CNN released new details Wednesday on its upcoming 2020 Democratic town hall on LGBTQ issues, hosted by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. The event will take place on Oct. 10, 5 days before the 4th round of primary debates.
Catch up quick: So far, 9 candidates will attend. Sen. Bernie Sanders and former tech executive Andrew Yang declined to participate, citing scheduling conflicts, CNN reports. Candidates are eligible to attend if they meet DNC qualifications for October's primary debates.
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter point on Wednesday, bringing the target range for the benchmark Fed Funds rate to 1.75%–2%.
Why it matters: The Fed's 2nd consecutive rate cut reflects worries about the U.S. economy. The trade war and slowing growth around the world have made corporate executives more worried than they've been in years.
The conflict between GM and its 46,000 striking workers comes down to a fundamental issue: both sides are unclear about where the industry is headed.
The big picture: The labor dispute is shaped, in part, by the changing transportation landscape. Traditional business models are fading, but it's not clear whether investments in new technologies like electric vehicles and self-driving cars will pay off.
There is a revived push to allow mom-and-pop investors to buy shares in private companies, something from which they have been generally prohibited.
The state of play: At issue is how a lot of startup value creation has become over-weighted to the private markets, with fewer gains being generated post-IPO.
Confidence among the nation's top CEOs saw the biggest quarter-over-quarter drop in 7 years and hit a level not seen since the 4th quarter of 2016, according to a closely-watched survey by the Business Roundtable.
Why it matters: Corporate America's level of optimism has dramatically receded from the levels when President Trump took office. Amid heightened trade war uncertainty, CEOs have downgraded expectations for hiring, capital spending and sales growth — potentially exacerbating fears that the record economic expansion could be coming to an end.
Major foreign investors added to their holdings of U.S. stocks but slightly cut their Treasury bonds in July, data from the Treasury department released Tuesday shows.
Of note: China reduced its share in July and foreign holders overall cut their Treasury holdings to $6.63 trillion. China has been gradually paring down its holdings for some time, but most analysts don't see the reduction as part of a strategy to dump Treasuries as a trade war weapon.
The labor market is so strong that not only are millennial and Gen Z employees ghosting their employers as they leave jobs, but they're also ghosting new jobs because they've gotten a better offer, CNN reports.
What's happening: "People are getting multiple offers in a market like today, and they are not showing up on their first day of work," Paul McDonald, senior executive director at staffing firm Robert Half, tells CNN's Kathryn Vasel.
U.S. industrial production jumped by the most in a year last month, rising by 0.6% and showing that perhaps the trade war isn't having as dire an impact on the U.S. economy as feared.
Why it matters: Industrial production is a measure of factory, mining and utility output, and came in well above economists’ expectations.
Under questioning from counsel Barry Berke during the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment hearing on Tuesday, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was forced to defend a video in which he appeared to lie to MSNBC host Ari Melber.
As White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow projected a sustainable "boom" in the U.S. economy this summer, sales in the recreational-vehicle industry have been trending downward, signaling possible economic turmoil to come, Bloomberg writes.
Why it matters: The last 3 recessions (which began in July 1990, March 2001 and December 2007) were all foreshadowed by slumps in RV manufacturers’ shipments. While, as Bloomberg writes, "that’s not a big sample size, and there were modest RV-shipment dips in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s that turned out not to precede recessions," the drop-off in RV purchases could be a sign of consumers growing less optimistic about their financial futures.
While not yet sounding an alarm, top strategists at BlackRock are starting to worry about the possibility of U.S. stagflation — high inflation combined with high unemployment and stagnant demand.
What they're saying: Mike Pyle, chief investment strategist for the BlackRock Investment Institute, sees inflation as set to pick up "thanks to more tariffs and faster wage growth in the face of a tight labor market," he says in a note to clients.
Award-winning journalist and political commentator Cokie Roberts has died at the age of 75, reports ABC News.
The big picture: Roberts was a pioneer for women in journalism. She shaped the earliest coverage at NPR in the 1970s, won numerous awards for her work at ABC and authored six bestsellers on women in America. In addition, she was named one of the 50 greatest women in broadcast journalism by the American Women in Radio and Television.
HBO Max has acquired the U.S. streaming rights to all 12 seasons of "The Big Bang Theory" for 5 years in a deal worth close to $500 million, a person familiar with the deal told the Wall Street Journal.
Why it matters: Streaming services are increasingly willing to enter into mega-deals for the streaming rights to enduringly popular network shows to provide a foundation to draw in viewers along with their original content.
BuzzFeed is looking to hire a new president, according to an internal memo sent from CEO and co-founder Jonah Peretti to staff on Tuesday, obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: The role has been vacant since 2017, when then-President Greg Coleman left the position to become a senior advisor to the company. Since, BuzzFeed has diversified its revenue to be less dependent on advertising.
The New York Times' hit podcast "The Daily" hit a billion total downloads last week after launching just over 2.5 years ago, says Theo Balcomb, executive producer of The Daily.
Why it matters: The Daily has been a surprise success story in the saturated world of podcasting. The profitable show was credited with being one of the biggest drivers to Q2 digital advertising growth for The Times last quarter.
The Washington Post on Tuesday will unveil Zeus Prime, a product that will allow companies to buy automated ads in real-time, similar to Big Tech platforms. Zeus will also support a new ad network that will include other publishers.
Why it matters: Advertisers often complain that they would like a better alternative to buying ads on Google and Facebook — where the content isn't always vetted — but there are no other places where they can buy ads as quickly and efficiently in real-time. The Post hopes this product will change that, and put more ad money in publishers' pockets.
Some of the top journalists covering misinformation today look less like reporters and more like cyber investigators, combining new technologies with old-school journalism principles to outsmart the trolls working to undermine them ahead of the 2020 election.
Why it matters: The troll playbook has shifted since the last election, when fringe internet actors sought to sow discord by spreading divisive messages. Today, their main focus is to discredit the news media, often by uncovering potentially harmful information about journalists or by tricking them into reporting false information.
A new survey of more than 275,000 gig applications in the U.S. over the last 12 months shows there's a bit of a mismatch between the side hustles gig workers are seeking and the ones that pay the most.
Details: Florida is the state with the highest number of temporary job applications at 55,762, which translates to 4,500 applications a month.
The impact of tariffs has been difficult to quantify because U.S. retailers that pay them can choose whether or not to pass the costs on to customers.
In an effortto show how one quintessentially American business is handling the issue, NPR tracked prices at a Georgia Walmart over the course of a year.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) is set to introduce legislation Tuesday demanding impeachment proceedings against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after a weekend report expanded allegations of sexual misconduct against him, The Hill reports.
"Sexual predators do not deserve a seat on the nation’s highest court and Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process set a dangerous precedent," Pressley said in a statement. "We must demand justice for survivors and hold Kavanaugh accountable for his actions."
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