The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned of a possible worsening of the state of China’s property market as it trimmed its growth expectations for the world’s second-largest economy.

In a report published Tuesday, the IMF trimmed its forecast for growth in China for this year to 4.8%, 0.2 percentage points lower than in its July projection. In 2025, growth is expected to come in at 4.5%, according to the IMF.

The Washington, D.C.-based organization also highlighted that China’s property sector contracting by more than expected is one of many downside risks for the global economic outlook.

“Conditions for the real estate market could worsen, with further price corrections taking place amid a contraction in sales and investment,” the report said.

Historical property crises in other countries like Japan (in the 1990s) and the U.S. (in 2008) show that unless the crisis in China is addressed, prices could correct further, the IMF’s World Economic Outlook noted. This in turn could send consumer confidence lower and reduce household consumption and domestic demand, the agency explained.

China has announced the introduction of various measures aimed at boosting its fading economic growth in recent months. In September, the People’s Bank of China announced a slate of support such as reducing the amount of cash banks are required to have on hand.

Just a few days later, China’s top leaders said they were aiming to put a halt to the slump in the property sector, saying its decline needed to be stopped and a recovery needed to be encouraged. Major cities including Guangzhou and Shanghai also unveiled measures aiming to boost homebuyer sentiment.

China’s Minister of Finance then earlier this month hinted that the country had space to increase its debt and its deficit. Lan Fo’an signaled that more stimulus was on its way and policy changes around debt and the deficit could come soon. The Chinese housing ministry meanwhile announced that it was expanding its “whitelist” of real estate projects and speeding up bank lending for those unfinished developments.

Some measures from the Chinese authorities have already been included in the IMF’s latest projections, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, chief economist at the IMF told CNBC’S Karen Tso on Tuesday.

“They are certainly going in the right direction, not enough to move the needle from the 4.8% we’re projecting for this year and 4.5% for next year,” he said, noting that the more recent measures were still being assessed and have not been incorporated into the agency’s projections so far.

“They [the more recent support measures] could provide some upside risk in terms of output, but this is the context in which the third quarter of Chinese economic activity has disappointed on the downside, so we have this tension between, on the one hand, the economy is not doing as well, and then there is a need for support. Is there going to be enough support? We don’t know yet,” Gourinchas said.

China last week reported third-quarter gross domestic product growth of 4.6%, slightly higher than the 4.5% that economists polled by Reuters had been expecting.

In its report, the IMF also noted potential risks to the economic measures.

“Government stimulus to counter weakness in domestic demand would place further strain on public finances. Subsidies in certain sectors, if targeted to boost exports, could exacerbate trade tensions with China’s trading partners,” the agency said.

What you need to know today

Other than the Nasdaq, markets mostly fell 
U.S. markets were mixed Tuesday. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped slightly but were close to the flatline. However, the Nasdaq Composite added 0.18%. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.21%. German software company SAP rose 2.1% after posting glowing third-quarter earnings, while Maersk lost 3.1% despite upgrading its full-year forecast. 

Inflation is slowing, but so is growth 
Most countries in the world have managed to lower inflation, according to the International Monetary Fund. Global headline inflation will fall to 3.5% on an annual basis by the end of 2025, from an average of 5.8% in 2024, the agency said Tuesday. The IMF forecast global growth to be 3.2% for 2024 and 2025, which it called a “stable yet underwhelming” number. 

Motoring ahead 
Shares of General Motors popped almost 10% after it reported earnings. The U.S. automaker handily beat Wall Street’s expectations for its third-quarter earnings and revenue. On the back of such positive results, GM raised its earnings guidance for 2024 — the third time it’s done so this year.  

Norway fund reaps $76 billion in profit 
Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, reported third-quarter profit of 835 billion Norwegian kroner ($76.3 billion). The fund credited a rallying stock market boosted by lower interest rates for those numbers. Still, the fund’s return for the third quarter was 4.4%, 0.1 percentage points lower than a benchmark set by Norway’s Finance Ministry.  

[PRO] Politics as important as profits 
The U.S. votes for its next president in around two weeks. The environment for corporations and markets will be starkly different depending on who becomes the country’s 47th president and which party gains control of Congress. Hence, Bank of America thinks investors should take an active role in picking stocks to trade on the election. 

The bottom line

The S&P is up more than 22% year to date and has broken multiple record closes on its way to that peak. 

Still, the broad-based index’s ascent has slowed in recent days. On Tuesday, the S&P ticked down 0.05% for its first back-to-back losing day since early September.  

On the rally pause, Barclays wrote: “We now recommend moving to the sidelines. We think investors are likely to as well; the risk rally should stall for the next few weeks.” 

When a fast-moving vehicle stalls, however, it could still rev back to life. Notably, all major U.S. indexes are trading above both their 50- and 200-day moving average, suggesting they possess forward momentum. 

Indeed, UBS Wealth Management this month upgraded its rating on U.S. stocks to attractive from neutral. “We think a ‘no landing’ scenario is positive for US and global equities,” said UBS GWM Chief Investment Officer Mark Haefele.  

There are “signs that the long-run trend growth rate may be higher than previously estimated,” added Haefele. 

The International Monetary Fund also thinks growth in the U.S. will remain robust. In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF increased its estimate for U.S. GDP in 2024 to 2.8% from its 2.6% forecast in July, while raising its 2025 growth forecast for the country. It’s the only advanced economy that had its economic trajectory revised upwards by the IMF for both years. 

The U.S. has its consumers to thank for that. “The resilience of consumption is largely the result of robust increases in real wages,” the IMF wrote in its report. 

With the looming presidential election and high stock valuations, the path ahead for markets may be rocky for now. But the S&P might persist in scaling the rocky ridges of an ever-ascending mountain range.   

— CNBC’s Brian Evans, Hakyung Kim, Pia Singh and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.  

Shares of Japanese subway operator Tokyo Metro rose almost 45% Wednesday after a stellar IPO.

The company had raised 348.6 billion yen ($2.3 billion) in the largest initial public offering in Japan in six years. Shares were priced at the top-end of the IPO price band of 1,100 yen to 1,200 yen.

Tokyo Metro is one of Japan’s leading subway companies and the largest operator in Tokyo. The company is currently owned jointly by Japan’s national government and the Tokyo metropolitan government, with a 53.4% and 46.6% stake respectively.

Reuters reported that the overall IPO was oversubscribed more than 15 times, while the portion available to retail investors — almost four-fifths of the overall size — was oversubscribed around 10 times.

The shares available to domestic and foreign institutional investors, accounting for 1.5% and 20% respectively, were oversubscribed more than 20 and 30 times, Reuters reported.

Jesper Koll, expert director at financial services firm at Japan-based Monex Group in Tokyo, said the IPO was warmly received due to the company being a “cash cow.” Tokyo Metro is a “high dividend, stable cash flow generator,” and the company has a very low operational risk, he added.

“So whether you’re Mr. Watanabe [retail investor] … whether you’re the global investor or an institutional investor, this is a great share to own.”

Koll also pointed out that Tokyo Metro’s dividend outlook is “very stable,” and may even see a little upside.

This is because the demand for metro service in Japan’s capital remains very strong, and Tokyo’s population grows at almost 1% every year, he added.

Mio Kato, founder of LightStream Research, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” last week that the stock has been priced “relatively cheaply,” describing it as a “a big banner IPO for the year.”

Japan stocks rose sharply in 2023 and the country was Asia’s best-performing market last year, with gains of over 28%. In 2024, the country’s stock benchmark Nikkei 225 has recorded fresh all-time highs, with year-to-date gains of 16.41%.

Here’s what CNBC TV’s producers were watching as the Dow and S&P 500 slipped for a second day, and what’s on the radar for the next session.

The 10-year Treasury yield

• The benchmark yield went back above 4.2% on Tuesday.
• It was by far the most searched ticker on CNBC.com Tuesday. In fact, there was more interest in the 10-year yield than in the other top five ticker searches.
• The two-year Treasury yield is at 4.03%.
• The yield on the one-year Treasury bill is 4.26%.
• The six-month T-bill yield is at 4.49%.
• The three-month T-bill is yielding 4.63%.
• The one-month T-bill yield is 4.78%.
• The Fidelity Corporate Bond ETF (FCOR) is yielding 4.11%.
• The iShares 0-5 Year High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (SHYG) is yielding 6.69%.
• The iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) yields 5.88%.
• The SPDR Bloomberg High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) is yielding 6.52%. 

Starbucks

• We’ll continue to follow Starbucks all day Wednesday.
• The stock is down 4% in extended trading. The coffee chain issued preliminary quarterly results, with full details coming next week.
• The company is suspending guidance for fiscal 2025.
• Starbucks is seeing sliding same-store sales.
• The company did raise the dividend to keep investors interested in the stock. Starbucks said it would boost its dividend to 61 cents per share, up from 57 cents.

McDonald’s

• CNBC will also closely follow another big restaurant chain on Wednesday: McDonald’s.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported it was alerted to 49 E. coli cases linked back to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers. Most of the illnesses are in Colorado and Nebraska, but affected people turned up in eight other states: Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin.
• McDonald’s told the CDC that it has stopped using fresh slivered onions and quarter-pound beef patties in several states.
• Shares are down about 6% in after-hours trading.
• McDonald’s hit a new high Monday.
• It is far too early to compare the two, but Chipotle went through problems with E. coli back in 2015. It took years for the company to fully recover in terms of stock price and reputation.

