Efforts by CEOs to push workers back to the office are failing, as it's becoming increasingly clear that the world of strictly in-office work is gone, Emily writes.

Why it matters: While the country is back to normal from the pandemic in so many ways — we go to restaurants, movies, get on planes — office life appears to be permanently changed.

• What was once unthinkable — white-collar work done almost entirely from your house — has now become pretty typical.

Driving the news: Some employees at Apple are pushing back against an order from CEO Tim Cook to return to the office three days a week starting next month, the FT reports. Cook wants to hang on to the "in-person collaboration essential to our culture," according to the report.

• Apple declined to comment to Axios.

Survey data from the New York Fed shows that 20% of the work getting done at service firms in the tri-state area (basically most companies that aren't in manufacturing) is now being done remotely. Employers don't expect that number to budge much.

What they're saying: "I do think it's dead," Erin Grau, co-founder of Charter, a media and services company focused on the future of work, said of the five-day in-office schedule.

• Jason Bram, an N.Y. Fed economist, who recently wrote a post entitled, "Remote work is sticking," said, "Things are not likely to go back to 'normal,' the way it was before the pandemic — in most industries."

Employees often don't understand why they need to come to work — especially when they arrive and wind up doing a lot of Zoom meetings, said Grau, who works with employers on best practices around remote work.

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Europe is plunging headlong into an energy crisis, with the Russian gas supplies that power the continent coming close to a halt, Matt writes.

Driving the news: Natural gas futures prices shot to a new record high in Europe, as Russia signaled that it will end supplies through its Nord Stream 1, pipeline at the end of the month, ostensibly for maintenance.

• Benchmark European natural gas prices shot higher by roughly 13%, to roughly €280 per megawatt hour.
• That's more than 10 times higher than the price at the end of 2020.

Yes, but: Americans will also feel the pinch.

• U.S. natural gas prices have climbed in sympathy with prices across the Atlantic, pushing close to $10 per million British thermal units. That's the highest since 2008, a jump that will raise utility bills for Americans already stressed by inflation.

🐻 Wall Street bears take revenge after a $7 trillion rally. (Bloomberg)

🪓 Ford to cut around 3,000 jobs in U.S. and Canada. (Axios)

📉 The euro hits a new 20-year low, on energy panic. (CNBC)

Nuclear power providers are outperforming, as investors take a fresh look at the sector amid a global energy spike and growing climate crisis, Matt writes.

Driving the news: Utilities with nuclear power operations are handily outpacing the overall market this year, after getting a helpful fillip from the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.

• Constellation Energy, one of the biggest U.S. nuclear power companies, has soared roughly 90% this year, including a nearly 50% gallop over the last month.
• Other nuclear power stocks — such as NRG Energy, Xcel Energy and Entergy Corp. — have also posted solid gains over the last month, far outpacing the S&P 500.

Why it matters: If shares of nuclear providers keep posting outsized returns, it could drive additional capital into the aging atomic sector, a crucial part of cutting U.S. carbon emissions.

• Nuclear power provides more than 50% of U.S. emission-free energy, and more than all other sources such as wind, solar and hydroelectric, combined, according to the Department of Energy.

Context: The romp in nuke stocks got rolling as it became clear that Congress would pass the Inflation Reduction Act.

• The law included climate-related provisions that were positive for nuclear, including extending a kind of subsidy known as "production tax credits" to existing plants for the first time.

Nearly 70% of home sellers in Boise, Idaho, cut the asking price on their house in July, Emily writes, a remarkable turn for the once-hot real estate market.

• Nationwide, the number was 32% — up from 27% in July 2019.

Why it matters: This is just the latest indication that the pandemic housing boom is going bust, as higher mortgage rates chill demand for homes.

Keep in mind: While the percentage of sellers cutting prices is very high in Boise, the actual price cuts are quite modest — less than 5% off the original list price.

What's next: Home prices are likely to come down further.

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