Fed chair Jerome Powell almost rocked the boat during the FOMC's October press conference on Wednesday after announcing a third straight cut to U.S. interest rates.
What happened: Powell initially said it would take a “material reassessment” in the outlook for the Fed to change its view that no further rate cuts were needed. But minutes later he reversed course, saying that holding rates at their current levels would be appropriate as long as the outlook stayed within the Fed’s expectations.
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera said Wednesday that the country will no longer host November's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit and December's UN global climate summit due to ongoing protests, per AP.
Sony is shutting down Playstation Vue — its digital live-television service — next January, the company said in a blog post. It's the first digital live TV package to shutter after a slew of such services launched over the past five years.
Why it matters: Media companies and distribution networks are all trying to find new ways to package up content for streaming, but none of them has a magic formula. Increasingly, their over-the-top services resemble the cable bundles they sought to overtake.
The U.S. economy grew at a 1.9% annualized pace in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday —higher than the 1.6% economists expected.
Why it matters: The economy is still growing at a moderate clip, though the number marks a significant slowdown in growth from just the beginning of this year — when GDP jumped 3.1% — as the boost from President Trump's tax cuts fades and the U.S.-China trade war weighs on growth.
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index dipped slightly in October, but showed a notable decline in the survey's future expectations component and a growing divergence between respondents' views of their current situation and their expectations for the future.
By the numbers: Expectations fell 0.9 points during the month and have dropped by 17.5 points from their 2019 peak in July, Pantheon Macroeconomics chief economist Ian Shepherdson says in a note.
Lower- and middle-income households in the U.S. are just starting to feel the benefits of the economic recovery as wage growth has picked up over the last year, but many are still struggling because the pace of wage gains has not kept up with expenses.
Why it matters: As a result, more Americans are taking on debt in the form of personal loans, which are now outpacing credit cards and auto loans as the fastest-growing debt category in the U.S., according to data from credit reporting firm Experian.
Group Nine Media, which includes digital lifestyle brands like The Dodo, NowThis, Thrillist and Seeker, will announce a new leadership team Tuesday expected to go into effect after the completion of the company's recently announced acquisition of PopSugar Inc., a digital media company that caters to millennial women.
Details: Group Nine's corporate leadership team will include leaders from both companies relatively equally. Brands under the combined company will essentially keep the same leadership.
Streaming companies are under so much pressure to juice their subscriber numbers that they're giving away access to subscribers for free on a trial basis, with the hope that they one day can get users to actually pay.
Why it matters: Subscription streaming providers have set lofty subscriber goals over the next few years. But without the distribution prowess of a wholesaler, like a telecom company, they won't be able to hit those numbers.
Media companies looking to expand outside of advertising, and especially into commerce, are increasingly following the same path down the grocery aisle.
Why it matters: Food and beverage caters to nearly every demographic. When launching forays into commerce, media companies are finding this an easy place to start.
Hedge funds saw overall negative returns for the second month in a row in September and investors continued to pull their money out, data from research firm eVestment shows.
Why it matters: It’s the latest piece of negative data for an industry that appears to have its best days behind it.
Ahead of Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's Tuesday testimony in the House's impeachment inquiry, cable news hosts and contributors have — without evidence — questioned his loyalty to the U.S. because he was born in Ukraine.
Why it matters: Vindman, a decorated Iraq War veteran and the National Security Council's top Ukraine expert, will say that he conveyed concerns internally to officials after listening to President Trump's July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both closed at their highest levels on Monday, with the S&P hitting a new record for the first time since July.
Why it matters: The S&P broke out of the tight range it has been trading in for more than three months, as confidence appears to be flowing back through the market.
AT&T on Monday agreed to make major changes after a six-week standoff with activist investor Elliott Management.
The big picture: Current AT&T management stays, at least for now, but only after promising to boost buybacks, committing to lofty earnings targets, and promising to find someone new to run its media unit.
The number of American kids watching online videos every day has more than doubled, and they're glued to them for nearly an hour a day — twice as long as they were four years ago, the AP reports.
Why it matters: "It really is the air they breathe," said Michael Robb, senior director of research for the nonprofit Common Sense Media, which issued the report.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris denounced President Trump on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers" for his "extraordinary" remarks at a news conference announcing the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
You would’ve [thought] that he was talking about watching and giving commentary on a video game."