Boeing

• On Tuesday, CNBC TV’s Phil LeBeau spoke with Jon Holden, president of IAM 751 — the striking machinists’ union. He did not guarantee workers would ratify the deal.
• Boeing is up about 5% in a week.
• It is 40% from the 52-week high hit in December.
• On Wednesday, LeBeau will speak with Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg in the 9 a.m. hour, Eastern.
• The stock is down 10.6% in the past three months. 

Coca-Cola

• On Wednesday, CEO James Quincey will be on in the 10 a.m. hour with CNBC TV’s Sara Eisen.
• Coca-Cola will release its quarterly report before the bell.
• The stock is up 7% in the past three months.
• Coca-Cola is 5.5% from the September high.

AT&T

• The communications company reports before the bell.
• AT&T is 3.75% from the September high.
• It is up about 16% in the past three months. 

GE Vernova

• The stock hit a high last week. It’s fallen 1.75% since then.
• GE Vernova reports in the morning. It is up 65% over the past three months.
• The stock started trading April 2. It is up 95% since then.

Tesla

• The EV maker reports after the bell.
• The stock is 20% from the July high.
• Tesla is down 13% over the past three months.

IBM

• The “old tech” giant reports after the bell Wednesday.
• IBM is up 26% in three months, and it’s 2% from last week’s high.

Knight-Swift Transportation

• CNBC TV’s Frank Holland is watching as the trucking company reports Wednesday after the bell.
• Knight-Swift is up 5.6% since last reporting three months ago.
• It is 13.4% from the February high.

United Rentals

• Another big industrial reports after the bell Wednesday.
• United Rentals rents out big construction equipment.
• The stock is up 15% in the past three months.
• It hit a new high last week and is down 1.6% since then.

ServiceNow

• Another big tech company releases its quarterly numbers Wednesday.
• ServiceNow is up 21% in three months.
• The stock is 3% from last week’s 52-week high mark.

Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Tuesday, breaking ranks with major Wall Street benchmarks, while Japanese subway operator Tokyo Metro’s stellar market debut boosted investor optimism.

Shares of Tokyo Metro climbed 45% in early trade.

The company, one of Japan’s leading subway operators and the largest in Tokyo, raised 348.6 billion yen in its initial public offering, the largest IPO in Japan since 2018.

The IPO was reportedly 15 times oversubscribed and priced at the top end of its pricing band, offering shares at 1,200 yen apiece.

Economic data that will be coming out of Asia includes September inflation numbers from Singapore — expected to come in at 1.9%, its slowest rise since March 2021, according to a Reuters poll of economists.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded just below the flatline on Wednesday, but the broad-based Topix was up 0.18%

South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.15%, but the small-cap Kosdaq dropped 1.16%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the day up 0.13%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was marginally higher, while mainland China’s CSI 300 was trading close to the flatline.

Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended Tuesday marginally lower, both posting a second straight day of losses.

The S&P 500 ended the session lower by 0.05%, and it was the broad market index’s first back-to-back loss since early September.

The 30-stock Dow slid 0.02%, but the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.18%.

— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.

CNBC Pro: Value versus growth: the pros predict what could outperform amid lower rates

Investors often get bullish on stocks when interest rates start inching lower.

That certainly was the case as markets anticipated the start of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s easing cycle, which kicked off with a jumbo cut last month. The S&P 500 stock index is around 24% higher year-to-date and up 40% over the last 12 months.

There’s a common belief that lower borrowing costs benefit so-called growth stocks, as they’re often capital-intensive. But there are other factors at play in the current environment

As investors weigh the pros and cons of value vs. growth, CNBC Pro asked analysts and investors which they prefer.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

CNBC Pro: Fund manager picks a lesser-known global tech stock trading at a ‘fraction’ of the Mag 7

Investors should look beyond the so-called “Magnificent Seven” and identify “country winners” in tech outside the U.S., according to one hedge fund manager.

“Our view is that there is a Magnificent Seven set of companies in each of the major economies in the world [which] you can buy for a fraction of the value,” Beeneet Kothari, CEO and principal portfolio manager at the U.S.-headquartered hedge fund Tekne Capital Management, told CNBC Pro.

The Magnificent Seven stocks — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla — have dominated investor interest in tech over recent years. Their popularity is reflected in their returns: the group is over 40% higher year-to-date, and more than 60% higher over the last 12 months.

But Kothari, who manages around $1.2 billion in assets, said he is looking for tech companies “running the way you would expect a Silicon Valley company to be running.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Amala Balakrishner

Politics can ‘make or break’ certain parts of the market, says Bank of America

The U.S. election is about two weeks away, and who winds up in the White House and in Congress could have an effect on key corners of the stock market, according to Bank of America.

“Profits accelerating are far more important than who is sitting in the Oval Office. But politics can make or break sub-sectors,” the firm wrote in a Friday note. 

With this in mind and with volatility expected to rise as the Nov. 5 election nears, Bank of America strategists say it is now a stock picker’s market. 

“Now is not the time to close one’s eyes and buy the index,” the investment bank said. 

To read more about Bank of America’s assessment of the election on the stock market, click here.

— Hakyung Kim

Oil prices are reclaiming ground after last week’s sell-off

Crude oil futures have gained about 4% this week, after China cut its benchmark lending rates and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East remain volatile.

U.S. crude oil gained $1.53 to settle at $72.09 per barrel Tuesday afternoon, while global benchmark Brent added $1.75 to close at $76.04 per barrel. The rally extended Monday’s gains of more than 1%.

Though prices are rising this week, the supply-and-demand outlook looks bearish, even as Israel is still expected to retaliate against Iran for the Islamic Republic’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack.

U.S. crude oil sold off more than 8% last week as traders view an oil disruption in the Middle East due to Iran-Israel tensions as increasingly unlikely. A weak demand picture also weighed on prices, with consumption in China softening as more OPEC supply is expected to come online in December.

— Spencer Kimball

IMF says global fight against inflation is ‘almost won’ but highlights increasing risks

The International Monetary Fund lowered its global headline inflation projection 3.5% on an annual basis by the end of 2025, from an average 5.8% in 2024.

“The global battle against inflation is almost won,” the agency said in its World Economic Outlook released Tuesday.

However, “Despite the good news on inflation, downside risks are increasing and now dominate the outlook,” said IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas. Now that inflation is headed in the right direction, global policymakers face a new challenge stemming from the rate of growth in the world economy, the IMF warned.

The fund kept its global growth estimate at 3.2% for 2024 and 2025, which it called “stable yet underwhelming.”

The full story can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

Vu moved to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, last year, where she currently works remotely as a freelance creative consultant and videographer, bringing in about $11,000 a month, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. She just needs to work about 8 to 15 hours a week.

“I was able to significantly lessen my workload — way less than if I were living in the States,” she said. “I am very privileged in that, in Vietnam, I get to say how many hours a week I work, which I know is insane. Coming from the States … I worked like 10 hours a day.”

“I primarily came here to work less and observe more,” Vu said. “I feel like the U.S. is a lot of doing, and here, it’s a lot of being, being present [and] just like existing, and that’s really nice, because sometimes you just need that space to untangle a lot of knots in your head.”

Not the American dream

Vu and her family fled Vietnam for the United States in the 1990s to escape the fallout of the Vietnam War, which is also known as the “American War” in Vietnam.

“My sisters actually were boat people (refugees who fled Vietnam by boat), so they were in refugee camps in the Philippines. [They] came to the States and were able to sponsor my parents and me over from Vietnam,” she said.

Vu’s family landed in Florida, where they spent 10 years before moving to Georgia where they lived on a small chicken farm. Growing up as a minority in the U.S., she never felt a sense of belonging, she told CNBC Make It.

“We were living the refugee experience,” she said. “I mean, we were the only Asians living there, so it was really — I guess — jarring,” she said. “You’re always feeling like a foreigner.”

Her feelings of being an outsider grew as she became more involved in politics in 2016. For about six years, Vu worked as a freelance videographer on projects that aimed at engaging minority voters in the Southern states, but she began to burn out.

Vu said she was exhausted from juggling “a million different things at once” and feeling like her brain is “constantly churning.” “The American dream just started feeling like it was dwindling … and I just felt like I needed a break from America.”

In August 2023, she took the leap of faith and left the U.S. for Vietnam.

‘I’m on vacation every single day’

Now, Vu lives in a luxury 1-bedroom apartment, for $950 a month. Her apartment is located in the Bình Thạnh district, a central location in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vu’s apartment complex offers several amenities including community pools, a gym, a restaurant, a bar and a spa.

“I feel so privileged, like it literally feels like I’m on vacation every single day,” she said. “When I talk to people every day, I definitely have … a fancier, nicer lifestyle, and when I actually talk about how much I pay for rent, among different groups, I definitely pay like some of the highest rents.”

In total, Vu spends about $1,500 a month on her living expenses, including food, transportation and rent, according to documents reviewed.

For transportation, she uses ride-hailing app Grab to get around the city which usually costs 50 cents to $4 per ride. She usually opts to eat at local food stalls and restaurants, which cost an average of $2 to $5 per meal.

“My money goes really far here,” she said. “Budgeting was easy, especially if I’m going to make American dollars in Vietnam … It’s like the best life hack.”

Life in Vietnam

Besides freelancing as a creative consultant, Vu is also a content creator and enjoys documenting her life in Vietnam. Nowadays, she also has more time to work on her passion for poetry.

“Everything was moving at like, two times speed in the States, and I never knew it, because … I was constantly in it,” she said.

