rates, the prime rate comes down, too, and the interest rate on your credit card debt is likely to adjust within a billing cycle or two. But even then, credit card APRs will only ease off extremely high levels. And generally, card issuers have kept their rates somewhat elevated to mitigate their exposure to riskier borrowers.  
“Even if the Fed steps on the gas in the coming months when it comes to rate cuts, credit card rates aren’t going to go from awful to amazing overnight,” said Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief credit analyst. 

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For example, if you have $7,000 in credit card debt on a card with a 24.19% interest rate and pay $250 per month on that balance, lowering the APR by a quarter-point will save you about $61 over the lifetime of the loan, according to Schulz.

Slight benefit for car and home buyers

Although auto loan rates are fixed for the life of the loan, experts say potential car shoppers could benefit if borrowing costs come down in the future.
The average rate on a five-year new car loan is currently around 7%. Going forward, “a modest Fed rate cut won’t dramatically slash monthly payments for consumers,” Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at Edmunds, previously told CNBC, “but it does boost overall buyer sentiment.”

Longer-term loans, like mortgages, are less impacted by the Fed. Both 15- and 30-year mortgage rates are more closely tied to Treasury yields and the economy. 
Still, expectations of more cuts down the road could put some downward pressure on mortgage rates, experts say, and that may “spur more Americans to consider jumping back into the housing market after sitting on the sidelines for so long,” according to LendingTree’s Schulz.
Other home loans are more closely tied to the Fed’s moves. Adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, and home equity lines of credit, or HELOCs, are pegged to the prime rate. Most ARMs adjust once a year, but a HELOC adjusts right away.
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Student loan borrowers are eligible for debt forgiveness under two repayment plans again, after an agreement was reached between the American Federation of Teachers and the Trump administration.
Those two programs are the Income Contingent Repayment plan and the Pay as You Earn plan.
President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” will phase out ICR and PAYE as of July 1, 2028.

Students walk around the UCLA campus on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA.
Juliana Yamada | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Millions of borrowers once again have access to student loan forgiveness, but they may need to take action to ensure they qualify.
The U.S. Department of Education will resume cancelling the debt of eligible borrowers enrolled in the Income Contingent Repayment plan, or ICR, and the Pay as You Earn plan, or PAYE, according to an agreement reached by the American Federation of Teachers and the Trump administration.

Earlier this year, the department had stopped cancelling the debt of borrowers in those two plans, citing a court order. 
Loan cancellation opportunities have become rarer under the Trump administration. While President Joe Biden was in office, the U.S. Department of Education made regular announcements that it was wiping away hundreds of thousands of borrowers’ debts.
More than 40 million Americans hold student loans, and the outstanding debt exceeds $1.6 trillion. 

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Some 2.5 million borrowers are enrolled in either ICR or PAYE, according to an estimate by higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. The agreement may allow more of those borrowers to qualify for forgiveness. But it’s a limited window.
President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” will phase out ICR and PAYE as of July 1, 2028. The Education Department has agreed to resume the relief only while ICR and PAYE remain in effect.

Here’s what borrowers need to know about the resumed loan forgiveness under ICR and PAYE.

3 plans lead to student loan forgiveness

Both ICR and PAYE are income-driven repayment plans, meaning they cap a borrower’s bills at a share of their discretionary income and lead to loan forgiveness after a certain period; ICR after 25 years and PAYE after 20 years.
Borrowers have had access to debt cancellation under ICR since 1994 and under PAYE since 2012.
Student loan borrowers also have access to forgiveness under the Income-Based Repayment plan, or IBR.

When the Education Department curtailed forgiveness under ICR and PAYE earlier this year, officials said they were responding to a February court order that blocked a Biden administration-era repayment plan, known as the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, or SAVE. The officials said that the ruling had implications for other repayment plans, although ICR and PAYE have both been available for over a decade.
Consumer advocates and the American Federation of Teachers, a union representing some 1.8 million members, disagreed with the administration’s interpretation of the ruling and said the agency was required to offer debt forgiveness under the well-established programs. In its March lawsuit, the AFT accused Trump officials of blocking borrowers from the relief programs mandated in their loan terms.

