Today we got more insight into the health of the nation's leading financial institutions via earnings reports:
💵 Bank of America: The company's stock rallied after it projected $14.5 billion in net interest income in the fourth quarter, up $600 million from its most recent period and, according to Bloomberg, topping expectations.
💰 Goldman Sachs: The bank's fixed income business came in higher than expected, while its provision for loan losses came in lower than expected, CNBC reported.
🏦 Morgan Stanley: The company's investment banking fees soared 51% amid signs that dealmaking is enjoying a resurgence, Yahoo Finance reported.
Trader Joe's is bringing back its popular mini insulated tote bags Wednesday — six weeks after they sold out.
The big picture: The $3.99 mini coolers are the grocery chain's latest affordable item to go viral after its mini canvas tote bags became a huge hit earlier this year.
Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson and his company were found guilty of defrauding investors in an attempt to raise funds in 2021, a federal jury in New York found on Tuesday.
Why it matters: The Ozy case sent shockwaves through the digital media industry, which had for years been floated by venture capitalists eager for quick returns.
Us Weekly, the Hollywood and celebrity magazine, is expanding its print product from 48 issues to 52, its new editor Dan Wakeford told Axios. Each edition will also expand by 12 pages.
Why it matters: It's part of a broader overhaul of the 47-year-old publication to reach a more sophisticated audience with more authoritative content.
"We want smart, busy and curious women," Wakeford said. "I want to bring in folks who at the moment feel a bit guilty about consuming this information."
Between the lines: Wakeford — who most recently served as editor-in-chief of The Messenger and before that was the editor of People and Entertainment Weekly — plans to expand the scope of Us Weelkly's celebrity coverage with a new focus on sports and influencer verticals.
There was a striking similarity among local news coverage of the Trump rally shooting Saturday night, with sister publications from major local holding groups featuring the same home page stories, photos and headlines, and then updating them, mostly in unison, as the story developed.
Why it matters: In breaking news moments, it's easy to see just how much news is commoditized, but that is especially true at the local level, where papers are under-resourced and understaffed, especially on weekends.
Almost half of Amazon warehouse workers suffered injuries around the company's past Prime Day sales, according to a new report from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
Why it matters: Prime Day has become an industry-wide shopping phenomenon. Theannual sale is a major source of revenue for the company and is expected to drive record-breaking online spending this week.
Lineage, a Novi, Michigan-based real estate investment trust focused on cold storage facilities, on Tuesday set terms for what would be the year's largest U.S. IPO.
By the numbers: The company could raise upwards of $3.85 billion at a $17.2 billion market cap, if it hits the top of its planned pricing range.
Venture capital billionaires Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz each will make donations to former President Trump's election effort, and will lay out their reasoning in a podcast later Tuesday afternoon, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: This is part of a small but growing number of tech elites writing checks for Trump, despite Silicon Valley's liberal leanings.
Polymarket, a venture-backed predictions market, has hired statistician and journalist Nate Silver as an adviser while it looks to build out more forecasts around news events.
Why it matters: More Americans are flocking to prediction markets to interpret crazy news cycles. And more news outlets are beginning to cite prediction odds for the outcome of news events, particularly the election.
Ad tech giant Taboola has struck a deal with Apple to power native advertising within the Apple News and Apple Stocks apps, Taboola founder and CEO Adam Singolda told Axios.
Why it matters: The deal provides new validation for Taboola's business, which has ballooned to over $1.4 billion in annual revenue as of 2023.
Retail sales were flat in June as big price declines in gasoline and a cyberattack in the auto sector dragged down the overall spending figure, the federal government said on Tuesday.
Why it matters: Stripping out autos and gas, American consumers spent at a healthy rate — defying other data that suggested spending had cooled.
Hosts of MSNBC's popular "Morning Joe" program seemed dumbfounded Tuesday trying to explain why their show did not air in its regularly scheduled time slot on Monday.
Why it matters:A CNN report suggested NBC News executives yanked the show to avoid any potential comments from the program's guests that could be seen as inappropriate in light of the assassination attempt on former President Trump Saturday evening.
China's consumers have plenty of money. The problem is they're not spending enough of it.
Why it matters: In the U.S., higher savings rates are often viewed as a sign of healthy consumers. In China, they're a reminder of lackluster demand constraining growth.
The pool boom is over, according to data from a Covington-based pool equipment distributor,and macroeconomic forces are largely to blame.
Why it matters: The factors cooling the broader economy are also drowning the pool business.
The big picture: Just 60,000 residential in-ground pools will be constructed this year, one research firm estimates — half as many as in 2021.
Zoom in: The city of Austin issued 1,067 pool-related permits in 2023. It's issued 563 permits so far this year, per a review of city data by Axios.
That's a slowdown from just a couple of years ago, when pool construction in Austin was on the rise.In both 2021 and 2022, the city issued more than 1,300 permits for pool-related construction.
In Las Vegas Tuesday, President Biden is expected to call for legislative action to curb landlords' ability to raise rents, administration officials told reporters Monday afternoon.
Why it matters: Rents have skyrocketed over the past few years, contributing to high inflation and putting enormous strain on renters.
Teamsters president Sean O'Brien delivered a fiery address to close out the first night of the Republican National Convention, castigating big businesses and corporate lobby groups for "waging a war against American workers" — and calling for labor law reform.
Why it matters: O'Brien's speech stood out among the partisan lineup because he did not endorse former President Trump, yet the Teamsters leader got the most speaking time of the evening.
Amazon shoppers drove a 192,400% increase in sales of a t-shirt emblazoned with the now-iconic photo of former President Trump moments after an assassination attempt.
Why it matters: The image of Trump with a fist in the air was taken by the AP's Evan Vucci and has been widely published by media outlets in news coverage. That it's also being used in pro-Trump merchandise confirms many photographers' fears that the photo would become propaganda for Trump.
After the Trump rally shooting, three images stood out immediately. They've come to be known in newsrooms as the "Evan photo" by AP's Evan Vucci, the "Anna photo" by Getty's Anna Moneymaker, and "the bullet photo" by the New York Times' Doug Mills.
The big picture: Each photo covering Saturday's shooting that's being investigated as both an assassination attempt on former President Trump and domestic terrorism is an example of technical know how, on-the-ground experience, and a deliberate curation process.
