• "The ratio was similarly skewed across manager, professional and technician job classifications, with white and Asian men dominating top pay groups and women and people of color clustered in the lower bands," Bloomberg noted.
• "Intel’s report finds that within job types — not just at the top — white men dominate the highest salary band. Two-thirds of employees fall into a job group called 'professionals,' which includes includes non-managerial office workers and programmers."
• "Nearly all earn at least $80,000 per year, but white and Asian men have the highest salaries. Black, Hispanic and other minorities are overrepresented in the bottom half of the pay ranges," per Bloomberg.

Why now: “It’s difficult to really fix what you aren’t being transparent about,” Barbara Whye, Intel’s chief diversity and inclusion officer and a vice president in human resources, tells Bloomberg.

Go deeper: Minority-owned banks are disappearing

• "The headline index remains below its cycle peak, 108.8 in August last year, but that was supported by tax cuts and was not sustainable."

Yes, but: Sales expectations fell by 4 points to the lowest level in three years. "This might mean that firms recognized the impact of the August 1 announcement of tariffs on consumer goods was to pull forward spending into the late summer," Shepherdson added.

Of note: The surveys reflect the previous month's report.

Go deeper:

• Small business owners report record-high confidence
• Fed's beige book shows varied business strength
• Immigrant-owned businesses contribute billions to U.S. economy

Why it matters: The Bank for International Settlements concluded recently that the spike in rates seen in the repo market in September was due to a structural problem rather than a one-off issue. Consensus is growing that the Fed's daily cash injections are not enough.

• Experts also warned earlier this year that the repo market issues were a sign of bigger trouble brewing in the broader market and could even cause a major selloff for U.S. stocks.

What they're saying: “The Fed’s liquidity operations have not been sufficient to relax the constraints banks will face in the upcoming year-end turn,” Zoltan Pozsar, managing director for investment strategy and research at Credit Suisse, said in the note.

• Pozsar argued in his note that a full-on imposition of quantitative easing will be needed as the end of the year is a time when the repo market typically sees low liquidity.

Go deeper:

• The market will need the Fed again in 2020
• Capital markets are eyeing the world's soaring debt