--:-- Alex Osala: This podcast is brought to you by Dynatrace, the leader in AI-powered observability, with analytics, automation, and next-level intelligence on one unified platform. Dynatrace delivers the visibility and real-time insights you need to deliver better, more secure software, successful AI initiatives, and innovation at the speed of business. Turn data into decisions that drive your business forward with AI-powered observability where it counts. Learn more at dynatrace.com slash WSJ. That's www.dynatrace.com slash WSJ.
--:-- Alex Osala: Why Schwab is the latest Wall Street firm to let its customers invest in private companies. Plus, Ford is considering scrapping the EV truck it once described as the modern Model T. And this longtime lawmaker is retiring from Congress. I'm grateful to my colleagues for their commitment to equality, which is both our heritage and our hope, giving me the historic honor of being the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives. It's Thursday, November 6th. I'm Alex Osala for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.
--:-- Alex Osala: Employers are reporting more than a million job cuts so far this year, a 65 percent increase from last year. That data is from consulting firm Challenger Gray and Christmas, which tracks job losses each month and released its latest update this morning.
--:-- Alex Osala: I'm joined now by WSJ economics correspondent Harriet Torrey to talk about the state of the U.S. jobs market.
--:-- Harriet Torrey: The main takeaway is that demand for labor is slowing. Companies cite different reasons for this. Some are saying that they're cutting costs. Others are saying that this is due to AI. Some have even said this is because of federal government layoffs that are filtering down to contractors and so on.
--:-- Alex Osala: This report comes out a day after payroll processor ADP said that the U.S. added 42,000 private sector jobs in October. Well, ADP only looks at the private sector, so it doesn't take into account the impact of government layoffs. These numbers from alternative data sources do come out every month, but they're getting special scrutiny now because we just are not getting the usual stream of government economic data during the shutdown.
--:-- Harriet Torrey: And that is really leaving economists and financial market analysts scrambling to try and find clues on how the economy is doing. So putting all of these pieces together from different private data sources, we are just seeing this picture of continued slowing in the labor market.
--:-- Alex Osala: One thing that was reassuring is that things don't seem to be getting dramatically worse. Economists that I've been talking to today have said, I'm not panicking. You know, this is not a dramatic deceleration. It's more of a gradual cooling.
--:-- Harriet Torrey: When we have seen recessions in the past, things do tend to change very quickly. So I think everybody's keeping a very close eye on what's happening right now.
--:-- Alex Osala: That was WSJ reporter Harriet Torrey. Thanks so much, Harriet.
--:-- Alex Osala: Thank you.
--:-- Alex Osala: We exclusively reporting that Ford executives are discussing whether to scrap the electric version of the company F pickup the Lightning. That according to people familiar with the matter Ford once described this vehicle as a modern Model T because of its importance to the company. And if the automaker decides to scrap it, the truck would be America's first major EV casualty.
--:-- Sharon Turlip: The Lightning was a hot seller, at least at first. But the trucks are expensive and buyers had concerns. The reality was with the Lightning and also generally with these vehicles, when they're in really cold weather, when they're towing or carrying heavy loads, that battery range, it's reduced.
--:-- Alex Osala: And also if you think about where there are chargers, those are plentiful in urban areas. But when you get out to the country and even more into some of the suburbs in the middle of the country, it's just not as easy to find a charger for your vehicle.
--:-- Sharon Turlip: The truck is a money loser for Ford as demand for EVs cools overall, and government incentives and clean air mandates fall away. The auto industry is reckoning with that changed environment.
--:-- Alex Osala: I don't think there's anyone saying EVs are just going away and nobody's going to drive them. What we're hearing a lot of is EV growth is going to be much slower. So it's going to be more of a creep as opposed to this explosive growth.
--:-- Sharon Turlip: And that the EVs people buy are not, at least in the near term, going to be these very big trucks. It's going to be smaller, more affordable cars that aren't these massive investments.
--:-- Alex Osala: Ford paused production of the truck last month amid an aluminum shortage and has said it would start it up again, quote, at the right time. People familiar with the matter say the company is weighing whether to keep that plant idle.
--:-- Alex Osala: And this just in, Tesla shareholders have approved Elon Musk's $1 trillion pay package. The measure was hotly debated, with some large shareholders taking opposing sides. The vote was largely seen as a referendum on the EV company's longtime leader and his vision to shift Tesla's focus to humanoid robots and artificial intelligence.
--:-- Alex Osala: Musk, who is also CEO of SpaceX and XAI, had threatened on social media to leave Tesla if the measure was rejected. For the latest on this breaking story, check out WSJ.com.
--:-- Alex Osala: And in case you missed it, we dropped a new episode of What's News in Earnings earlier today about automakers from the U.S. and overseas. We look at how they're dealing with slower EV demand, tariffs, and more. That's in the feed now.
--:-- Alex Osala: We know more about the flight restrictions from the Federal Aviation Administration. A preliminary list viewed by the Journal shows that the nation's biggest, busiest airports will be hit, including those serving Boston, New York City, Washington, Dallas, Denver, and Seattle, leading to thousands of flight cancellations.
--:-- Alex Osala: Aviation data provider Serium says as many as 1,800 flights could be affected tomorrow alone, and the number of cuts will increase through the middle of next week. If you're traveling soon and aren't sure how the flight traffic reduction might affect you, check out our story. We'll leave a link in the show notes.