While living in the U.S., Vu was always preoccupied with paying her bills and realizing the “American dream,” so she was constantly in a hurry and felt like she had to continually optimize her time, she said.

After moving to Vietnam, “life feels slow,” said Vu. “Even though Saigon is very hustle bustle, folks are just sitting [in coffee shops] for hours at a time and I don’t remember the last time I did that in the States for even minutes at a time,” she said.

“It feels just so luxurious to be able to just sit there and ponder life and write it down. I just never felt like I truly had the time or like an empty enough mind to actually do it,” she said.

Not only has Vu’s move back to Vietnam given her a sense of freedom to slow down, but it’s also given her the mental capacity and air space to unpack and make sense of her family’s history and her own heritage.

“One of the biggest things that I’m untangling over here is just like feeling a lot closer to my family, even though I’m farther away,” she said. “I’m just understanding my parents a lot more [by] seeing how they lived over here,” she said.

Want to master your money this fall? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course. We’ll teach you practical strategies to hack your budget, reduce your debt, and grow your wealth. Start today to feel more confident and successful. Use code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off, now extended through September 30, 2024, for the back-to-school season.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.

Palantir: “There is no level that the buyers won’t take this stock higher. So I’m going to tell you that I would hold on to it as a spec and let them walk it up.”

Stanley Black & Decker: “I don’t think Stanley Black & Decker is going to give you a discouraging forecast.”

Travere Therapeutics: “I know they’re losing a ton of money.”

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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust holds shares of Stanley Black & Decker.

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer said it’s not yet time to invest in Nucor, a steelmaker whose stock got hit on Tuesday after its earnings report Monday evening failed to impress Wall Street.

“As much as I would’ve liked to tell you to dive into Nucor here … After last night’s update, I’m little less sanguine,” he said. “The weak quarter wasn’t a surprise, but the discouraging guidance for the fourth quarter, that was a surprise, and makes it harder to get behind.”

Investors had been optimistic about the stock after the Federal Reserve implemented a hefty rate cut, as industrials tend to do well when rates are lower. Cramer said Nucor’s quarter was disappointing, and by close shares were down more than 6%. He was most worried about guidance for the steelmaker’s current quarter, with management citing issues like weakness in key markets like construction, manufacturing and autos, as well as broader geopolitical unrest, election uncertainty, and more imports of steel products. However, Cramer pointed out that there were a few bright spots in the quarter, namely in markets related to construction of semiconductors and data centers.

Nucor indicated that more rate cuts are likely to improve business. But Cramer said he doesn’t “feel comfortable pounding the table on the steels or the other materials stocks” until there’s more information about the the Fed’s next decision. He said he’s fairly confident the Fed has tamed inflation, but added that there will be more clarity about rate cuts after the presidential election and the central bank’s next meeting.

While he said he currently thinks the Fed will keep cutting rates and pave to way for Nucor and other materials stocks to rally, he said investors don’t need to make a determination about the situation just yet.

“We don’t have to decide that today — given that the situation’s uncertain, we can keep watching and gathering information for the next couple weeks,” he said. “Won’t be too late to make on a decision on Nucor when we know more about where we’re headed.”

Nucor did not immediately respond to request for comment.

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer analyzed Tuesday’s market action and explained why some Big Tech favorites saw gains while other stocks floundered, saying investors are worried about the broad economic implications of rising bond yields.

“Big tech made a big comeback today because of the bond market, not anything to do with the stocks themselves,” he said. “So, keep in mind that the pause in the rally is temporary, even as you should still own some of the Magnificent Seven for diversification.”

Tuesday marked a second consecutive day of losses for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with the index posting its first back-to-back loss since September. The S&P 500 also closed lower, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallied and finished up 0.18%.

Rising bond yields lead traders out of cyclical stocks and back into secular winners that had led the market for much of the year and don’t rely as much on the Federal Reserve’s rate cycle, according to Cramer. Several recent earnings reports disappointed investors, he added, because they didn’t seem compatible with “the rather benign moment” where the Fed is cutting rates yet employment remains strong. He named weaker figures from GE Aerospace, Kimberly-Clark, Nucor, Genuine Parts and PulteGroup. Meanwhile, stock of Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft saw a boost.

But Cramer rebuked negative theses for some of the stocks that saw losses, saying some of the companies are fundamentally solid. He said the stocks can rise again even after a day like Tuesday when money managers “get scared out of cyclicals and nervous about aerospace, frightened of homebuilders, stupefied by auto parts and chilled by Kleenex sales.”

“We’ve seen this movie before. It’s been happening for more than a decade,” Cramer said. “Don’t worry, the money can rotate just as soon right back to where it was.”

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Futures linked to the broad market index lost nearly 0.1%. Dow futures slid 126 points, or 0.3%, while Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 0.1%.

In after-hours action, McDonald’s fell nearly 6%. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said an E. coli outbreak tied to the fast-food giant’s Quarter Pounder burgers has resulted in 10 hospitalizations and one death. Starbucks tumbled 4% after the coffee chain issued preliminary quarterly results showing that its sales fell again.

In regular trading, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both posted marginal declines. The Nasdaq Composite, however, rose about 0.2%.

The 10-year Treasury yield has been on an upturn as of late, briefly topping 4.2% on Tuesday and keeping stocks under pressure.

Robust economic data and deficit worries are among the factors behind the rise in the 10-year Treasury yield – despite a half-point rate cut from the Federal Reserve in September. Traders are also growing concerned that central bank policymakers may be less inclined to reduce rates, even as the Fed had forecasted another half-point worth of trimming before the year ends.

To be sure, the backdrop for equities is still constructive, according to Jeff deGraaf, head of technical research at Renaissance Macro Research.

“The trends are still positive and we don’t have a lot of near-term momentum, but that’s not the end of the world by any means,” he said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” “In fact, a lot of times that results in a good setup because it’s a consolidation.”

“By investing today, the next three months historically are never brighter than they are here at the end of October,” deGraaf added.

A slate of notable names will be reporting earnings on Wednesday. AT&T, Coca-Cola and Boeing are on deck before the bell, while Tesla and IBM will share results after the close.

Stocks making the biggest moves after hours

Check out some of the companies making headlines in extended trading:

• Texas Instruments — The semiconductor company added 2%. Third-quarter results topped analysts’ estimates, as Texas Instruments reported earnings of $1.47 per share on revenue of $4.15 billion. Analysts sought earnings of $1.38 per share and revenue of $4.12 billion, per LSEG.
• Seagate Technology — The data storage company slipped 3.6%. Seagate’s guidance for $2.3 billion in revenue for the fiscal second quarter was about in line with the Street’s estimate for $2.29 billion, per LSEG. The company topped analysts’ estimates on the top and bottom lines in the first quarter, however.
• Manhattan Associates — The supply chain software company declined nearly 7%. Manhattan Associates forecast full-year revenue in the range of $1.039 billion to $1.041 billion, while analysts polled by FactSet were expecting $1.04 billion.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

Stock futures open lower

Stock futures were lower on Tuesday, after the S&P 500 closed lower for the second-consecutive day.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back 145 points, or 0.34%. S&P 500 futures were 0.11% lower, while Nasdaq 100 futures ticked down 0.13%.

— Brian Evans

It was a big finish for the 2024 WNBA season.

The fifth game of this year’s WNBA Finals between the Minnesota Lynx and the New York Liberty was the most-viewed WNBA finals game in 25 years across all networks, according to ESPN, citing Nielsen data. The game aired on ESPN and topped out at 3.3 million viewers.

The viewership for Game 5 is especially impressive considering the competition for attention Sunday night. Both the National Football League’s “Sunday Night Football” and Major League Baseball’s National League Championship Series aired at the same time.

Viewership across the entire WNBA Finals series more than doubled in comparison to last year, a continuation of the growing popularity for the WNBA and women’s sports more broadly.

This year’s finals were helped even more by a close battle between a perennial WNBA powerhouse in the Lynx and a previously championship-less contender in the Liberty. Four of the five games were decided by 5 or fewer points, and two games, including the final, went into overtime. The Liberty eventually prevailed, winning 67-62 in front of their home crowd.

The impressive viewership caps off a WNBA season that saw viewership, engagement and attendance up across the board.

The league is also fresh off a new media rights deal, which is negotiated as part of the National Basketball Association’s agreement with broadcast partners. The leagues’ new deal is worth $2.2 billion over 11 seasons, with an agreement to reevaluate the terms after the 2028 season, CNBC previously reported.

And there’s room to run for the WNBA: Several new teams will debut over the next couple of seasons, with the Golden State Valkyries beginning play in the 2025 season. Next year will also have 44 regular season games instead of 40, as well as a seven-game finals instead of five.

The Women’s National Basketball Players Association said Monday it would opt out of the collective bargaining agreement it had earlier reached with the league. The current CBA will still be in place for the 2025 season, according to the Associated Press.

Former Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani must hand over his ritzy Manhattan apartment, his collectible Mercedes-Benz and a slew of other treasures as part of the nearly $150 million judgment he owes two women he defamed after the 2020 election, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

The list of luxury valuables Giuliani will soon lose also includes items signed by Yankees baseball legends Joe DiMaggio and Reggie Jackson, a diamond ring and more than two dozen watches.

Some of those assets are irreplaceable. The 1980 Mercedes was previously owned by famed actress Lauren Bacall, for instance, and one of the watches belonged to Giuliani’s grandfather. Another watch was gifted to Giuliani by the president of France after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when Giuliani was mayor of New York City.

Giuliani has seven days to hand over those items and more to a receivership controlled by former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Liman ruled.

