Axios

The Federal Aviation Administration gave SpaceX a green light on Saturday for its fifth Starship test launch.

Why it matters: The approval means Elon Musk's SpaceX can launch its megarocket on Sunday, much earlier than initially seemed possible due to regulatory hurdles.

Houses have historically been a key driver of middle-class wealth creation — but when some or all of your house gets destroyed in a flood, it feels less like an asset and more like a liability. That's a scenario of concern to millions of Americans this hurricane season.

Why it matters: Only a tiny proportion of Americans have flood insurance — and yet their insurance bills are already soaring.

If you bought a diamond this year, there's a roughly 50% chance it was manufactured in a laboratory.

Why it matters: Lab-grown diamonds have radically transformed the jewelry market. But despite the cheaper alternative, the amount being paid for diamonds is actually rising — and the stones are larger than ever.

Tomorrow, the current bull market turns 2.

By the numbers: Since falling below 3,600 on Oct. 12, 2022, the S&P 500 index has gained over 62% to over 5,800.

• (Thanks, Nvidia 😉)

Reality check: Sadly, bulls tend to have short life spans. According to JPMorgan, the median run lasts just under four years — and returns 110%.

• Yes, but: That's about three times longer than the average bear.

JPMorgan and Wells Fargo kicked off reporting season this morning for U.S. banks and gave industry investors an early sigh of relief.

Between the lines: On top of mind was net interest income — the difference between what banks earn on loans and what they pay on deposits — which is expected to fall in a lower rate environment.

• For JPMorgan, so far, it hasn't. The bank even raised its full-year forecast a smidge for the key revenue line, though CEO Jamie Dimon — rather testily — told analysts that their 2025 forecasts were still too high.

Not all self-driving vehicles look the same. The photos above are of Proteus, Amazon's first autonomous mobile robot.

👀 Axios got a tour of the Amazon fulfillment center in Nashville where they work.

Zoom in: Proteus machines are designed to roam around with humans as they lift and move carts with packages weighing up to 800 pounds.

• The robot's "eyes" in the front "look" in the direction of someone in its path to increase confidence from workers that the machine is aware of their presence.

What we're watching: Amazon sees robotics as additive rather than destructive to its workforce, Tye Brady, chief technologist for Amazon Robotics, told Axios in an interview earlier this week.

• "We're adding robotics, [which] allows us to invest more in better machines, and in people — creating more jobs, and then that flywheel spins and grows," he said. "That's what's happened for a decade."

Boeing is cutting 10% of its workforce — nearly 17,000 workers — as it restructures to reduce costs, the company's new CEO announced Friday.

The big picture: The embattled aerospace titan has been facing a crippling strike, while it tries to ramp up production and improve its reputation following a series of quality and safety issues.

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has become deeply entangled with former President Trump in the homestretch of the presidential election.

Why it matters: The Telsa and SpaceX CEO and X owner's political activism is a hard pivot from originally claiming he wouldn't donate to campaigns to pouring tens of millions of dollars into Trump's campaign and saying he's "f---ed" if Trump loses.

It is a delicate time for the economy, with mixed signals as to whether the job market is chugging along fine — or faltering. Assessing what's going on is about to get harder.

The big picture: The triple whammy of Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Milton, and the Boeing strike are likely to distort economic data in the coming weeks, making the usual indicators of the economy's health more difficult to dissect.

Elon Musk last night did what he does best — put on a show.

Why it matters: The Tesla CEO needed to sell a flashy story about the company's future amid declining present-day demand for its EVs — but in the eyes of most investors after the literal smoke cleared, the unveil failed to live up to the hype.

Venture capital's lack of exits is restricting new deal activity, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor.

The big picture: Distributions to limited partners in VC funds haven't been this low since the Great Financial Crisis, sparking what PitchBook refers to as a "stalemate."

CoreWeave, a Roseland, N.J.-based cloud computing platform that rents out GPUs via data centers, secured a $650 million revolving credit facility led by JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.

Why it matters: Wall Street wants a piece of the AI revolution, even if that means lending big dollars to relatively young, VC-backed companies.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled a self-driving vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals Thursday night, saying it would go into production before 2027.

Why it matters: Musk has been teasing the robotaxi for years, but the so-called Tesla Cybercab took a step closer to becoming a reality when it dropped Musk off at the stage for the company's "We, Robot" event on the Warner Bros. Studios lot in Hollywood.