If you can’t beat ‘em—buy ‘em.

Today, Adobe jumped on the AI bandwagon and announced it is acquiring AI search engine optimization software platform Semrush for $1.9 billion.

Shares of Semrush popped 73.96%, while Adobe sank 1.96%.

Adobe’s got artificial intelligence FOMO. The company, which is known for its consumer-facing products like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, has been trying to evolve into an AI-forward design studio to better compete in the brave new world of machine learning.

But while Adobe has rolled out an array of AI tools on its platforms, investors haven’t liked the picture Adobe has been designing. Shares of Adobe are down 28.46% year-to-date, and analysts have begun doubting its ability to keep up with competitors. By buying its own SEO platform, Adobe can take a shortcut to becoming an AI dynamo.

What about the other guy?

Semrush is all about SEO, which once meant enticing Google into pushing a customer’s website higher up on search result webpages. But in an AI-driven world, Semrush has focused on improving search visibility on platforms like OpenAI, which have seen their share of the internet search market climb lately.

That hasn’t translated to huge success for Semrush. Despite today’s impressive rally, the stock remains down 1% in 2025.

Adobe hopes that Semrush can provide it with a one-two punch for companies trying to reach online customers through both traditional search engines and AI platforms.

“Brand visibility is being reshaped by generative AI, and brands that don’t embrace this new opportunity risk losing relevance and revenue,” explained Anil Chakravarthy, president of Adobe’s Digital Experience Business, in a statement.—LB

I argued on Bloomberg TV recently that Adobe needs to make big, bold acquisition moves if it wants to get its stock moving again, but I found today’s announcement that it's buying Semrush anticlimactic. With only around $450 million of annualized revenue compared to Adobe’s more than $20 billion, this doesn’t move the needle for a software giant in an existential crisis. Adobe has very low net debt and the cash flow profile to go do more than tweak around the edges with its acquisition strategy. Listen to today’s episode of the Brew Markets podcast to learn where I think Adobe should be hunting for acquisition targets, and why the time to move is now.—AB

🟢 What’s up

• Alphabet rose 2.82% as investors cheered Google’s new Gemini 3 AI model, which delivers more accurate answers to complex questions and requires far less prompting for context.
• Constellation Energy climbed 5.34% after the Department of Energy approved a $1 billion federal loan to help reopen the Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear plant.
• Lowe’s gained 4.03% on a Q3 beat across earnings and revenue, standing in contrast to Home Depot’s disappointing results.
• Dycom advanced 10.01% following a Q3 beat and the announcement of a $2 billion acquisition of Power Solutions to expand into data-center construction.
• MP Materials soared 8.57% after signing a binding agreement with the Pentagon and Saudi miner Maaden to build a rare-earth refinery in Saudi Arabia.

What’s down

• Plug Power sank 11.21% following news of a $375 million convertible-notes offering, most of which will go toward repaying principal and interest on its 15% secured debentures.
• Williams-Sonoma slipped 3.39% despite delivering a beat-and-raise earnings report.
• Boeing fell 2.06% despite strong order activity at the Dubai Air Show, with investors zeroing in on shrinking free-cash-flow estimates.
• DoorDash dipped 4.6% as Q3 results raised concerns about heavier 2026 investment plans, though Jefferies upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold.
• Bullish declined 3.63% even with a Q3 beat, as bitcoin’s slide back below $90,000 weighed on sentiment across the crypto sector.

It may be a very unmerry holiday season for Target shareholders.

This once-chic chain posted a 2.7% year over year decline in comparable store sales in Q3, the third-straight quarterly decline. Management warned that the usual holiday rush might be a bust, too, noting that cash-strapped shoppers made “trade-offs” over Halloween—buying more candy rather than decor—and hinted that Christmas may suffer the same fate.

This bleak, bare-boughed forecast sent shares tumbling 2.77% today—just the latest plunge in a spiral that’s already wiped out a third of the stock’s value this year.

What’s the problem? Some say Tar-zhay just never recovered from the pandemic, suffering through four years of stagnant sales as frugal consumers flocked toward better bargains like those found at T.J. Maxx and HomeGoods (their parent company reported strong earnings and an optimistic outlook today).