Giuliani repeatedly targeted the two women with false election fraud claims as part of his efforts to overturn Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Freeman and Moss sued Giuliani for defamation. In December, a federal jury in Washington, D.C., ordered the former mayor to pay them more than $148 million in punitive damages and for emotional distress and defamation.

Giuliani filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition to shield himself from sudden financial ruin, but a New York federal bankruptcy judge dismissed his case.

Giuliani has appealed the defamation verdict in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where the case is ongoing.

He has so far paid none of the nine-figure defamation judgment against him, and he has not obtained a court stay that would allow him to delay paying off that massive debt, Liman wrote in Tuesday’s order.

Liman granted the election workers’ request for an “immediate turnover” of Giuliani’s stake in his penthouse apartment on Manhattan’s tony Upper East Side.

Attorneys for Freeman and Moss had noted in a previous court filing that, “Before filing for bankruptcy, Mr. Giuliani had listed the New York Apartment for $5.7 million.”

The fate of Giuliani’s condominium in Palm Beach, Florida, meanwhile, will not be determined until a court hearing Oct. 28.

Liman also allowed the plaintiffs to pursue a debt that Giuliani says he is still owed for his work after the 2020 election, totaling about $2 million that Trump’s 2020 campaign and the Republican National Committee have failed to pay.

Giuliani had asked to delay a ruling on the unpaid legal fees claim until after the Nov. 5 election, out of concern that Freeman and Moss “may use this assignment for an improper, political” purpose that causes an unnecessary “media frenzy.”

Liman balked at that request.

“The profound irony manifest in Defendant’s alleged concern is not lost on the Court,” the judge wrote.

“By his own admission, Defendant defamed Plaintiffs by perpetuating lies about them. Defendant’s lies cast unwarranted doubt on the integrity of the ballot-counting in Fulton County, Georgia in the immediate wake of the 2020 Presidential Election.”

Giuliani had sought to protect some of his unique items from being sold off, including his grandfather’s watch. The plaintiffs’ attorneys had offered to exempt that watch from collection if Giuliani could show that its value would not exceed a $1,000 exemption limit.

But “he has not done so,” Liman wrote Tuesday, and so “the watch therefore must be turned over.”

Other items may also have “sentimental value” to Giuliani, the judge wrote. “But that does not entitle Defendant to continued enjoyment of the assets to the detriment of the Plaintiffs to whom he owes approximately $150 million.”

Aaron Nathan, an attorney for Moss and Freeman, said in a statement Tuesday, “The road to justice for Ruby and Shaye has been long, but they have never wavered.”

A spokesman for Giuliani did not immediately provide a comment when contacted by CNBC.

McDonald’s shares dropped in extended trading Tuesday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said an E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers has led to 10 hospitalizations and one death.

The agency said 49 cases have been reported in 10 states between Sept. 27 and Oct. 11, with most of the illnesses in Colorado and Nebraska. “Most” sick people reported eating a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder, the CDC added.

One of the patients developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, which is a serious condition that can cause kidney failure. An older adult in Colorado died. 

McDonald’s shares dropped about 7% in after-hours trading Tuesday.

In a statement Tuesday, McDonald’s said it is taking “swift and decisive action” following the E. Coli outbreak in certain states.

The company said initial findings from the ongoing investigation show that some of the illnesses may be linked to slivered onions — or fresh onions sliced into thin shapes — that are used in the Quarter Pounder and sourced by a single supplier that serves three distribution centers. McDonald’s has instructed all local restaurants to remove slivered onions from their supply and has paused the distribution of that ingredient in the affected area.

Quarter Pounder hamburgers will be temporarily unavailable in several Western states, including Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, and portions of other states, McDonald’s said. It added that it was working with suppliers to replenish ingredients.

The majority of states and menu items are not affected by the outbreak, McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger said in a video. The company’s other beef products, including the cheeseburger, hamburger, Big Mac, McDouble and the double cheeseburger, are not affected, he added. Those sandwiches use a different type of onion product.

“We are working quickly to return our full menu in these states as soon as possible,” Erlinger said. “I hope these steps demonstrate McDonald’s commitment to food safety.”

Quarter Pounder hamburgers are a core menu item for McDonald’s, raking in billions of dollars each year. In 2018, McDonald’s launched fresh beef for its Quarter Pounders across most of its U.S. stores.

The CDC said the number of people affected by the outbreak is “likely much higher” than what has been reported so far. The agency said that is because many people recover from an E. coli infection without testing for it or receiving medical care. It also typically takes three to four weeks to determine if a sick patient is part of an outbreak, the CDC added. 

E. coli refers to a group of bacteria found in the gut of nearly all people and animals. But some strains of the bacteria can cause mild to severe illness if a person eats contaminated food or drinks polluted water.

Symptoms, including stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting, usually start three to four days after swallowing the bacteria, according to the CDC. Most people recover without treatment after five to seven days.

There have been several past reported cases of E. coli at McDonald’s restaurants.

In 2022, at least six children developed symptoms consistent with E. coli poisoning after eating McDonald’s’ Chicken McNuggets Happy Meals in Ashland, Alabama. Four of the six children were admitted to a hospital after experiencing severe adverse effects.

Starbucks on Tuesday posted preliminary quarterly results that showed its sales fell again as the coffee chain tries to execute a turnaround.

“Our fourth quarter performance makes it clear that we need to fundamentally change our strategy so we can get back to growth and that’s exactly what we are doing with our ‘Back to Starbucks’ plan,” CEO Brian Niccol said in a statement.

Niccol said he plans to share more details on the steps Starbucks is taking to turn around the business on the company’s earnings call, scheduled for Oct. 30. The coffee chain’s new CEO aims to reverse slowing demand for Starbucks’ drinks, starting with its largest market: the U.S.

Already, the CEO said the company is “fundamentally changing” its marketing by refocusing on all of its customers, not just members of its loyalty program. He added that Starbucks plans to simplify its “overly complex menu,” fix its pricing and make sure all of its drinks are handed directly to customers. All three of those goals have been top complaints from customers and baristas in recent years.

“We believe that our problems are very fixable and that we have significant strengths to build on,” Niccol said in prepared remarks released on the company’s website on Tuesday.

The company’s preliminary net sales fell 3% to $9.1 billion. It reported preliminary adjusted earnings per share of 80 cents.

Analysts surveyed by LSEG were expecting the company to report fiscal fourth-quarter earnings per share of $1.03 and revenue of $9.38 billion.

Shares of the company fell more than 3% in extended trading on the announcement.

Slumping sales

For the third consecutive quarter, Starbucks’ same-store sales fell. This quarter’s 7% decline in same-store sales was the company’s steepest drop since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company blamed its soft sales on weaker demand in North America. In its home market, its same-store sales decreased 6%. Traffic tumbled 10%, despite increased investments in the business, such as more frequent promotions in its mobile app and an expanded range of product offerings.

In China, its second-largest market, same-store sales plummeted 14%. The company attributed the decline to competition in the country, which it said is altering consumer behavior and changing the company’s strategy for the market.

The company also suspended its fiscal 2025 outlook, citing the recent CEO transition and the “current state of the business.”

Despite the dismal quarter, the company increased its dividend from 57 cents to 61 cents per share.

“We want to amplify our confidence in the business, and provide some certainty as we drive our turnaround,” Chief Financial Officer Rachel Ruggeri said in a statement.

Ruggeri added that the company is developing a plan to turn around the business, but creating a strategy will take time.

A challenge for Niccol

The surprise announcement of the company’s preliminary results comes nearly two months ago after Niccol took the helm of the coffee giant. The CEO transition followed two quarters of falling sales for Starbucks and several activist investors building stakes in the company.

In the U.S., the chain has been losing its occasional customers, who have opted to save money instead of spending on its macchiatos and Refreshers. Starbucks’ business in China has also been struggling to recover since the pandemic, and the rise of cheaper local rivals such as Luckin Coffee and a more cautious consumer have dented sales in recent months.

Niccol joined Starbucks after six years as CEO of Chipotle. During his tenure at the fast-casual chain, he led the company through a turnaround after its foodborne illness crises, invested in its digital business and turned it into a top industry performer, even during the pandemic.

To curb Starbucks’ sales slump, Niccol plans to turn first to the company’s struggling U.S. business. In an open letter released during his first week on the job, he said he plans to focus on four areas of improvement: the barista experience, morning service, its cafes and the company’s branding.

Niccol has also been reshuffling the company’s executive ranks. On Friday, the company announced a former Chipotle executive, Tressie Lieberman, will be joining Starbucks as its global chief brand officer, a newly created position. Last month, Starbucks said its North American CEO Michael Conway would retire after just five months in the role. Niccol’s predecessor Laxman Narasimhan had appointed Conway before his ouster in August.

Shares of Starbucks are up 1% this year, as of Tuesday’s close. The company has a market cap of more than $109 billion.

President Joe Biden’s SAVE plan remains blocked, however, while federal courts weigh in on two multi-state lawsuits claiming the Biden administration does not have the authority to enact the plan. The SAVE plan includes provisions to lower monthly payments and provide another pathway to forgiveness for borrowers.

Borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan currently do not need to make payments. The Department of Education placed those accounts in an interest-free forbearance while the legal battles play out, and expect that to take at least six months.

After the plan was initially blocked in June, the Department of Education paused all income-driven repayment plan applications while it waited for further guidance from the courts on what the injunctions actually prevented the agency from doing. The previous IDR applications included mentions of the SAVE plan provisions, like the shortened timeline to forgiveness and lower monthly payments, which the courts blocked, leading ED to pause all IDR applications to ensure compliance with the court’s ruling.

