Axios

Remote work acceptance has helped boost employment for the second-largest minority group in the U.S.: adults with disabilities.

Driving the news: The labor force participation rate of workers 16 years and over with disabilities reached 23.3% in November last year — the highest it's been since 2008.

Stocks snapped a six-day losing streak Thursday after rallying early in the trading session.

Why it matters: Investors largely shrugged off the hotter than expected CPI inflation report and are thinking ahead to earnings season, which kicks off tomorrow morning with big banks including JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.

Skydance Media, the Hollywood studio behind "Top Gun: Maverick," on Thursday announced that it raised $400 million in new funding at a valuation north of $4 billion.

The big picture: Private equity has begun plugging big money into production houses, as streaming has increased the demand for content and accelerated the financial payback.

Brand deals for female athletes and teams grew 20% year-over-year in 2022, and USWNT star Alex Morgan was the most-endorsed athlete, per exclusive data from deal tracking platform SponsorUnited.

By the numbers: Morgan secured 27 brand deals between September 2021 and September 2022 to vault her to the top of the list. Her biggest sponsors include Coca-Cola, Google and Chipotle.

When Taiwanese American Jeremy Lin took the court with the New York Knicks in 2012, no one could’ve predicted what would happen next.

Driving the news: Ten years after Lin took the NBA by storm, a new HBO film, titled "38 at the Garden," situates the story of Linsanity in the current era of heightened anti-Asian hate — breathing new life into the magic that shattered the very stereotypes fueling recent surges in hate.

After years of avoiding putting ads on its service, Netflix on Thursday said it finally plans to debut an ad-supported tier on Nov. 3 in 12 countries for $6.99 monthly, including the U.S.

Why it matters: The rollout comes as Disney continues to challenge Netflix's dominance globally. Netflix is launching its ad-supported tier roughly a month ahead of Disney's ad-supported tier, and for $1 less per month.

Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming music services could face global competition from TikTok, WSJ reports.

Why it matters: The app's parent company, ByteDance, is dangling the power that TikTok has to help songs go viral in new negotiations with music labels, according to WSJ.

A crypto bank has been waiting a very long time for a stamp of approval from the Kansas City Fed — so long in fact, that the nation's oldest traditional bank caught up on crypto in that time.

Why it matters: It's the latest chapter in the old story about the frictions that surface between emerging players and incumbents in the race to embrace new technology.

Consumer prices continued to soar in September, while the measure that strips out food and energy raced ahead as price pressure remains hot throughout the economy, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Why it matters: The report puts pressure on the Federal Reserve to keep raising interest rates swiftly in an attempt to slow price increases. The move risks tipping the economy into a recession.

The Social Security Administration announced an 8.7% increase in benefits starting in 2023 after the September inflation report showed consumer prices continued to rise at a rapid pace.

Why it matters: This is the biggest jump in benefits since 1981 and will come out to an average of an additional $140 per month starting in January, the SSA said Thursday.

The flagship fund run by Cathie Wood, who single-handedly revived the notion of a celebrity stock picker during the wildest days of the COVID-era market mania, is now barely running even with the plain vanilla S&P 500.

Driving the news: Wood's flagship Ark Innovation ETF is down roughly 62% this year, and nearly 80% from its peak in February 2021.

Third-quarter earnings are about to kick into high gear — and amid the "will-we-or-won't-we" recession question, we’ll be looking for signals from corporate America about the economy's health.

Why it matters: The Fed’s trying to engineer a soft landing, and the pending Q3 results will paint a picture of how companies are handling that so far.

The American Opportunity Index, rating America's 250 largest public companies on how they help their workers get ahead, was released Thursday.

Driving the news: The yearlong project, which included economists and data scientists, is a collaboration of The Burning Glass Institute, Harvard Business School’s Managing the Future of Work Project and Howard Schultz's Schultz Family Foundation.

Companies might have learned a lesson from the mass firings of March and April 2020: Think twice before pulling the layoff trigger.

Why it matters: That's one increasingly popular explanation for the historically low level of layoffs and unemployment in the U.S. economy.

The Federal Communications Commission plans to ban all sales of new Huawei and ZTE telecommunications devices in the U.S. — as well as some sales of video surveillance equipment from three other Chinese firms — out of national security concerns, sources with direct knowledge of the private deliberations told Axios.

Why it matters: The move, which marks the first time the FCC has banned electronics equipment on national security grounds, closes a vise on the two Chinese companies that began tightening during the Trump administration.

A National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Wednesday that Starbucks violated federal law in Kansas and Missouri when it fired pro-union employees and asked police to disperse workers with picket signs.

Why it matters: It's the latest of several cases involving Starbucks and the union, Starbucks Workers United — which has alleged over 80 staff members were fired due to their activism and accused the coffee giant of illegally interfering with workers' rights, per Bloomberg. Starbucks denies the claims.