--:-- Alex Ossola: Welcome to the PM edition of What's News, I'm Alex Ossola.
--:-- Alex Ossola: TrueStage helps businesses answer what's next before customers even ask with innovative financial solutions designed to meet tomorrow's needs today. See how TrueStage can help you build brighter financial futures. Learn more at trustage.com slash wsj. TrueStage is the marketing name for TrueStage Financial Group, Inc. at subsidiaries and affiliates. Corporate Headquarters is located in Madison, Wisconsin.
--:-- Alex Ossola: The Israeli government is set to vote on whether to accept a peace plan brokered by the Trump administration. Plus, how flight delays could play a role in ending the government shutdown. There is suspicion that this could be one of the biggest pressure points that would finally get people to vote for some kind of continuing resolution or solution to the shutdown. And why the top-selling chip brand in America is highlighting its health food bona fides.
--:-- Alex Ossola: It's Thursday, October 9th. Today's episode is sponsored by What Should I Do With My Money an original podcast from Morgan Stanley. This podcast pairs real people with experienced financial advisors. You'll hear candid conversations from people just like you with questions just like yours.
--:-- Alex Ossola: Israel's government is set to vote today on an agreement that would free the remaining hostages held by Hamas and establish a ceasefire in Gaza. The Trump administration, which brokered the deal, hopes that an agreement will be the first step towards a longer-term settlement that will involve talks over the disarmament of Hamas and the formation of an interim government to oversee Gaza.
--:-- Alex Ossola: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has faced resistance to ending the war from far-right members of his coalition government, welcomed the deal to bring home Israeli hostages, which his government is expected to approve. People familiar with the matter say the deal would go into effect once Israel's government approves it.
--:-- Alex Ossola: Speaking from a cabinet meeting in the White House this afternoon, President Trump offered some details about the deal's timeline. We secured the release of all of the remaining hostages, and they should be released on Monday or Tuesday. Getting them is a complicated process. I'd rather not tell you what they have to do to get them.
--:-- Alex Ossola: There are places you don't want to be, but we are getting the hostages back on Tuesday, Monday or Tuesday, and that'll be a day of joy. He added that the hostage deal has been signed and that he is working on making a trip to the region for an official ceremony.
--:-- Alex Ossola: In other international news, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that Russia was to blame for downing an Azerbaijani passenger jet last year. The December crash of the Embraer 190 plane killed 38 people and chipped away at Moscow's influence over Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic.
--:-- Alex Ossola: In a rare acknowledgement during a meeting today with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, Putin said that missiles fired by Russian air defenses after Ukrainian drones entered Russian airspace had detonated near an Azerbaijan airline's plane. Putin vowed to hold those responsible accountable and to offer compensation.
--:-- Alex Ossola: U.S. markets moved lower today, with gold and silver pulling back after the sharp rallies of recent weeks. The Dow dropped about half a percent the S 500 dipped about 0 percent and the Nasdaq was down about a tenth of a percent.
--:-- Alex Ossola: In business news initial public offerings made a comeback in the third quarter fueled by short clarity about tariffs and interest rates That according to a new report from EY, which also said that the U.S. led the acceleration in IPOs in terms of proceeds, with the best quarter since 2021.
--:-- Alex Ossola: Uncertainty about tariffs and interest rates held back IPO activity earlier in the year, it said, but the more recent momentum is expected to continue into next year. And Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said today that the U.S. bought Argentinian pesos in a bid to act swiftly to support the economic overhaul being enacted by the country's president, Javier Millet.
--:-- Alex Ossola: The disclosure, in a post on X, shows that the White House is deploying funds in support of its political ally, whose economic reform agenda Besant dubbed of systemic importance.
--:-- Alex Ossola: Lays is America's top-selling brand of potato chips, a category synonymous with junk food. Its maker, PepsiCo, is convinced Lays can have an even stronger appeal by marketing the brand's farm roots and appearing healthier.
--:-- Alex Ossola: Laura Cooper covers beverage makers for the journal and is here now with more. Laura, what kinds of changes is PepsiCo making to Lays?
--:-- Laura Cooper: So PepsiCo is really leaning into its real potatoes image. Lay's have always been made with real potatoes, but they found in market research that about 42% of consumers were unaware that they were made with real potatoes.
--:-- Laura Cooper: As a result, they are rebranding Lay's. The classic bag says made with real potatoes on it, has an actual picture of potatoes, chips, salt, whatever's in there. And they also are changing some varieties of oils in specific Lay's chips, specifically to Oliver avocado oil from seed and corn oil.
--:-- Laura Cooper: They're also going to take artificial coloring out, for instance, in barbecue chips that was used to give them their red, brown color. And they're also going to remove any artificial flavors. They're going to be ditching their shiny, classic, lightweight bags for a heavier matte finish. It actually feels different in your hands.
--:-- Laura Cooper: Why is the company making these changes now? Obviously, there's a lot going on with the Make America Healthy Again movement. And so a number of different food companies have started to take on these initiatives.
--:-- Laura Cooper: But PepsiCo has been working on this for several years. It just so happens to be happening at a time where Americans are really interested in scrutinizing what's in their food.
--:-- Laura Cooper: Yeah, what is this moment for PepsiCo? What's at stake with these changes? They currently have an activist investor that is pushing for changes in beverage and food. Food has been seeing since about 2022 slowing sales. Also, the price of chips is expensive.
--:-- Laura Cooper: This comes at a time when people are going into supermarkets and making hard choices, whether that's, do I buy a bag of chips or do I buy something else? Food has always been an engine of growth for this company. And I think this is part of bringing back some of that magic.