Though borrowers can apply and enroll in some of those IDR plans again, they may wind up in forbearance if they do. Here’s what to know.

Online applications reopen with caveats

The reopened IDR application will be a simplified version that will be sent directly to borrowers’ servicers after completion, but won’t allow borrowers to automatically input their federal tax information. The simplified version also won’t give personalized recommendations around plan eligibility, but ED says it plans to bring those features back “in the future.”

When it paused new applications, ED instructed servicers to stop processing submitted IDR applications. Servicers will resume processing some of those applications in the coming weeks, ED says. Specifically, application processing will resume for:

• Income-based repayment plans
• Income-contingent repayment and the Pay As You Earn IDR applications received prior to July 1
• Income-contingent repayment applications from parent borrowers submitted at any time

While their IDR application is being processed, borrowers will be placed in forbearance for up to 60 days. Interest will accrue during that period, but borrowers will be eligible to have that time count toward their Public Service Loan Forgiveness or IDR forgiveness timelines.

Borrowers whose applications are not processed within 60 days will be moved into a general forbearance, which will not count toward forgiveness, but will pause interest accrual. It is unclear if borrowers will be notified if their application is not processed within 60 days.

Borrowers already enrolled in the SAVE plan continue to be in an interest-free forbearance period that does not count toward PSLF or IDR forgiveness. Borrowers can expect to be in forbearance for at least the next six months, an education department spokesperson said on Oct. 21.

Broad student debt forgiveness remains on hold

The injunction on the SAVE plan’s enactment prevents the Biden administration from forgiving more debt under the program. Prior to the legal hang-ups, the administration eliminated $1.2 billion in debt for nearly 153,000 borrowers on the SAVE plan in February. 

Oral arguments on the SAVE plan lawsuit with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in Missouri are scheduled for Oct. 24, placing the plan in limbo at least until then. The other lawsuit, filed by Alaska, South Carolina and Texas, would be null if the Eighth Circuit rules against ED and blocks the entire SAVE plan from moving forward.

Separately, another Biden administration debt relief plan is also blocked by federal courts following a Republican state-led lawsuit. The administration was preparing to enact its other new loan forgiveness initiative this fall, which was expected to shrink or clear balances for 25 million borrowers.

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Amazon is shutting down a service that offers same-day delivery from mall and brick-and-mortar retailers, CNBC has learned.

The company has stopped any new development of the service, called Amazon Today, and will begin to wind it down, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The people asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The bulk of the program will be shut down by Dec. 2, the people said. Select retail partners will be able to continue fulfilling orders with Amazon Today through Jan. 24, 2025, Amazon told CNBC.

A small amount of employees will be laid off and provided with severance, while others will be transitioned to other positions within Amazon, the company said.

Employees who work on Amazon Today learned the news in a meeting on Monday, where some staffers were informed they would be laid off, the people said. Roughly 300 employees were working on Amazon Today, the people said.

The closure of Amazon Today is the latest example of the company’s broader cost-cutting efforts.

Since 2022, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been on a campaign to cut costs across the company in order to meet rapidly changing macro conditions. Beginning in 2022 and extending through 2024, Amazon initiated the largest layoffs in its history, cutting more than 27,000 jobs. Jassy has taken a harder line on the company’s unproven, costlier bets than his predecessor, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Jassy has axed several projects, including a telehealth service, video-calling device for kids and a roving Treasure Truck.

Launched in 2022, Amazon Today allows retailers who sell on Amazon to offer speedy delivery from their brick-and-mortar stores and shopping malls in select cities. Amazon’s contracted Flex drivers, which make deliveries using their own vehicles, fetch the packages and drop them at customers’ doorsteps within hours of when the orders were placed.

Amazon Today was part of the company’s push to get online purchases to shoppers’ doorsteps at faster speeds. Amazon continues to add more facilities focused on same-day deliveries in a bid to boost sales and compete with other companies that provide ultrafast delivery. That includes Instacart and DoorDash, which have expanded beyond food and groceries and into retail.

The company had signed up several retailers to Amazon Today, according to the program’s website. That list included Office Depot; Staples; Petco; PacSun; vitamin and dietary supplement chain GNC; and Fabletics, the athletic-wear brand owned by actress Kate Hudson.

Amazon is working with the retailers it signed up for the service to ensure a smooth transition for them, the company said. Amazon added that it continues to prioritize and invest in fast delivery.

The decision to shutter Amazon Today comes as a surprise since Amazon was in the process of onboarding other retailers, one of the people said. The company was also pitching the service to more retailers at a conference last week.

The service skewed more costly than traditional delivery routes where Flex drivers can fill their cars up with packages from an Amazon warehouse, one of the people said. Amazon Today routes, which the company calls “retail deliveries,” did not usually fill up a driver’s trunk, making the program less worthwhile for the Flex contractors.

WATCH: What it’s like to be an Amazon Flex delivery driver

Yelp temporarily disabled new reviews on the McDonald’s in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, that former President Donald Trump visited Sunday, following an influx of unusual comments describing Trump’s criminal convictions, demeanor and customer service skills with mostly one-star reviews.

“The fries were too salty as if someone who lost a major election had been crying over them for an hour,” read a one-star review posted Oct. 21.

The comments varied in content, jest and vulgarity, with some criticizing the franchise owner for hosting the Trump campaign.

One five-star review from Monday said, “The best McDonalds I’ve ever been to in 47 years. The older employee was extremely nice. Make McDonalds Great Again! Bring back the Dollar Menu!”

More than 145 reviews had already been posted before Yelp paused commenting using its “unusual activity alert” yesterday.

“For Yelp to remain a useful resource to the community, reviews must be based on a genuine, firsthand experience with the business,” said Noorie Malik, vice president of user operations at Yelp. “When we see the activity dramatically decrease or stop, our moderators will clean up the page so reviews describing only firsthand consumer experiences are reflected.”

Yelp said it typically pauses comments when a business receives heightened media attention that can result in people posting their personal views, without having a legitimate customer interaction with the business. According to the 2023 Yelp Trust & Safety Report, 112 business pages in the U.S. received an unusual activity alert for incidents related to politics or political figures, leading to more than 5,000 reviews being removed.

“As a small, independent business owner, it is a fundamental value of my organization that we proudly open our doors to everyone who visits the Feasterville community,” franchisee Derek Giacomantonio told CNBC in a statement Monday. “That’s why I accepted former President Trump’s request to observe the transformative working experience that 1 in 8 Americans have had: a job at McDonald’s.”

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

— CNBC’s Amelia Lucas contributed to this report.

New changes from the Internal Revenue Service may affect federal tax liabilities for families in 2025.

For example, in its announcement Tuesday, the agency said it raised the maximum amount of the earned income tax credit, or EITC, and increased the income thresholds to qualify. It left the maximum refundable portion of the child tax credit unchanged.

The provisions are part of a bigger package of IRS inflation-related adjustments for 2025, which boosted figures for the federal income tax brackets, long-term capital gains tax brackets and the estate and gift tax exemption, among others.

More from Personal Finance:
IRS announces new federal income tax brackets for 2025
Trump’s tax cuts could expire after 2025. How advisors are preparing
Don’t wait to find a tax preparer for 2025

Child tax credit for 2025

The refundable portion of the child tax credit — a tax break parents can take for qualifying children — will be $1,700 for 2025, which is unchanged from 2024. That figure represents how much families may claim even with zero tax balance on their tax returns.

The maximum child tax credit of $2,000 per child under 17 is available to parents with up to $400,000 in modified adjusted gross income if they are married and filing jointly, or under $200,000 if they are single. Those figures are also unchanged from 2024.

Notably, the terms of the current child tax credit are set to expire at the end of tax year 2025. At that time, the child tax credit is scheduled to drop to a maximum $1,000 per child.

However, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have touted proposals to make the credit more generous.

The new changes for 2025 are standard adjustments for inflation so taxpayers don’t face higher tax liabilities, according to Alex Durante, economist at the Tax Foundation. The terms still reflect the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

“But the year following, 2026, families should be expecting to see higher tax liabilities unless Congress votes to extend these tax provisions that were implemented in 2017,” Durante said.

Earned income tax credit for 2025

A tax credit for low- to middle-income individuals and families — the earned income tax credit, or EITC — will have higher maximum amounts in 2025.

The earned income tax credit helps qualifying individuals and families reduce the amount of tax they owe, while also potentially providing a refund, according to the IRS.

In 2025, the maximum EITC amount will be $8,046 for qualifying taxpayers with three or more eligible children. That is up from $7,830 for tax year 2024.

The maximum amount available for qualifying taxpayers with two eligible children will be $7,152, up from $6,960 in 2024; one qualifying child, $4,328, compared with $4,213 in 2024; and no qualifying children, $649, up from $632 in 2024.

To qualify for the tax credit, individuals and families must be under certain thresholds for adjusted gross income — defined as total income excluding any eligible deductions.

In 2025, the maximum AGI to qualify for the EITC for married couples with three or more children will be $68,675, up from $66,819 in 2024; and for single, head of household and widowed filers with three or more children it will be $61,555, adjusted from $59,899 in 2024. The EITC is also subject to phaseout thresholds.

Taxpayers are also limited to how much investment income they can have in order to qualify for the earned income tax credit. In 2025, that threshold will go to $11,950, up from $11,600 in 2024. If investment income is above $11,950 in 2025, taxpayers will not qualify for the credit.

