Tesla remains the most powerful player in the electric vehicle space, but investors are getting antsy as they await new models from the company, Nathan writes.

Why it matters: The automaker on Wednesday reported higher third-quarter net income and revenue.

• Sales of the Models 3 and Y crossover remain strong, but the long-awaited Cybertruck still hasn't been released — and a cheaper EV looks far off.

Zoom in: Elon Musk said on Wednesday's conference call that "we want to just get a sense for the global economy before we go full tilt on the Mexico factory," adding that he's concerned about the impact of high interest rates on vehicle sales.

• That facility is expected to make what analysts call the Model 2, Tesla's most affordable vehicle yet.

Musk declined to provide a timeline for the Model 2's arrival, but he acknowledged it won't have all the Cybertruck's bells and whistles.

The impact: Tesla stock dived by over 9% in today's trading.

What's next: The Cybertruck will make its debut at an event on Nov. 30, about two years after the company said it would be delivered when a prototype was unveiled in late 2019.

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The number of job listings looking for generative AI skills has boomed by more than 1,800% in 2023, Nathan writes.

Why it matters: The debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT sparked a mad rush to hire employees with AI talents.

• Data scientists, machine learning engineers and curriculum writers were most in demand, according to a new analysis by Lightcast.
• "The future of work is going to be defined by how humans work alongside AI and this will be a key occupation to watch," Lightcast senior economist Layla O'Kane said in a statement.

📈 Powell: Hot growth may warrant more hikes. (Axios)

💊 Walgreens agreed to pay $192.5 million to resolve a lawsuit about its failed 2015 bid for Rite Aid. (Bloomberg)

Existing-home sales tumbled in September to their lowest point in 13 years as soaring rates dampen home buying, Nathan writes.

Zoom in: The figure dropped 2% over the previous month and fell 15.4% from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors.

• "As has been the case throughout this year, limited inventory and low housing affordability continue to hamper home sales," NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.

The report came a day after the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit 8% for the first time since 2000, according to Mortgage News Daily.

Yes, but: Prices continue their upward climb.

• September's median price was $394,300, up 2.8% from a year earlier.

As revelations pile up in the criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency world has been left without any high-profile cheerleaders.

• Now that he's finding himself elevated to the highest tier of villains, there's no one left to root for or get behind, Axios chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon writes.

The impact: "People in the world of capital formation and allocation have to be presumed guilty ... until a rigorous and cynical due diligence team can prove them innocent," says Anthony Scaramucci, who sold 30% of his company to Bankman-Fried mere weeks before everything imploded.

Driving the news: Bankman-Fried's trial has revealed that he picked among eight different balance sheets to find the one he wanted to present to lenders and that he was appropriating billions of dollars in customer funds even before the big crypto crisis of 2022.

Between the lines: The allure of Bankman-Fried stood in stark contrast to most previous crypto billionaires.

• Gemini's Winklevoss twins could never escape their less-than-propitious portrayal in "The Social Network"; eventually they descended into a messy fight with rival Barry Silbert, of Genesis. Both Gemini and Genesis were charged this morning by New York's attorney general with defrauding more than 230,000 investors.

The bottom line: With no intrinsic utility, cryptocurrency is reliant on social consensus for its value. When the public sees an asset class populated only by fools and knaves, the dream dies — and takes crypto with it.

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