--:-- Alex Ossola: That was WSJ reporter Laura Cooper. Thanks, Laura. Thank you so much.
--:-- Alex Ossola: Coming up is your flight delayed Blame the government shutdown More on that after the break
--:-- Alex Ossola: Today episode is sponsored by What Should I Do With My Money an original podcast from Morgan Stanley. This podcast pairs real people with experienced financial advisors. You'll hear candid conversations from people just like you with questions just like yours.
--:-- Alex Ossola: Questions like, can I retire early? Like really early? How do I leave a financial legacy for my special needs child. Can we afford it all? A house, a wedding, and IVF?
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--:-- Alex Ossola: Delta Airlines said today that travel demand has surged in the last six weeks, helping its revenue rise 6% in the third quarter, ahead of Wall Street expectations. And the airline expects that demand to carry into the fourth quarter, a marked turnaround from a turbulent start to the year.
--:-- Alex Ossola: Well, the longer the government shutdown continues, the greater chance that those flights stand of being delayed. A shortage of air traffic controllers at airports from Nashville to Chicago's O'Hare has already delayed thousands of flights across the country this week.
--:-- Alex Ossola: More travel disruptions loom as thinly staffed airport towers grapple with a workforce that frequently puts in 60-hour work weeks, but now isn't getting paid to work.
--:-- Alex Ossola: WSJ reporter Anbi Bhutani is in the Capitol and joins me now with more. Anbi, how do staffing issues among air traffic controllers result in flight delays? What is the relationship there?
--:-- Anbi Bhutani: So when you have air traffic controllers that are working without pay, they're more likely to call in sick, which we're seeing, and there's more likely to be a shortage of staff.
--:-- Anbi Bhutani: That means that flights can't take off and land as they might be planned to. And we've seen in recent days that across the country from Tennessee to Chicago to right here in D.C. that people are facing those delays in lifetime.
--:-- Anbi Bhutani: Delays are unpleasant and unfortunate. But safety, of course, is the primary issue that I think people would be worried about. And over the past few months, we've really been talking about it a lot after the midair collision between an American Airlines flight and a helicopter in D.C. back in January.
--:-- Anbi Bhutani: So do these air traffic control staffing issues have an impact on flight safety? 100% they do. And this is something that the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, has come out and said that they will ground flights if shortages start causing safety concerns.
--:-- Anbi Bhutani: The Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, has also been very clear about this. So far, they haven't had to ground any flights for stopping reasons. But if the shortage persists and if the shutdown persists, that's something that they are considering.
--:-- Anbi Bhutani: About that shutdown, because air travel problems actually helped end the last government shutdown in 2019. Could that happen this time around?
--:-- Anbi Bhutani: Both Republicans and Democrats have repeatedly said that this is a huge problem, that they're seeing the delays happening, that they're not happy about it. And so there is suspicion that this could be one of the biggest pressure points that would finally get people to vote for some kind of continuing resolution or solution to the shutdown.
--:-- Anbi Bhutani: And what do air traffic controllers say about that? Air traffic controllers are upset that they becoming a political pawn in this This is becoming like a political football as they called it is something that they very unhappy about and something that they repeatedly spoken out about in recent days
--:-- Alex Ossola: That was WSJ reporter Anbi Bhutani. Thanks, Anbi. Thank you so much.
--:-- Alex Ossola: Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office released its year-end figures for fiscal year 2025. And though control of the White House changed during that period, the U.S. budget picture remains grim.
--:-- Alex Ossola: Despite a historic rise in tariff revenue, the deficit was the same in the year-ended September 30, 2025 as the previous year.
--:-- Alex Ossola: WSJ tax policy reporter Richard Rubin is here to tell us more. Richard, were there any surprises in that budget review?
--:-- Richard Rubin: The big drivers are unchanged. Interest costs are going up. Social Security, Medicare, more expensive year on year, both because of the aging of the population and rising health care costs.
--:-- Richard Rubin: Those trends continue. We have seen the tariffs are raising a lot of money. There's still a small piece of federal budget, but it's growing.
--:-- Richard Rubin: Trump's stamp on the budget is largely tariffs replacing income taxes and maybe some spending restraint on Medicaid coming out of the one big beautiful bill. But we'll have to see how well that gets implemented.
--:-- Richard Rubin: I'm curious whether the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, made an impact on the overall budget, which it was intended to do.
--:-- Richard Rubin: Not overall. Look, the budget is so large. The federal government raised more than $5 trillion in fiscal 2025 and spent more than $7 trillion.
--:-- Richard Rubin: At the beginning, they were talking about, oh, we'll save $2 trillion. That has not materialized. That doesn't mean that they did nothing. They clawed back some grants, and DOGE also led this effort to encourage federal employees to leave.
--:-- Richard Rubin: And so as those federal employees have now left government payrolls, which really is just happening in the past couple of weeks, then the question is, can agencies operate with fewer people?
--:-- Richard Rubin: Also, on the congressional level, Congress controls the purse strings at a fundamental level. And so if Congress goes back and gives agencies the kind of budget that they were going to have, then it's not going to make that much of a difference broadly.
--:-- Alex Ossola: That was WSJ reporter Richard Rubin. Thanks, Richard. Yep. Anytime.
--:-- Alex Ossola: And finally, Hungarian novelist Laszlo Krasnohorkaj has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Diula, Hungary in 1954, Krasnohorkaj is known for his long, winding sentences and dark themes.
--:-- Alex Ossola: The Swedish Academy in Stockholm credited Krasnohorkaj, quote, for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.
--:-- Alex Ossola: And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Pierre Bien-Aimé and Rodney Davis with supervising producer Jana Heron. I'm Alex Ossola for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.
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