Mortgage rates spiked to their highest level in nearly three years, continuing their climb above the 7% threshold.
Why it matters: Housing sales were already slow due to a lack of inventory and elevated rates, creating a risk that the market could further its freeze.
Just 33 days before the midterm elections, corporate communicators should be asking a simple question: Where could our business become the political story?
Companies and leaders don't have to make overtly political statements to get caught in the crossfire.
Why it matters: Business decisions about prices, AI, jobs or investment can become lightning rods for voter anger over soaring costs and the political establishment.
Anti Fund, the venture firm co-founded by YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul, is seeking to raise $400 million for its second fund, according to a regulatory filing.
Why it matters: The target for Anti Fund II is more than 13 times the size of the firm's first venture fund, which closed less than a year ago.
Axios spoke on the phone with Vinod Khosla, the legendary venture capitalist, entrepreneur and newly minted NFL owner.
What follows is a transcript of the conversation, which preceded the Factory/Cognition dustup, lightly edited for clarity and brevity:
🏈 Seattle Seahawks
Khosla last month paid a record $9.6 billion to buy the NFL club from Paul Allen's estate, after having spent several years as a minority owner of the San Francisco 49ers.
Private equity firm Sycamore Partners reportedly is in talks to sell British pharmacy chain Boots to part of the billionaire Weston family for around $9 billion (including debt).
Why it matters: Sycamore isn't wasting any time breaking up the Walgreens Boots Alliance, believing that it's worth less than the sum of its parts.
Data: FactSet; Chart: Axios/Matt Phillips; Note: Bond market figures reflect total returns for the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate bond index and subindexes for U.S. Treasuries and U.S. investment grade and high yield corporate bonds. Momentum stocks reflects the iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF .
Energy stocks were some of the best-performing U.S. assets to own in the just-ended third quarter, as inflationary pressures related to the Iran war and irrepressible U.S. growth established themselves as key price-drivers.
Why it matters: The performance of oil-and-gas drillers, refiners and retailers was crucial to keeping broader indexes such as the S&P 500 in the black (+2%) during the three months that ended Wednesday.
Most of the benefits of the AI boom, for humans at least, have filtered into the stock market — but that leaves a lot of folks out.
Why it matters: Record wealth from stock market gains is helping drive strong consumer spending and economic growth overall, but it's a fragile situation: What goes up can come down, after all.
Plus, there are plenty of Americans who have little or no exposure to the market — especially lower-income households — and they're currently struggling to deal with falling real wages, rising gas prices and stubbornly high inflation.
BlackRock, promoting skilled trades as a promising path to a well-paying career, on Thursday announced $13 million in grants to 15 inaugural winners of the BlackRock Future Builders program.
Why it matters: The grants from the BlackRock Foundation span trades that include electrical, construction, HVAC, welding, plumbing, pipefitting, heavy equipment operation and other infrastructure-related occupations.
Larry Fink, BlackRock's chairman and CEO, is promoting the skilled trades message with appearances Wednesday at Ford's Accelerate summit in Detroit and on Thursday at Heartland Forward's Heartland Summit in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Senate Majority Leader John Thunewelcomed the new "constitution" that President Trump and tech and AI leaders signed Tuesday but said he would work to "codify" some safety protections with legislation.
Why it matters: Thune and other GOP senators aren't directly challenging Trump's preference for industry-led safeguards. But they suggest yesterday's accord — which Trump called "morally binding" — might not be enough.
