Hours after Donald Trump recaptured the White House, at least one major American company is already making plans to shift production out of China.
Why it matters: Trump has threatened to ramp up tariffs on China to put pressure on Beijing, but experts fear a trade war could reignite inflation here at home.
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell told reporters on Thursday he will not resign before the end of his term, even if President-elect Trump asks him to leave.
Why it matters: Powell's intention to serve out the rest of his term sets up a new battle between the central bank and Trump, who disregarded long-time norms that presidents do not talk about Fed policy.
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point on Thursday, its second consecutive reduction in the cost of borrowing.
Why it matters: The Fed is gradually loosening its grip on the economy as inflation cools and the job market holds steady, though President-elect Trump's proposed economic policies risk disrupting that balance.
Hopes are suddenly high for the creation of a U.S. bitcoin reserve, and even for the passage of Sen. Cynthia Lummis' supercharged version in her bitcoin-buying bill — at least judging by my inbox.
Why it matters: A few short days ago the industry's top priorities were stablecoin and regulatory legislation, but Trump's resounding reelection seems to have energized a contingent that would rather focus on just boosting bitcoin.
The big picture: A U.S. bitcoin reserve would "send a strong signal to other countries about the viability of cryptocurrencies," wrote Alice Liu, head of research at the Binance-owned data site CoinMarketCap.
The future looks bright this week for prediction markets.
What they're saying: "While the mainstream news was busy with their TV pageantry and hedging on calling key swing states, Polymarket, the world's biggest prediction market, had already delivered its verdict by midnight EST, declaring Trump was 97% likely to win," Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at VC firm Dragonfly, wrote in an essay on social media.
"This was before the media called even a single swing state."
Here inside Axios' Slack channels on election night, we were watching that line on Polymarket spike — dumbstruck by its definitiveness.
By the numbers: Moreno, competing in the most expensive Senate race in the country, beat Senate Banking chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) by about 4 percentage points.
Ohio will lose seniority in the Senate while Massachusetts will pull ahead. Warren will likely be the ranking member on the crucial banking committee (the same one Ohio formerly controlled).
There is a simple, core lesson to be gleaned from the Democrats' decisive loss in Tuesday's election, along with similar flips in political control this year in nations from Britain to Japan: People absolutely loathe inflation.
Why it matters: As global policymakers shape their strategies for the years ahead, they may wish to weight even more heavily the pain — and political upheaval — that result if they can't achieve stable prices.
Private equity giant The Carlyle Group on Thursday reported $367.1 million in distributable earnings during Q3 2024, beating analyst expectations.
What they're saying: CEO Harvey Schwartz told analysts that he expects existing economic tailwinds to intensify now that the election has been decided, which should increase dealmaking.
Archer Aviation will supply as many as 100 electric aircraft to a Japanese company aiming to launch air taxi services in some of Japan's busiest cities.
Why it matters: Japan could be a significant market for electric air taxis, another indication that the emerging advanced air mobility industry is getting closer to reality.
While the world braced for the election earlier this week, acting labor secretary Julie Su was busy solving another crisis — helping to end the Boeing strike.
The big picture: It was at least the fifth time Su's stepped in to wrestle thorny union talks to a deal in the less than two years she's been in her role.
President-elect Trump may have been a pro-union candidate, but whether he'll be a pro-union president remains to be seen.
Why it matters: We're in the middle of a winning era for workers and unions, but with Trump's track record on labor during his first term — that time might be coming to an end.
Here's what's new on Netflix, Prime Video, Peacock and Tubi:
What we're watching: A new holiday rom-com featuring a famous a capella group, a story about a girl who befriends her older self, and a preview of the upcoming boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson.
Mortgage rates rose after President-elect Trump's victory and are expected to stay higher for longer, Redfin economic research lead Chen Zhao tells Axios.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Apple's Tim Cook were among the Big Tech leaders to take social media to congratulate President-elect Trump on his win Wednesday.
Why it matters: The industry is preparing for new policy positions brought by the new Trump administration, though any of them could quickly shift depending on the president's whims.