Adoption, gift tax exclusion changes

Other changes announced by the IRS may also affect families.

The maximum adoption credit for a child, including those with special needs, will apply to qualified expenses of up to $17,280 in 2025, up from $16,810 in 2024.

The annual exclusion for gifts will go up to $19,000, up from $18,000 in 2024. If taxpayers give $19,000 to each of their children in 2025, the annual exclusion will apply to each gift.

Philip Morris International shares reached record highs Tuesday after the tobacco company’s Zyn brand reported soaring demand.

Shares of the Connecticut-based company jumped to $131.97 at session highs, marking a new intraday record. The stock notched an all-time closing high and saw its biggest one-day gain since October 2008.

Tuesday’s record comes after the company touted an eye-popping increase in shipments of its Zyn oral nicotine pouches. It’s the latest milestone in the stock’s breakout this year as Wall Street catches wind of how the product has captured consumer interest.

The stock saw little action between 2013 and 2023 with investors viewing it as a dividend play in a stagnant industry. Now, traders are seeing the stock as a growth name — thanks in large part to the success of Zyn since Philip Morris acquired the brand through its deal with Swedish Match two years ago.

“The No. 1 U.S. smoke-free brand continued to see very strong underlying momentum,” finance chief Emmanuel Babeau told analysts on a call Tuesday.

Zyn demand in the U.S. has primarily driven shipments of Philip Morris’ oral products up nearly 40% in the first nine months of 2024, compared with the same period of the prior year.

Part of that growth is due to easing supply constraints for the product. Shipments of Zyn cans in the U.S. rose more than 41% in the third quarter from the same three-month period in 2023. Philip Morris expects Zyn shipments to match demand “at some point” during the fourth quarter, Babeau said.

Growth is also taking place internationally, with total nicotine pouch volume outside America soaring almost 70% between the third quarters of 2023 and 2024. Zyn is now available in 30 markets after the brand’s recent expansions into Greece and the Czech Republic.

Philip Morris also noted Zyn as main driver of net revenue for the business as a whole. The company issued better financial results than analysts polled by FactSet expected on both lines for the third quarter, while also raising its full-year earnings per share outlook.

Zyn has become a symbol of the shift among tobacco companies toward alternatives to traditional cigarettes. Philip Morris announced earlier this year that it would invest $600 million to build a new production facility for Zyn in Colorado.

Shares of Philip Morris have climbed nearly 40% in 2024. That would mark the best year on record for the company, which was separated in 2008 in part because of smoker lawsuits. Philip Morris kept the international cigarettes business which was still growing. Shares of Altria, which kept the U.S. cigarettes unit, have struggled since, still far below an all-time high reached in 2017.

The standard deduction — which is the amount of money you can reduce from your income before it’s taxed, if you choose not to itemize your deductions — will increase to $15,000 for individual filers, $30,000 for joint filers and $22,500 for heads of household in 2025, the IRS says.

While you may not feel the difference until you file your taxes in 2026, the 2025 tax year will also use updated federal income tax brackets. You can see the tax rates single filers will pay on their taxable income below. Taxable income is calculated by subtracting your itemized deductions or the standard deduction, whichever is greater, from your adjusted gross income.

Aside from the highest tax bracket, the income thresholds for married and joint filers are double those of single filers. That means if you and your spouse both earn $80,000, your tax rate will stay the same when you file jointly as when you filed separately. 

Here are the 2025 federal income tax brackets for married couples filing jointly, according to the IRS.

More tax updates for 2025

The Earned Income Tax Credit will also increase in 2025. Taxpayers with three or more qualifying children can get a maximum $8,046 credit, up from $7,830 in 2024. Low to moderate earners with children — or taxpayers between the ages 25 and 65 who don’t have children and aren’t claimed as dependents on someone else’s taxes — are able to claim this credit.

Employees with health flexible spending arrangements can contribute more in 2025. The limit on payroll contributions to FSAs rises to $3,300 in 2025, up from $3,200 in 2024, the IRS says. 

The exclusions for earning foreign income or receiving an estate from a deceased relative were also subject to inflation adjustments for 2025. The foreign earned income exclusion will be $130,000, while estates of decedents who die in 2025 will have basic exclusion amount of $13.99 million.

However, some things remain unchanged for the 2025 tax year.

Personal exemptions will remain at zero and itemized deductions remain unlimited, both a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. This policy is set to expire at the end of 2025.

The income limits for taxpayers eligible to claim the Lifetime Learning Credit, which is a tax credit for individuals or their dependents who are enrolled in higher education programs, also remain unchanged for 2025. Taxpayers earning a modified adjusted gross income of up to $90,000 ($180,000 for joint filers) are eligible to claim up to a $2,000 credit per return.

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Investors can generally reduce their tax losses in a portfolio by using exchange-traded funds over mutual funds, experts said.

“ETFs come with tax magic that’s unrivaled by mutual funds,” Bryan Armour, Morningstar’s director of passive strategies research for North America and editor of its ETFInvestor newsletter, wrote earlier this year.

But certain investments benefit more from that so-called magic than others.

Tax savings are moot in retirement accounts

ETFs’ tax savings are typically greatest for investors in taxable brokerage accounts.

They’re a moot point for retirement investors, like those who save in a 401(k) plan or individual retirement account, experts said. Retirement accounts are already tax-preferred, with contributions growing tax-free — meaning ETFs and mutual funds are on a level playing field relative to taxes, experts said.

The tax advantage “really helps the non-IRA account more than anything,” said Charlie Fitzgerald III, a certified financial planner based in Orlando, Florida, and a founding member of Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo.

“You’ll have tax efficiency that a standard mutual fund is not going to be able to achieve, hands down,” he said.

The ‘primary use case’ for ETFs

Mutual funds are generally less tax-efficient than ETFs because of capital gains taxes generated inside the fund.

Taxpayers who sell investments for a capital gain (i.e., a profit) are likely familiar with the concept of paying tax on those earnings.

The same concept applies within a mutual fund: Mutual fund managers generate capital gains when they sell holdings within the fund. Managers distribute those capital gains to investors each year; they divide them equally among all shareholders, who pay taxes at their respective income tax rate.

However, ETF managers are generally able to avoid capital gains taxes due to their unique structure.

The upshot is that asset classes that generate large capital gains relative to their total return are “a primary use case for ETFs,” Armour told CNBC. (This discussion only applies to buying and selling within the fund. An investor who sells their ETF for a profit may still owe capital gains tax.)

Why U.S. stocks ‘almost always’ benefit from ETFs

U.S. stock mutual funds have tended to generate the most capital gains relative to other asset classes, experts said.

Over five years, from 2019 to 2023, about 70% of U.S. stock mutual funds kicked off capital gains, said Armour, who cited Morningstar data. That was true of less than 10% of U.S. stock ETFs, he said.

Capital gains aren’t bad; they’re investment profits. But ETF managers often avoid taxes on those profits whereas mutual funds don’t, due to differences in how they can trade.

“It’s almost always an advantage to have your stock portfolio in an ETF over a mutual fund” in a nonretirement account, Armour said.

U.S. “growth” stocks — a stock subcategory — saw more than 95% of their total return come from capital gains in the five years through September 2024, according to Morningstar. That makes them “the greatest beneficiary of ETFs’ tax efficiency,” Armour said.

Large-cap and small-cap “core” stocks also “benefit considerably,” with about 85% to 90% of their returns coming from capital gains, Armour said.

About 25% to 30% of value stocks’ returns come from dividends — which are taxed differently than capital gains within an ETF — making them the “least beneficial” U.S. stocks in an ETF, Armour said.

“They still benefit substantially, though,” he said.

ETF and mutual fund dividends are taxed similarly. ETF dividends are taxed according to how long the investor has owned the fund.

Actively managed stock funds are also generally better candidates for an ETF structure, Fitzgerald said.

Active managers tend to distribute more capital gains than those who passively track a stock index, because active managers buy and sell positions frequently to try to beat the market, he said.

However, there are instances in which passively managed funds can trade often, too, such as with so-called strategic beta funds, Armour said.

Bonds have a smaller advantage

ETFs are generally unable to “wash away” tax liabilities related to currency hedging, futures or options, Armour said.

Additionally, tax laws of various nations may reduce the tax benefit for international stock ETFs, like those investing in Brazil, India, South Korea or Taiwan, for example, he said.

Bond ETFs also have a smaller advantage over mutual funds, Armour said. That’s because an ample amount of bond funds’ returns generally comes from income (i.e., bond payments), not capital gains, he said.

Fitzgerald says he favors holding bonds in mutual funds rather than ETFs.

However, his reasoning isn’t related to taxes.

During periods of high volatility in the stock market — when an unexpected event triggers a lot of fear selling and a stock market dip, for example — Fitzgerald often sells bonds to buy stocks at a discount for clients.

However, during such periods, he’s noticed the price of a bond ETF tends to disconnect more (relative to a mutual fund) from the net asset value of its underlying holdings.

The bond ETF often sells at more of a discount relative to a similar bond mutual fund, he said. Selling the bond position for less money somewhat dilutes the benefit of the overall strategy, he said.

Social Security may not be able to pay full retirement benefits as soon as 2033, based on current projections from the program’s trustees.

If Congress doesn’t move to fix the situation by that date, the general expectation is that millions of retirees could see a 21% across-the-board benefit cut.

The effects of that lost income could be enough to prompt a retirement crisis, since it would double the elderly poverty rate and reduce median senior household income by nearly 14%, according to new research from the American Enterprise Institute.

