Three Trump-appointed judges in Texas declared the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure unconstitutional on Wednesday in a decision with the potential to reverberate throughout the financial industry.
Why it matters: The reasoning behind the ruling, if upheld, could potentially invalidate all the rules enacted by the CFPB over its 11-year existence — including regulations underpinning the U.S. mortgage system.
Driving the news: Three of the biggest airlines in the world — American, United and Delta — are expecting stronger profits this quarter than previous estimates, according to their latest earnings reports.
Differing economic conditions around the world are leading to the existence of two contrasting crypto markets — one resembling the original vision laid out over a decade ago, and the other driven by a more recent evolution.
Driving the news: Dollar and other currency-pegged stablecoins are proving their worth in countries where the value of the local currency swings from one day to the next. But the U.S. and Canada's "disproportionate embrace of DeFi" has led to a very different cryptocurrency market, according to a new report from research firm Chainalysis.
A jury ruled Thursday that actor Kevin Spacey was not liable for battery against Anthony Rapp, according to multiple reports.
Driving the news: The case was born during the early days of the #MeToo movement during which the former "House of Cards" actor was fired from the Netflix series.
Shares in Snap Inc. plummeted more than 20% Thursday after the camera app reported its slowest-ever quarter for revenue growth since going public in 2017. It also declined to provide revenue or earnings guidance for the fourth quarter, given uncertainty in the economy.
Why it matters: Wall Street was looking to Snap to deliver good news about the broader ad market. The company's share price had already declined more than 75% this year going into earnings.
Gambling companies and developers are placing big bets on New York City. In the latest proposal, Caesars Entertainment on Thursday announced it's pursuing a casino hotel in the heart of Times Square.
Why it matters: With a regional population of about 20 million people and tens of millions of annual visitors, New York City is the most lucrative, largely untapped area in the country for the casino industry.
British prime minister Liz Truss is out after a shambolic six weeks. Her government was undone by a violent market reaction to its budget-busting proposal that sent interest rates soaring amid a selloff that, at first glance, looked like a classic example of capital fleeing a poorly run country.
But as we've learned more about what was going on, it looks less like a standard emerging markets crisis and more like a complex series of events tied to U.K. pensions.
The world of crypto runs 24/7 and has no borders, but it's no monolith. The rules, however, might be applied that way. And that creates a challenge.
The big picture: "Law is jurisdictional, but crypto is not," Mitzi Chang, a partner at Goodwin, who also serves as co-chair of its fintech practice and digital currency and blockchain technology practice, tells Axios.
Accenture CEO Julie Sweet made waves when she banned the corporate memo. Now she’s communicating with her employees in the metaverse.
Why it matters: By 2024, the metaverse could be an $800 billion opportunity — and embracing this new channel of communication could be key to remaining competitive and relevant.
When most people think of school buses, it's likely about controlled chaos or driver shortages. When private equity giant EQT thinks about school buses, it's about profits and a job not yet done.
Driving the news: EQT in early 2021 paid $4.6 billion to buy Cincinnati-based school bus operator First Student and municipal bus operator First Transit from London-listed FirstGroup. Now it's seeking to sell off the municipal business while retaining the school business, as first reported by Bloomberg and confirmed by Axios.
Prime Medicine, a Cambridge, Mass.-based gene editing company founded by Harvard biochemist David Liu, has raised $175 million in its IPO and will begin trading Thursday on the Nasdaq.
Why it matters: The biotech world views this as CRISPR 3.0, from the same man who invented CRISPR 2.0.
College enrollment has declined for the third school year in a row, but the drop may be cooling after reaching historic levels during the pandemic, per a report out Thursday by the National Student Clearinghouse.
Why it matters: With each passing school year of declining enrollment, "a path back to pre-pandemic enrollment levels is growing further out of reach," Doug Shapiro, executive director of the nonprofit research center, warned.
Propeller, a fund that invests in companies tackling climate change via ocean solutions, unveiled its first $100 million venture fund on Thursday.
Why it matters: This is the first major blue economy venture fund, and it could help catalyze other players in the climate tech world to look to the sea for new opportunities.
Why it matters: More than 40 million Americans can benefit from the debt relief that cancels up to $20,000 in student debt for Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 for individual borrowers who make under $125,000 per year.
There's a funding problem brewing in the housing finance market, and it's sending mortgage rates up at a much faster clip than benchmark Treasuries.
The big picture: Large buyers of mortgage bonds — i.e. the Fed and the big banks — have dropped out of the game. The lower demand has pressured the value (or price) of mortgage bonds, sending yields soaring.
Eighty-one percent of workers say they're putting in as much effort — or more — as they were six months ago, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Conference Board.
Why it matters: With so much talk lately of "quiet quitting" — a viral term loosely defined as workers who are doing the bare minimum, or not going "above and beyond" — you might get the sense that American workers are phoning it in. That's not quite what's going on.
Software that analyzes snippets of your speech to identify mental health problems is rapidly making its way into call centers, medical clinics and telehealth platforms.
The idea is to detect illnesses that might otherwise go untreated.
The business world thinks about post-pandemic flexibility as the ability to choose where we work. But being able to to choose when we work may be far more important.
Stunning stat: Employees with flexible schedules report 29% higher productivity and 53% greater ability to focus than those with set hours, according to the Slack Future Forum's latest research, which surveyed more than 10,000 desk workers around the world.
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