Donald Trump this week became both a meme stock and a social-media entrepreneur at the same time, by announcing that a new company called Trump Media & Technology Group was going to merge with an existing company listed on the stock market.
Why it matters: The medium-term promise of Trump's media company is that it will replace Twitter for anybody wanting to keep track of Trump's messages. The short-term promise is that it can be a hot new speculative vehicle for people wanting to get rich quick in the stock market.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified Friday an aromatherapy spray imported from India as the source of a serious tropical disease that sickened four people earlier this year, killing two.
Driving the news: A CDC investigation found the same type of bacteria that causes an extremely rare disease called melioidosis in a spray bottle sold at nearly 55 Walmart stores between February and October.
Friday was a bumpy one for the SPAC that recently agreed to take Donald Trump's new media company public, at one point gaining more than $4.5 billion in market value.
Inside the numbers: Shared of Digital World Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: DWAC) closed at $45.50 on Thursday, the first day of trading after the Trump announcement, and then opened at $118.79 on Friday before hitting a high of $166.64.
Congressional Democrats are again taking aim at private equity, but they don't have much more firepower than the last time around.
Driving the news: The Senate Banking Committee held a pair of hearings earlier this week, one focused broadly on PE misdeeds and one focused specifically on PE's role in the U.S. housing market. The former was chaired by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and the latter by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
FTX, a global cryptocurrency exchange, raised $420.69 million in new Series B funding at a $25 billion valuation.
Why it matters: The new cash and stock value should help three-year-old FTX make more large acquisitions, like the recent buy of U.S. crypto futures exchange LedgerX, as it tries to narrow the gap with global rival Binance and U.S. rival Coinbase.
Homebuyers were busy this summer: They closed on 6.29 million properties in September on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, up 7% from August, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Why it matters: Lower mortgage rates made purchasing an attractive option, despite higher sales prices.
Chip shortages could be viewed as a blessing for AutoNation at this point.
Driving the news: The car chain reported its sixth-consecutive quarterly earnings record on Thursday. That's thanks to higher consumer prices driven by production constraints.
Inflation lookslike it’ll run hot for longer than plenty of smart people thought it would. The conversation over just how much more Americans will have to pay for their stuff has taken on a new intensity, as supply problems show few signs of fading.
Why it matters: The rate of price growth has remained consistently strong in recent months — a time that some thought would bring cooling prices after an initial reopening spike. What goes on with prices will influence the decisions made by Congress, the Biden Administration, and the Federal Reserve.
This week, I spent two glorious fall days evaluating dozens of cars, trucks and SUVs on the roads near Ann Arbor, Michigan, to determine the best of the best.
Why it matters: The annual comparison drive brings together 50 professional automotive journalists from the U.S. and Canada who are jurors for the independent North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year awards.
Vegan cuisine is popping up in two places it wasn't present before: fine dining and fast food.
Why it matters: The single biggest way an individual can reduce their carbon footprint is to eat less meat and dairy. Now, the popularization of meatless meals could help curb meat consumption in the U.S.
Democrats don't have the votes to raise corporate taxes, President Biden admitted at Thursday's CNN town hall in Baltimore, Maryland, where he went into detail on the state of negotiations concerning the massive reconciliation bill.
Why it matters: Democrats are still negotiating what will go into the bill. Divisions within the party have stalled the legislation for weeks.
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