Flat Core Inflation Fuels Stock Market Optimism

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Good morning,

As more companies bring workers back to the office, one new study makes the argument that remote work may help their bottom line.

The report, released Tuesday by hybrid work management startup Scoop, found that the average public company that gives employees choice over whether to come into an office also outperformed on revenue growth over the past three years by 16 percentage points, compared to companies with more restrictive policies.

It’s not necessarily that flexible work arrangements cause higher revenue growth. But they are likely part of a broader workplace culture that prioritizes innovation, trusts its workers and has other employee-friendly benefits, says Debbie Lovich, a senior partner at Boston Consulting Group, whose firm worked on the analysis.

BREAKING NEWS

Israeli forces raided the Al-Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza—the enclave’s largest medical facility—early Wednesday, in what they described as a “precise and targeted operation” against Hamas, which it has accused of operating a command post inside tunnel complexes underneath Al-Shifa. The raid comes a day after UN officials raised alarm about the deteriorating conditions at the hospital, where thousands of civilians, patients and doctors are believed to be sheltering.

The House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure to avert a government shutdown that keeps the government funded through January, setting the stage for another round of appropriations bills early next year. The resolution does not include foreign aid to Israel or Ukraine, but the House passed a $14.3 billion aid package for Israel earlier this month.

BUSINESS + FINANCE

The core inflation index, which is more steady and excludes the typically variable food and energy indexes, moderated in October to its lowest level in two years. Consumer prices were flat month-over-month for the first time since July 2022, but there’s still plenty of work to do to bring inflation down to the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2%.

MORE: Stocks rallied following the report’s release, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 climbing to their highest levels since September 15, while the Nasdaq hit its top price since August 1. The gains officially wiped out nearly all of early fall’s market losses, as investors continue to bet that the worst effects of monetary policy tightening are in the rearview mirror.

A bull market for bonds that lasted four decades came to an abrupt halt in 2020, and Forbes asked two longtime watchers of the yield curve for their thoughts on what’s next. Gary Shilling is bullish, and has long made the very contrarian argument that inflation was destined to recede, while James Grant is the bear, sour on both government bonds and the dollars with which they will be redeemed.

WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Donor-advised funds have become popular charitable-giving vehicles for the ultra-wealthy, as they come with generous tax benefits, have few disclosure or payout requirements and require less oversight on the donor’s part. In 2022, contributions to DAFs throughout the U.S. hit a new high of $86 billion, an $8 billion increase from the prior year, according to a new report released Tuesday by National Philanthropic Trust.

TECH + INNOVATION

Israel has asked TikTok and Meta to remove over 8,000 posts related to the Hamas conflict that they allege violate the companies’ policies and incite violence and terrorism, according to the Israeli state prosecutor’s office. The agency said it had requested the removal of content that incited violence and terrorism, as well as any promotion of groups widely designated as terrorists, and that 94% of the content it flagged across major social sites has been taken down.

With the help of several viral TikTok moments, productivity app Notion has come to accumulate more than 20 million users. Now, it’s launched a new AI feature, a chatbot called Q&A, that can query information from all the documents and databases stored in a user’s Notion workspace.

A deal announced Tuesday will allow Snapchat users to purchase Amazon products on the app, and it sent Snap Inc’s stock up more than 7% after the company has faced years of ad revenue struggles. Still, Snap is far from its heyday, when the stock peaked at a price of around $83 in September 2021, 692% higher than Tuesday’s price.

MONEY + POLITICS

Truth Social, former President Donald Trump’s social media site, has lost $73 million since its launch last year, according to a regulatory filing, raising concern about the platform’s financial condition and its ability to continue operations. The filing notes that the company’s success is heavily tied to Trump’s “reputation and popularity” and it “may diminish.”

SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT

Hollywood actors ended their nearly four-month long strike last week after finally reaching a deal with major studios securing protections for actors against AI, but some SAG-AFTRA members who feel the terms of the deal don’t go far enough are urging colleagues to vote no. A summary of the deal released by the union Monday outlined protections including mandatory consent from performers, or from representatives of deceased performers, to create a “digital replica” of an actor, but some critics say the proposed contract has loopholes.

TRENDS + EXPLAINERS

The U.S. surpassed 600 mass shootings so far this year on Monday, according to the Gun Violence Archive, putting 2023 on pace to set a new record. The deadliest mass shooting of the year was three weeks ago, when eight people were killed and 13 injured at two locations in Lewiston, Maine.

DAILY COVER STORY

Bankrupt FTX Wants To Sell $100 Million Of Crypto Per Week, Will The SEC Stop It?

TOPLINE A year has passed since FTX failed, long enough for U.S. prosecutors to get a conviction of Sam Bankman-Fried, its disgraced founder. While that may offer some cold comfort to about a million creditors with funds tied up in the company’s bankruptcy, what would be better is to get some of their money back.

Current FTX leadership under CEO John Ray has recovered more than $7 billion of what was originally a missing $8.7 billion, and the company has sufficient assets to pay customers most of what they are owed.

In September the company received judicial approval to start liquidating recovered crypto and it has transferred $100+ million worth of solana to major exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase and Kraken. That kind of transaction is often a sign that a crypto owner is preparing to sell.

There is one potential roadblock: the SEC is not fond of cryptocurrency trading as it is currently practiced in the U.S. It is suing Binance and Coinbase, claiming they are acting as financial exchanges when they are not licensed to do so and that digital assets they list are unregistered securities.

The agency has already intervened in one bankruptcy case, objecting to the Voyager Digital brokerage’s plan in March to sell crypto on Binance’s U.S. subsidiary, and even though the judge in that case disagreed, it is possible that the regulator may try again with FTX.

Whether the SEC should be in charge of cryptocurrency is an open question. Congress has been unable to decide how to deal with an asset class that has existed for only 15 years, and although there are multiple lawsuits working their ways through the court system that might decide the matter, none will be resolved in time to provide clarity for the FTX case.

Ironically, this leaves the regulator potentially delaying payments to customers that it failed to protect before the exchange went belly up.

WHY IT MATTERS “If the SEC lets these sales go through without objection, they could hurt its arguments in court and in front of Congress that it should be the industry’s top cop,” says Steven Ehrlich, director of research for Forbes Digital Assets. “This case is just another example of the collateral damage being caused by the regulatory mess in the U.S. that is forcing paralysis in the crypto industry as it seeks a rulebook.”

MORE FTX Customers Should Recoup Most Of Their Losses, Unless IRS Bigfoots Them

FACTS AND COMMENTS

The national survival rate for lung cancer is on the rise. But people of color are still at a higher risk than their white counterparts of dying from the third most common cancer in the U.S., according to the American Lung Association:

26.6%: The overall survival rate for lung cancer nationally, up nearly five percentage points in the last five years

16%: Black people are this much less likely to live for five years after a lung cancer diagnosis, compared to white people

Every two minutes: How often someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with lung cancer

STRATEGY AND SUCCESS

If you’ve recently been laid off and need a new job ASAP, your first steps should be updating your résumé, considering what additional qualifications you might need and attending networking events. Once you’re ready, apply, apply, apply: Remember, it’s a numbers game, and perseverance is key.

VIDEO

QUIZ

Shares of the maker of a popular video game reached a 19-month high amid optimism for the forthcoming installment of which popular video game franchise?

A. Grand Theft Auto

B. Legend of Zelda

C. Call of Duty

D. Halo

Check your answer.

ACROSS THE NEWSROOM

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