Yet those broad benefit cuts would not necessarily have to happen, as the worst effects of insolvency could be prevented by executive action, according to the report.

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Instead of across-the-board benefit cuts, benefits could be reallocated to avoid increases in poverty for low earners while having just a small effect on the middle class, according to Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at the AEI, who co-wrote the report with Kristin Shapiro, counsel at BakerHostetler.

“It means big cuts on very rich people, but it avoids what you might think of as a retirement crisis, where everything is thrown into upheaval,” Biggs said.

Why Social Security’s trust funds face depletion dates

Social Security draws from multiple sources to pay benefits — ongoing revenue from payroll taxes and income taxes, as well as trust funds that are used to supplement the monthly checks beneficiaries receive.

Yet as more people collect Social Security retirement benefits, the trust fund used to pay those benefits is running low. The depletion date — currently 2033 — represents the point at which the fund will be exhausted.

At that point, it is expected that 79% of those benefits will be payable.

Social Security has more than one trust fund, including one that pays retired workers, their families and survivors, and a second that pays disability benefits.

Together, those trust funds have a projected depletion date of 2035, when 83% of benefits would be payable. While merging the funds could provide additional financial runway, doing so is not allowed under current law, according to the AEI report.

How broad benefit cuts could be avoided

As the November election approaches, experts generally hope a new president and new Congress will address Social Security’s solvency.

“We far prefer for Congress to enact comprehensive Social Security reforms before 2033,” the AEI report says.

The sooner Congress acts, the better it will be for all beneficiaries involved, to give them more certainty, said Shai Akabas, executive director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Economic Policy Program. A recent survey from Nationwide Retirement Institute found 72% of adults worry Social Security will run out of funding in their lifetime.

The roughly 21% across-the-board benefit cut is “untenable and unsustainable, both politically and financially from a household perspective,” Akabas said.

However, if lawmakers fail to come to an agreement by the depletion date, the president could move to protect beneficiaries from the worst effects of the ensuing cuts, according to Biggs and Shapiro.

Once the depletion date arrives — whether it remains 2033 or shifts to another year — the president at the time could move to cap monthly benefits at about $2,050, the AEI report proposes.

That change would reduce payments to beneficiaries who receive more than that amount and make Social Security solvent without adding new debt or increasing taxes.

At the same time, about half of all retirees and survivors would still receive their full benefit payments. Notably, no retiree would be pushed into poverty, according to the research.

If the fund depletion date were crossed, lawmakers would face an unprecedented situation.

What happens next would depend on the interpretation of Constitutional law. That could prompt litigation, the report notes, including from beneficiaries who may not receive the benefits they were promised.

The task for insurance adjusters is enormous in the wake of back to back hurricanes Helene and Milton, which caused catastrophic damage across several southern states. For decades, these adjusters have used the same methods to assess property damage after natural disasters. They visit individual properties and use small airplanes with high resolution cameras to view damage to roofs, structures and neighborhoods. The planes speed the process and help prioritize specific claims.

New technology, however, using drones, artificial intelligence and weather balloons aims to modernize and accelerate that process. Near Space Labs, a Brooklyn, New York-based startup, invented “Swifts,” or stratospheric, AI-enabled robotic cameras that fly on weather balloons. Space Labs is using Swifts to assess property risk, but by next year, they will be deployed to assess damage from climate-related disasters.

“With our balloons and our Swifts, insurance companies are able to get access to information right after the catastrophe and assess the damage and pay out claims within days instead of weeks and months,” said Rema Matevosyan, CEO of Near Space Labs.

The giant weather balloons fly twice as high as airplanes cruise. The cameras provide high-resolution imagery over thousands of square miles, according to the company.

“Our balloons capture what 800,000 drones would with one flight,” Matevosyan said. “An airplane would be flying in a snake like pattern, back and forth, back and forth for weeks to capture the data that we can capture within hours. This means that we can be faster, better and cheaper for our customers.”

And it’s not just for use after a storm. Insurance and reinsurance companies, like Swiss Re, are using Near Space to help them understand and price risk. The imagery of specifics, like roof characteristics, surrounding vegetation and defensible space are all fed into customer AI datasets. That part is especially attractive to investors.

“If you are actually going to be able to use AI to do risk analysis, you need a cheap, abundant source of imagery, and we believe that at least over the next decade, Near Space is probably the cheapest way to do this,” said Shaun Abrahamson, Managing Partner at Third Sphere, an investor in Near Space Labs.

In addition to Third Sphere, Near Space Labs is backed by Crosslink Capital, Wireframe Ventures, IAG Firemark Ventures, Toyota Ventures and Leadout Capital. It has raised $24 million in funding.

Near space has flown more than 1,000 commercial missions to assess risk, but it is still ramping up its operations for disaster response. Matevosyan said that by next year it will have scaled to a point where it can react to major climate disaster events immediately. The entire Swift system fits in a suitcase and can be shipped to operators anywhere.

“The way our operators launch our platforms is you flick a switch, you attach it to a helium balloon and let it go. Everything else happens autonomously,” she said.

CNBC producer Lisa Rizzolo contributed to this piece.

Things were about to get a lot more serious — but not in the way couples often do.

In the weeks following their move, Chris found out that his father was planning to sell the family business, the Wheels Motel in Greybull, Wyoming.

Chris had some attachment to the place — he’d spent much of his childhood there — but hadn’t planned on coming back. “I did not really enjoy it as a child. It’s a lot of work,” he says. “And we never left. We never took a vacation. We did this place year-round.”

Still, knowing that his dad couldn’t run the motel forever, Chris had previously run the possibility of buying it by Roxanna. At the time she showed little interest. But after stints working at a bar and for a chocolatier, Roxanna had begun her first real 9-to-5 desk job doing marketing for a chiropractic office. She hated it.

“It was more like seven to seven,” she says. “I got physically ill from that. I had to go to the hospital and get fluids. I couldn’t keep anything down. It was my body telling me, ‘This is not working for you.'”

So when the couple received the call about the motel, “I was like, ‘Hold the phone,'” says Roxanna. “I know we just had our housewarming party, but we’re moving.” Though her memories of Greybull were hazy — she’d visited just once — “I knew in my gut, I knew in my heart, that this was gonna be my path,” she says.

So Chris and Roxanna — now ages 38 and 31, respectively — purchased the motel for about $483,000 in 2017, they say, fronting down payment out of Chris’ savings. (CNBC Make It was not able to independently verify this figure.)

In the years since, they’ve gotten married, welcomed their son, Ronan, now age 4, and gradually built the Wheels into a successful business. They paid off the mortgage for the motel in 2020, they say.

The motel is on track to bring in about $412,000 this year, based on 2024 revenue through August. So far, the couple has paid themselves roughly $115,500. That puts them on track for about $174,000 in annual income.

Overall, the motel is expected to turn an $81,000 profit in 2024.

And though the workload is heavy and the lifestyle can otherwise be a little slow, Roxanna has no regrets about the couple’s decision to move. “It took a long time to adjust to the small town life, but I freaking love it here,” she says. “It’s literally like my little oasis.”

‘We were starting from the ground up’

The Wheels Motel features 22 rooms, free Wi-Fi and complimentary banana bread and blueberry muffins, which Roxanna bakes daily. Situated in the Bighorn Basin, it’s about 100 miles from the east gate of Yellowstone National Park, 100 miles from the nearest interstate and about a two-hour drive from the nearest city, Billings, Montana. The town it’s located in, Greybull, is home to about 2,000 residents.

Chris’ father purchased the motel from his parents in the 90s, moved the family into one of the buildings and embarked on operating and expanding the business. So Chris knew the kind of work the motel would demand.

“Most of the time growing up here, I was either cleaning rooms or building the motel,” he says.

After graduating from high school, Chris spent four years in the Navy, where he first learned the importance of saving money. “They had several different programs for saving portions of your paycheck, which, I would argue, that’s a big secret,” he says. “A big secret to our financial success is just taking money out of your own hands, putting it somewhere you can’t touch it.”

Chris took a job with aerospace communications firm Harris before moving back to Wyoming to go back to school, first at a community college and then at the University of Wyoming. By then he’d met Roxanna, who, after graduating from Colorado State in 2015 with a degree in sociology and a minor in business, joined Chris in Laramie while he finished his degree in graphic design the following year.

They’d end up putting everything they’d learn to use as soon as they bought the motel. One of the buildings needed a new roof. The motel needed a new sign. Water heaters were down. Carpets needed to be replaced. The motel needed a new review system. The washers and dryers didn’t work.

“We were starting from the ground up,” Chris says. He estimates the couple spent more than $100,000 in the first two years refurbishing the place.

A ‘Monday through Sunday’ job

 Even after getting things up and running, the Harwoods’ work had just begun. After all, the motel is open seven days a week, and Chris and Roxanna are its only full-time employees.

“At 5:30, the alarm goes off, Monday through Sunday,” Roxanna says. “Someone has to roll out of bed and put the coffee out.”

The two carafes available to guests run on a timer. The banana bread and muffins have been made the night before.

Then it’s time to get their 4-year-old son Ronan dressed, fed and ready for the day. During the fall, he’s in preschool. Over the summer, he hangs out with Chris’ grandmother — who moved in last year — while Chris and Roxanna begin cleaning rooms and checking guests out at the front desk.

During their peak summer months, the couple might clean 10 to 15 rooms every morning. But it’s not always easy to concentrate on one task, Chris says.  