Borrowers in ICR, PAYE can stay put for now

Before the AFT and Education Department reached their agreement, student loan borrowers who had accumulated enough credit to get forgiveness under ICR or PAYE would have needed to transfer to IBR to get their loans discharged, said Nancy Nierman, assistant director of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program in New York.
“Now, they don’t have to do that,” Nierman said. “They can remain in these plans and realize forgiveness.”
Borrowers who want to cancel a submitted request to switch into IBR can try calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED-AID, Kantrowitz said. You might also try contacting your student loan servicer to cancel your request.

Prepare for a future repayment plan switch

Once PAYE and ICR are phased out, borrowers in those plans who haven’t yet become eligible for debt erasure will need to switch to a repayment plan that still offers loan cancellation. The payments made under PAYE and ICR will count on the borrower’s timeline to the relief, Nierman said.
Borrowers should keep records of the payments they have made, to make sure they don’t lose any qualifying months.
One important point to note: Continued access to IBR will be available only to those who borrow before July 1, 2026. Loans taken out after that date will void eligibility for IBR.
Due to recent legislation, borrowers after that date will be able to enroll in only a new income-driven repayment plan called the “Repayment Assistance Plan,” or RAP, or a revised Standard Plan. More

Disruptions in government funding due to the shutdown have left many nonprofit organizations without the aid they need to operate.
At the same time, with hundreds of thousands of workers furloughed, the need for assistance from these groups is only increasing.
“The longer this shutdown lasts, the more people and communities are left without the critical services they depend on,” said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, an industry association. 

The Disability Awareness Council in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, assists individuals with disabilities in the community, offering aid ranging from transportation to housing advocacy. But for now, many services are on hold.
“Because of the shutdown and cuts, core disability services that people rely on every week are either paused, reduced or running with unpaid labor,” said Timothy Miles, the organization’s director and board liaison.

As the standoff in Washington drags on, many nonprofits have lost access to federal grants and must make tough decisions about what aid they can offer and for how long.
At the same time, the shutdown has put some federal assistance, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, at risk just when the need for help is increasing. With hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contract workers furloughed and without pay, that adds to the strain on nonprofits that are needed to help fill the gap.
“Nonprofits are on the frontlines of serving communities, but a government shutdown makes it harder for them to fulfill their missions,” said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, an industry association. 
“The longer this shutdown lasts, the more people and communities are left without the critical services they depend on,” she said.
The current government shutdown is now the second-longest federal funding lapse in U.S. history.

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Many nonprofits were already facing financial pressure before the shutdown due to disruptions in government funding earlier this year that was restricting their ability to meet community demand, according to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research organization.
The average nonprofit receives about 28% of its funding from the government, and 60% to 80% of nonprofits wouldn’t be able to cover their expenses if they lost that grant aid, according to the institute’s analysis of IRS data.
With a lapse in appropriations, nonprofits are now facing a potential shortfall, said Sarah Saadian, the National Council of Nonprofits’ senior vice president of public policy and campaigns.
“For those nonprofits that were waiting to get their grant renewed or need approval, there’s no one there,” Saadian said.

Miles said that is one of the biggest challenges the Disability Awareness Council currently faces. “We are waiting on some funding from the federal government,” he said, but there is “no direct contact with some of the agencies.”
The funding gap means some staffers will go unpaid and programs will be put on hold, according to Miles. The organization has a workforce of seven and serves hundreds of people in the area.

‘Real long-term consequences’

The longer the shutdown continues, the harder it will be for nonprofits to continue serving their communities, Saadian said.  
In many cases, if an organization lays off staff or puts a program or service on pause, it can be difficult to resume operations once the shutdown ends and funding kicks in.
“Once those organizations suffer those kinds of impacts, there can be real long-term consequences, because they’ve lost that infrastructure, they’ve lost that staff,” Saadian said.
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