National

Media Deals

Media Trends

Axios Media Trends

Higher borrowing costs reshape media deals

Media Trends Executive

Bar charts show annual disclosed media deal values across five segments from 2022 to 2026. Distribution and platform leads in 2026 at nearly $48 billion, followed by interactive and events at $6 billion, creator economy and tooling at $7 billion, and content and IP at $4 billion.

Disclosed media deal value by sub-segment

Data: Mergermarket, AlixPartners analysis; Note: Includes private equity and venture-backed deals by announced year; Chart: Christine Wang/Axios

Macro

Axios Macro

Stubborn inflation threatens longer Fed tightening campaign

A line chart that tracks the daily yield on the U.S. two-year Treasury bond from Jan. 2 to Nov. 12, 2026. The yield rose from 3.48% to 4.837%, ranging from a low of 3.39% on Feb. 27 to a high of 4.92% on Sept. 24.

U.S. 2-year Treasury yield

Data: FactSet; Chart: Courtenay Brown/Axios

Americans' credit card debt hits a record high

A line chart showing quarterly U.S. credit card debt balances from Q1 2003 to Q3 2026. Balances fell following the 2008 financial crisis and again during the pandemic, before rising sharply to a record $1.29 trillion in Q3 2026.

U.S. credit card debt balances

Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Note: Not adjusted for inflation; Chart: Axios Visuals

Harsh new inflation reality

Get ready for rate hike(s)

Price pressures persisted in October

A column chart that shows monthly Consumer Price Index change from January to October 2026. CPI rose from 0.17% in January to a peak of 0.87% in March, fell to a low of -0.42% in June, then rebounded to 0.65% in September and 0.4% in October.

Change in Consumer Price Index

Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chart: Courtenay Brown/Axios

Oil prices and bond yields no longer moving together

A line chart that tracks the daily correlation between oil prices and bond yields from Feb. 17 to Nov. 9, 2026. Correlation rose from 16.6 to a peak of 77.4 on Sept. 10, then fell sharply, turning negative in late October and ending at minus 9.9.

Correlation between oil price and bond yields

Data: Axios analysis of FactSet data; Note: Correlation over preceding 30 trading sessions between daily change in West Texas Intermediate crude and change in 10-year U.S. Treasury yield; Chart: Neil Irwin/Axios

What October's jobs report means for Fed monetary policy

Trump can't pack the Fed board with allies now

AI debt: Can't stop, won't stop

A line chart that tracks five-year credit-default spreads for Alphabet, Oracle and Microsoft from Oct. 30, 2024, to Oct. 30, 2026. Alphabet rises from 32.461 to 91.55 basis points, Oracle from 37.743 to 294.396, and Microsoft from 18.231 to 58.948. All three trend upward, with Oracle climbing fastest.

Cost to insure Big Tech debt against default climbs

Data: S&P Capital IQ; Chart: Emily Peck/Axios

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