“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is expected to break debut records this weekend when the film hits theaters.
Why it matters: The “Black Panther” sequel is the final Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) release for the year — marking one of the last opportunities left for Disney and movie theaters to make up for a slow summer.
The stock market boomed after Thursday's softer-than-expected inflation report: the S&P 500 closed up over 5%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 7% — the biggest rally in more than two years.
Why it matters: Signs of easing price pressures are helping to feed a powerful recovery for a stock market battered by the Federal Reserve's sharp rate hikes and fears of a hard landing.
Twitter's head of trust and safety and the company's interim head of advertising have both left the company, Axios has learned. Both appeared Wednesday with Elon Musk on a Twitter Spaces chat designed to calm advertisers.
Why it matters: Their departures cap off one of the most chaotic days in Twitter's short history under Musk.
President Biden on Thursday said he will nominate Danny Werfel to serve as the next commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Why it matters: Werfel led the IRS in 2013 after President Obama selected him as acting commissioner in the wake of a mismanagement crisis. He would replace Trump-appointed Charles Rettig, whose term ends Saturday.
Elon Musk Wednesday night warned the Twitter staffers who remain after massive layoffs that unless they boost subscription income, the company is at risk.
What's happening: In a midnight email to staff, his first since taking control of the company two weeks ago, Musk also issued a new back-to-the-office mandate that, according to sources inside Twitter, will cause many employees to quit.
After months of worrying inflation readings, there's finally some good news: Consumer prices cooled in October, and there are encouraging clues they will cool further in the coming months.
Why it matters: The nation's price pressures are by no means resolved; they remain painfully high. But last month's moderation is a hopeful sign of easing inflation alongside a still healthy economy.
Troubled exchange FTX has resumed withdrawals, according to a CoinDesk report, and outflows data on Etherscan, a tool for viewing transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.
Why it matters: FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, sent panic through the crypto markets when it quietly stopped permitting withdrawals on Tuesday morning. The firm is scrambling to find new investors in order to stave off collapse.
One Tuesday, FTX announced a liquidity crunch forced it to seek a rescue from Binance.
Of note: As of 11:35 AM ET, FTX.com still has a notice in a red band at the top of its homepage that says, "FTX is currently unable to process withdrawals. We strongly advise against depositing."
Twitter's new CEO Elon Musk doesn't value communications, and it shows.
Why it matters: Communication teams are the protectors of brand reputation, strategic partners in executing business strategy and the command center for corporate culture. Twitter is now vulnerable in all three of these key areas.
J.C. Lapierre is chief strategy and communications officer at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), but her title should really be chief dot connector, she tells Axios.
Why it matters: In her role at PwC, Lapierre talks to business leaders all day, and "more and more CEOs are starting to recognize that communicators are the most strategic asset they need sitting by their side," she says.
Kentucky Fried Chicken in Germany apologized after sending an app alert tied to the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi-led attack that many consider the start of the Holocaust.
Driving the news: The BBC reported that the alert sent on Wednesday said: "It's memorial day for Kristallnacht! Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!"
Dozens of venture capitalists yesterday logged onto a Zoom call with FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, to learn more about the crumbling crypto exchange into which they'd invested around $2 billion.
Why it matters: Less than an hour after the call ended, Binance tweeted that the deal was dead.
Tether's stablecoin, and the US dollar it's supposed to be pegged to, briefly diverged on select crypto exchanges in an echo of market turmoil that followed the collapse of Do Kwon's Terraform Labs in May.
Why it matters: Contagion. FTX.com's insolvency and the threat of it going bankrupt is rippling throughout the crypto market, putting a dent in tokens from bitcoin to solana and now, USDT.
The housing market has returned to earth. Home sellers can't just name a price and expect buyers to pay; meanwhile over a trillion dollars in wealth in the form of home equity has evaporated.
Why it matters: Think of this less as a crash and more as a correction. The pandemic-driven housing boom was a bonkers moment of real estate demand.
If Tuesday was crypto's Bear Stearns moment — the day that a central player in a financial ecosystem collapsed into the arms of a much bigger rival — then Wednesday was its Lehman Brothers moment, with that same central player simply imploding into a balance-sheet hole of unknowable size.
Why it matters: The collapse of FTX is the most consequential failure the crypto world has seen since Mt. Gox disappeared overnight in 2014.
Rude behavior is on the rise, according to a new study published in the Harvard Business Review.
Why it matters: Not only does incivility harm those on the front lines of health care, education, transportation and retail, to name a few industries, but it also hurts the businesses and institutions where it happens, writes Christine Porath, a professor of management at Georgetown University who's long studied incivility.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe — one of the biggest institutions in popular culture — is finally starting to reflect the diversity of its real-world fans.
The big picture: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which premieres today, will be the first-ever Marvel movie with a Black woman lead.
Paul Allen's art collection fetched more than $1.5 billion at Christie's New York on Wednesday evening — part one of a two-day auction of works owned by the late Microsoft co-founder.
Why it matters: The $1,506,386,000 reached for the 60 works owned by Allen obliterates the previous record for the most valuable private collection ever auctioned, set when divorcing spouses Harry and Linda Macklowe sold their artworks for $922 million last year.
About 25.4 million people watched midterm elections coverage across 13 live television networks Tuesday evening in primetime, nearly 30% less than the number that watched the results come in four years ago.
Why it matters: Few major upsets made Tuesday's coverage of the midterm results less compelling than in years past.
Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital on Wednesday sent a letter to investors about its investment in FTX, the global crypto exchange that suddenly collapsed after being valued at over $30 billion.
Why it matters: Sequoia is arguably the most successful venture capital firm ever, having made early investments in such companies as Apple, Google and Airbnb. This episode is a rare black eye, leaving both the firm and its limited partners scrambling for information.
A day after having agreed to acquire rival crypto exchange FTX, Binance announced on Wednesday it was nixing the deal, stating that the company's "issues are beyond our control or ability to help."
Why it matters: FTX went to Binance for help in an 11th hour bid to secure much needed capital, after a flood of customer withdrawal requests began over the weekend, undermining its solvency.
The crypto world’s latest high profile meltdown has reverberated across markets, with digital token prices collapsing amid fears of contagion.