Axios

China is developing 500 smart cities — almost half the worldwide total, and more than 10 times North America's figure.

Why it matters: China's smart cities signal the country's strengths not only in technology and infrastructure, but in implementation.

News deserts that have been spreading across rural America are creeping towards small and medium-sized cities.

Why it matters: For decades, newspapers have served as a powerful check on the power of local municipalities. In their absence, city governments are becoming less efficient and fewer politicians want to run for local office.

The S&P 500 jumped above 3,000 on Wednesday after Fed Chair Jay Powell signaled an imminent interest rate cut later this month.

Our thought bubble, per Axios' Felix Salmon: We live in a world where the Dow Jones Industrial Average can rise or fall 1,000 points in one day. The S&P 500 is not only a much more useful index, it also hits round-number milestones like this one much less frequently.

Go deeper: The case for a Fed rate cut

Chewy was the latest stock to become a victim of its own success.

The big picture: In a familiar pattern for companies that have seen share prices skyrocket after their debut in public markets, a slew of analysts released largely upbeat ratings of the company, but warned that the stock may already be in overbought territory.

Some of advertising and marketing's biggest names will hit the stage at this year's Advertising Week New York, scheduled September 23-26 at Lincoln Square.

Why it matters: Advertising Week has successfully lured top executives in marketing, but it's beginning to branch out to include executives in technology and business in 2019.

The U.S. stock market is up almost 20% this year, but investors have missed out on much of the rally. They've sold equities and piled into bonds and money market funds — effectively low-yield savings accounts — largely out of fear.

What's happening: Institutional money managers and retail investors around the world have pulled a net $140.6 billion out of equity funds in 2019, according to data from Lipper, which tracks $49.1 trillion of assets.

For all the talk of American cities undergoing a renaissance, economic success has been concentrated in a few standout metropolises while the rest either struggle to keep up or fall further behind.

Why it matters: This winner-take-all dynamic has led to stark inequalities and rising tensions — both inside and outside city limits — that are helping to drive our politics off the rails.

Several Chinese apps are experiencing high download levels in the U.S., according to data from Apptopia.

Why it matters: Many of these apps are leveraging ads on Facebook and other platforms targeted to people in the U.S. to drive app downloads here. This has led to the adoption of major Chinese services in many verticals, from retail to social media.

The number of events that have sold based on podcasts has increased by over 2000% in the past six years, according to ticket sales data from Vivid Seats, one of the largest independent ticket vendors in North America.

Why it matters: Live events offer podcasts the opportunity to monetize outside of audio ad revenue, which is growing but still pretty small compared to radio ad revenue.

ACRONYM, a progressive non-profit, will announce Tuesday that it plans to invest over $1 million in "The Dogwood," a new hyper-local digital news site that caters to residents of Virginia, over the next two years.

Why it matters: It's the latest effort made by the progressive community to counter the rise of conservative media voices that it feels is filling the void of dying local news outlets.

Univision, one of the two major Spanish-language broadcasters in the U.S., is in the early stages of exploring a sale, the company announced last week following a Wall Street Journal report.

Details: It's looking for a strategic partner to help it scale so that it can be more competitive on advertising and distribution deals. It's looking to sell now because sources say it's tied up the majority of its distribution agreements, and at this time, there is not one expiring soon.

The People's Bank of China added nearly 16 tons of gold to its reserves in May, the sixth straight month China's central bank has added to its gold reserves.

Why it matters: The Chinese have been working to move away from the dollar as the world's international funding currency for years. They've increased these efforts since President Trump's election.

Having largely been left out of the U.S. recovery over the past decade, low-wage workers are starting to see their incomes rise meaningfully and are pushing for more.

Why it matters: With a tight labor market wherein the number of job openings exceeded the number of unemployed by the largest margin on record, businesses are having to make more concessions to keep low-wage workers and find new ones.

As the trade war with Beijing drags on, dozens of firms — from high-tech electronics manufacturers to apparel companies — have the same idea: relocate out of China to dodge the tariffs.

Yes, but: One seldom-discussed consequence of those moves is a potential labor shortage in places like Vietnam, Bangladesh and Cambodia, where many U.S. companies are fleeing.

Left-leaning media companies designed to counter the rhetoric coming from the Trump White House and its conservative media machine are growing ahead of the 2020 election.

Why it matters: Partisan political media companies are often launched in response to whichever ideology holds power in Washington. In 2017, new left-leaning voices to counter the narrative from the Trump Administration hadn't yet taken hold. But two years into the Administration, they’re beginning to rise.