--:-- Alex Osala: Coming up, want to buy a stake in a private company? Increasingly, you can. More on that after the break.
--:-- Alex Osala: Think of your commute, your train, your car, maybe your walk. Even if you realize it, blockchain innovations are all around you on your way into the office. So why not learn about them on the way?
--:-- Alex Osala: From institutional custody solutions to 24-7 cross-border payments with nearly real-time settlements, crypto and blockchain are shaping flexibility and innovation for institutions all over the globe and your city. Join Ripple and host David Schwartz for crypto and blockchain conversations on Blockstars, the podcast.
--:-- Alex Osala: ESPN and Penn Entertainment are ending their sports betting agreement early after failing to gain significant market share. Instead, ESPN will launch a new multi-year deal with industry leader DraftKings. The move is a sign of the grip DraftKings and its competitor FanDuel have on the growing sports betting market.
--:-- Alex Osala: It's long been the case that it was really only institutional investors and the super-rich who invested in startups and other promising companies that weren't publicly traded. But smaller investors increasingly want in on the action, and more Wall Street firms are making this possible.
--:-- Alex Osala: Now Charles Schwab is joining in, saying today that it is buying Forge Global, one of the major platforms that allows investors to buy shares in private companies.
--:-- Hannah Aaron-Lang: Yeah, so I think this has a lot to do with the fact that some of the biggest companies out there today, think about names like OpenAI or Elon Musk's SpaceX, for example, are these rapidly growing companies that have a lot of influence over corporate America. So investors want access to these potentially very high returns, but it's a lot more difficult when companies are private versus public.
--:-- Alex Osala: And what we're seeing is different brokerages and Wall Street players try to open up these previously opaque and private markets to more individual investors.
--:-- Hannah Aaron-Lang: So Charles Schwab will offer its clients the abilities to purchase private shares through Forge Global's platform. They'll do that once the deal closes. They'll immediately roll this out to ultra-high net worth clients. And then there are plans to ultimately expand that access to Charles Schwab clients with more than a million dollars in assets further down the line.
--:-- Alex Osala: Can anyone buy a stake in OpenAI even though it's not publicly listed? It still remains the case that you have to be a so-called accredited investor to buy a stake in a private firm.
--:-- Hannah Aaron-Lang: Requirements for that are actually quite steep. You need at least a million dollars in net assets, not including your home residence, or at least $200,000 in yearly income, $300,000 if it's a joint household.
--:-- Alex Osala: There are a lot of customers who have a million or more in assets on Schwab, and they told me that they've been hearing from investors that they're interested in this. So they're responding to that demand in this way.
--:-- Hannah Aaron-Lang: Is there a risk here that's different than investing in a publicly traded company? Absolutely. It is a very high-potential reward, high-potential risk situation.
--:-- Alex Osala: We have spent decades in the United States regulating our financial markets. Publicly traded companies have to maintain a certain level of accountability to their investors right They have to disclose their financials every quarter which is why you see us writing about earnings reports And there are lots of other regulations in place to be sure that the investors that own a piece of those companies can have a really clear look into the financials, receive a lot of information about how leaders are running the company.
--:-- Hannah Aaron-Lang: And with private markets, those regulations simply aren't in place. And it's something that critics have brought up when we talk about expanding the access to private companies, that we could be opening more investors and less wealthy investors up to those risks.
--:-- Alex Osala: That was WSJ reporter Hannah Aaron-Lang. Thanks, Hannah.
--:-- Alex Osala: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Alex Osala: Turning back to publicly traded U.S. companies, tech stocks led markets lower, with the Nasdaq dropping 1.9%. Tesla, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and NVIDIA all fell. The chipmaker is down 9% in three trading sessions, its worst three-day stretch since April.
--:-- Alex Osala: The S&P lost just over 1% today, while the Dow lost a little less than 1%.
--:-- Alex Osala: And on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs has promoted 638 employees to the role of managing director. That's a bigger group than the last class two years ago. The managing director role is the last stop before employees can ascend to Goldman's partnership. The job typically comes with a base salary of around $400,000 and bonuses which can range from thousands to millions of dollars.
--:-- Alex Osala: Something good to know before tax season, the IRS is officially ending Direct File, the free tax filing program that the Biden administration started last year. The Trump administration says the private sector can do a better job and it will promote alternatives for free tax filing through private companies.
--:-- Alex Osala: Democrats are criticizing the decision.
--:-- Alex Osala: And finally, remember this from the top of the show. I'm grateful to my colleagues for their commitment to equality, which is both our heritage and our hope, giving me the historic honor of being the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives. That, of course, was California Representative Nancy Pelosi speaking on the House floor in 2011 as she ended her first stretch as the first female Speaker of the House.
--:-- Alex Osala: Today, she announced that she won't run for re-election and plans to leave her seat in Congress at the end of this term. For the 85-year-old Democrat representing San Francisco, it's the end of a decades-long political career that included driving landmark health care initiatives and going toe-to-toe with President Trump.
--:-- Alex Osala: And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Pierre Bien-Aimé and Zoe Colkin with supervising producer Tali Arbel. I'm Alex Osala for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.