A boycott backlash also hit Target after it rolled back its DEI policies earlier this year. In October, the store axed 1,800 corporate jobs, its largest layoff in a decade. Even the CEO of 11 years got the boot and will be replaced in February by former COO Michael Fiddelke, who admitted to analysts, “If you’re frustrated with our recent performance, we are too.”

Target’s makeover plan: The struggling retailer will pour an extra $1 billion into spicing up its aisles with trendier merchandise and stepping up its tech via a partnership with OpenAI that would let ChatGPT users shop Target’s sparkly new offerings.—JD

Private credit is supposed to be boring—but the industry’s new AI kingmaker just delivered some drama.

Alternative asset manager Blue Owl scrapped plans to fold one of its private funds into its publicly traded fund, Blue Owl Capital Corp (OBDC). The idea was to unlock long-term value by streamlining operations, cutting costs, and letting the combined vehicle benefit from OBDC’s lower funding costs and higher leverage.

But the private fund investors were being asked to exchange their shares at the net asset value of OBDC, which trades at about a 20% discount to its NAV—meaning private fund investors would immediately be hit with 20% paper losses, and they couldn't redeem their capital until the merger closed.

Investors understandably balked. The backlash dragged Blue Owl to 2023-level lows on Monday, and today the company ultimately decided the deal’s benefits weren’t worth the volatility (or negative headlines). Shares remain down 40% year to date.

AI anxiety

We wrote last week that Morgan Stanley estimated that $800 billion—nearly a third of the $3 trillion big tech companies plan to spend on AI over the next three years—will be funded by private credit, and Blue Owl is at the center of that pipeline.

The company just lined up a $14 billion package for an Oracle-OpenAI data-center project in Texas, raised another $30 billion for a Meta Platforms facility in Louisiana, and is even financing the purchase of Nvidia chips that will be leased to Elon Musk’s xAI.

These deals are marketed as low-risk: Lenders say the tenants sign long-term, ironclad leases that guarantee repayment. In fact, Microsoft is rated higher than the US government and is expected to double its data-center capacity within two years. On paper, the system should be bulletproof.

However, sentiment about both private credit investments and the AI trade as a whole has spooked the market. Investors have been pulling their money out of Blue Owl en masse: The Financial Times reported that they’ve withdrawn $150 million from its private fund through the first nine months of the year, 20% more than during the same period in 2024.

Today’s episode underscores the problem: If the underlying assets are so safe, why does Blue Owl need to trap investors and force them into 20% paper losses? If the safety of private-credit AI deals is partly propped up by limiting investor rights and managing liquidity behind the scenes, it might not be very safe at all.

Wall Street still argues that private credit deserves a central place in portfolios, offering diversification and a “healthy premium” over public debt. But critics say the boom is masking real risk: Jeffrey Gundlach warns that weak lending has migrated into private markets, where inaccurate pricing and hidden volatility are easier to bury.—SY

• Buy the dip: Here’s why JPMorgan says this week’s stock market slide is a great opportunity.
• Larry Summers resigned from the board of OpenAI after revelations about the famed economist’s email exchanges with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
• Walmart is in talks to acquire R&A Data, an Israeli tech startup that monitors for scams.
• The US trade deficit narrowed roughly 24% in August from the month prior as global tariff rates set in.
• Elon Musk’s xAI is trying to raise $15 billion, pushing its valuation up to $230 billion.
• Defaulted Venezuelan bonds are rallying as the US puts pressure on the nation for a regime change.
• The BLS announced that the full October jobs report will not be released, and the agency will instead include what data it has in the November jobs report.

Better late than never: The long-delayed September jobs report arrives tomorrow, and it’s dropping at a pivotal moment for the market. Fears that the Fed may not cut rates in December have risen dramatically lately, and stocks have sunk as investors continue to worry that monetary policy isn’t going to ease just yet.

Earnings continue to roll in, with a focus on retail thanks to reports from Walmart, Gap, Ross Stores, and Bath & Body Works. We’ll also hear from Intuit, Copart, NetEase, Post, and more.