Good morning. Donald Trump’s affordability agenda is faltering. The hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship shows up a blind spot in virus detection. And one chicken finger is mightier than most. Listen to the day’s top stories.
— Angela CullenMarket SnapshotS&P 500 Futures7,398.75+0.1%Nasdaq 100 Futures28,748.00+0.1%Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index1,187.46-0.1%Market data as of 07:16 AM ET. Data is subject to provider delays.
Donald Trump’s efforts to address Americans’ affordability concernsahead of the midterms is falling flat, and voters have taken note. The ripple effects of the war in Iran are harming business owners—and not just US ones. Filings show the labor market overall remains in a “low-hire, low-fire” state, while tech-sector layoffs continue to mount. Wall Street openings haven’t been great either, but there’s one bright spot: digital-asset jobs. Experience in Bitcoin trading or blockchain development alone may not cut it though; it helps to have some traditional finance, or “tradfi,” somewhere in the mix.
That said, it’s a lucrative time to be a banker. Wall Street bonuses are projected to jump for a third year as market volatility fuels trading demand and dealmaking makes a long-awaited comeback. For investment bankers who advise corporate clients on deals, incentive pay is poised to be up 10% to 20% or more from a year earlier, according to Johnson Associates. “It’s the year of the bank,” said MD Alan Johnson. Still, the biggest banks on Wall Street didn’t let record earnings stop them fromtrimming more than 5,000 jobs last quarter.
Prediction markets have demonstrated an impressive level of accuracy on political polling, but when it comes to forecasting the monthly jobs numbers, they haven’t lived up to the hype. In April, when the Labor Department reported that the economy added 178,000 jobs, the final aggregate estimate from bettors on Kalshi was off by over 90,000 jobs, after close to $1 million in wagers were placed.
Susquehanna founder Jeff Yasshas been busy this election season, giving more than $80 million so far to midterm candidates and causes. The donations put him behind only George Soros and Elon Musk as the biggest individual donor of the cycle, data compiled by Bloomberg show. As ultra-wealthy donors look to shape the final two years of Trump’s presidency, political committees have raised $4.7 billion to date for the November contests.