“If I’m cleaning a bathroom and there’s a phone call, and I have to make a reservation, I have to come all the way back up here,” he says. “If somebody rings the doorbell, I have to come back up to the front desk. Somebody catches me in the parking lot, I have to answer questions and speak to them.”

Tackling rooms is a team effort. Roxanna handles linens and surfaces while Chris tends to clean bathrooms. Chris’ father, who lives on the property, chips in some vacuuming and making beds. Grandma does a lot of the folding.

Chris makes lunch for everyone around noon or 1 p.m. after which the family takes a collective breather. “If we can get two to three hours a day in the middle of the day, that’s kind of our weekend,” Chris says. “And usually we just try to rest. We try to lay down and take a nap, personal hobbies, because then three or four o’clock, the doorbell starts ringing.”

Then it’s check-ins, dinner and off to bed as early as possible. Even though the office technically closes at 9 p.m., the motel maintains an open-door policy. It’s not unusual for one of the Harwoods to check someone in at 2 a.m.

The motel needs work that goes beyond the day-to-day tasks as well — if a water main breaks or the ice machine conks out, someone has to handle it. Chris and Roxanna try to do as much as they can personally to keep costs down. Last year, they hand painted about 70% of the exterior of the motel, before hiring pros to do the rest.

How they spend their money

The Harwoods’ personal finances are closely tied to the profitability of the motel. They more or less pay themselves as needed, when they can. That means, during leaner times, they don’t take much for themselves.

“When we first started the motel, we were paying ourselves basically nothing,” Chris says.

The same goes for 2022, a year in which a partial but highly publicized closure of Yellowstone tanked the motel’s reservations.

In many years, like in 2023, the motel’s expenses — including repairs, supplies and utilities, among others — exceed revenues. Last year, the couple paid themselves just $44,000.

This year, with fewer than expected repairs, things are looking rosier. “This will be one of maybe two or three years that we’ve shown profitability with the motel,” Chris says. “So that’s going to be huge for us.”

Here’s how the couple spent their money in August 2024.

• Household: $1,982 on routine expenses
• Food: $1,522 on groceries and dining out
• Camper: $1,296 on expenses related to a camper they purchased this year
• Insurance: $1,054 on auto, health, homeowners, life and camper policies
• Discretionary: $1,046 on health and wellness, clothing and entertainment expenses
• Savings and investments: $800 into Roxanna’s Acorns account; Chris makes larger ad hoc deposits into other accounts
• Unexpected expenses: $333 on auto parts and a trip to the vet
• Phones and Wi-Fi: $333
• Subscriptions and memberships: $289 in monthly Amazon, Hulu, Lovevery, Microsoft, Patreon and YouTube charges
• Gas: $157

Most Americans will look at that budget and see a major expense missing: housing. The couple say it took them a few years to pay off the mortgage they took out when buying the property. With the motel paid off, and the family living in a house connected to the property, the couple don’t pay a rent or mortgage. The Harwoods pay for their own Wi-Fi, but utilities are wrapped up in the business expenses.

Everyday household expenses do tend to add up, though, given how tricky it can be to get things in their part of the country. While they try to shop locally, “If I need something for for Ronan and I don’t have time to go to Billings, which I typically don’t, I use Amazon,” Roxanna says.

The couple owns three vehicles: a paid off 1995 Ford F-150, a 2022 BMW X5 M50i, which they plan to have paid off by the end of the year, and a camper, which they bought this year for $25,000 cash.

The latter was a big get for a family that can occasionally feel cooped up, Roxanna says.

“The Jayco camper was really important for me because it’s a way for us to unplug from the motel and leave,” she says. “There are no phones, there are no doorbells. In the mountains, it’s really important for me to be out in nature and be barefoot and ground.”

‘I’m really proud of us’

Chris and Roxanna are saving for the future — they’re just not exactly sure what that looks like yet. Chris says he aims to put about $300 a week into the stock and crypto markets, while occasionally making bigger investments when more money frees up from the motel’s profits.

All told, the couple has about $206,700 invested across brokerage accounts and cryptocurrency exchanges, they say. Chris hopes to push that number north of $2 million by the time he’s 50, at which point he’s considering calling it quits at the Wheels. That, he estimates, along with the sale of the motel and its two attached homes, would be enough for the couple to retire on.

“We talk a lot about potentially selling and going somewhere, but we struggle with the idea of where we would go and what we would do afterwards,” Chris says. “I wonder from time to time if this isn’t the kind of business that we’ll just save to hand over to my son so that he has something in the future.”

In the meantime, there’s still plenty of work to do at the motel.

“I don’t see us expanding the motel past the amount of rooms that we offer, but what I do see us doing is refurbishing and modernizing everything and potentially bringing more amenities online,” Chris says. “I would like to install steam rooms. I’d like to install maybe even a theater. At one point we’re going to expand the playground.”

For Roxanna, refurbishing the motel has come with the added bonus of being part of revitalizing a small town that felt like it was in a 30-year-old time capsule. She’s the secretary of Greybull’s Chamber of Commerce and painted a mural in town. The goal, she says, is to make it more of a destination, and “not just a pass-through town.”

When it comes to the original decision to relocate here, Roxanna has no regrets. “I’m really happy we did what we’ve done, and looking back on it all, I’m actually really proud of us,” she says. “It’s sometimes hard to maintain perspective and like, look how far we’ve come. This place is actually really cool now.”

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Some industries lend themselves to this type of arrangement. “A lot of remote jobs are tech jobs” for example, says John Mullinix, head of growth marketing at Ladders. But remote jobs can be found in a wide range of fields — including opportunities “that are upwards of $130,000,” says Toni Frana, career expert at FlexJobs.

Mullinix and Frana regularly scour their sites to see what employers are looking for and how much they’ll pay. Here are four jobs they say can be done remotely and often offer more than $110,000.

Sales engineer

This “engineer” is a salesperson that sells their business’s products and services to interested customers. They often have a high-level understanding of the inner workings of their products, including a technical expertise in software, for example.

“Experience would require some hard skills like familiarity with computer programs,” says Frana, “front-end frameworks, sometimes back-end frameworks.”

Sales engineers make a median of $116,950 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

HR manager

HR managers oversee the various human resources functions of an organization. These include recruiting, interviewing candidates, hiring, handling staff issues such as internal disputes and directing various administrative functions.

They make a median of $136,350 per year, according to BLS.

Product designer

“It’s the product designer’s job to figure out, ‘how do I create this product?'” says Mullinix. “What does it look like? What research needs to be done and feeds into it to create a good product?” This could include designing the product itself, working with other teams to build it and troubleshooting should it need any tweaks or fixes.

A senior product designer role at LinkedIn is currently offering as much as $195,000 per year.

Project manager

A project manager “takes a business-related project and manages it from start to finish,” says Mullinix. They’ll get requirements from leadership for the project, create a timeline for it and oversee its execution.

“It could be an HR project, it could be an engineering project, it could be a data analysis or reporting project,” says Mullinix. Ladders has seen a recent spike in demand for this role.

Project manager jobs on Indeed offer as much as $175,000 per year.

In terms of what it takes to get any of these jobs, many will require a bachelor’s degree but some companies might forgo that for experience and a great portfolio. “Depending on where you are, there’s definitely an opportunity for you,” says Mullinix.

Keep in mind, “a lot of candidates right now want remote work,” says Frana, adding that “the resume and cover letter are important. However, having a personal brand, utilizing LinkedIn and networking to be visible to people who are hiring” for these types of roles are also critical.

Want to earn more money at work? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Negotiate a Higher Salary. Expert instructors will teach you the skills you need to get a bigger paycheck, including how to prepare and build your confidence, what to do and say, and how to craft a counteroffer. Sign up today and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 50% off through Nov. 26, 2024.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.

If Mark Cuban was 16 years old again and “needed to make some extra money,” he’d start one specific side hustle in just three steps, he tells CNBC Make It.

First, he’d learn how to write prompts for artificial intelligence language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. Next, he’d teach his friends how to use those prompts on their school papers. “Then, I would go to businesses, particularly small- to medium-sized businesses that don’t understand AI yet,” says Cuban. “Doesn’t matter if I’m 16, I’d be teaching them as well.”

More than half of Gen Zers in the U.S. currently have side hustles, a LendingTree report found in February. AI prompt engineering — or, the ability to phrase inquiries to chatbots to get desired responses — can be a particularly lucrative opportunity. The average pay for AI tutors starts at about $30,000 per year, and full-time AI prompt engineers can make up to $129,500, according to job board platform ZipRecruiter.

DON’T MISS: The ultimate guide to earning passive income online

You don’t need a college degree to become an AI prompt engineer, but you do need practice — and, often, certifications — to learn how those large language models operate. Some online certification courses, like Vanderbilt University or IBM’s offerings on Coursera, say you can master the basics in one month.

Cuban’s hypothetical side hustle is more high-tech than his actual first job, selling garage bags door-to-door to his neighbors outside of Pittsburgh at age 12 to save up for a new pair of basketball shoes. He continued to earn extra cash as a teenager by selling collectibles like baseball cards, stamps, and coins, eventually helping him pay to attend Indiana University. There, he bartended, hosted parties with cover charges and even picked up work as a dance instructor.

After a brief post-college stint in banking, Cuban turned to entrepreneurship full-time. He sold his first company, a software startup called MicroSolutions, to CompuServe for $6 million in 1990. His second company, audio streaming service Broadcast.com, made him a billionaire when he sold it to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999.

Today, Cuban has a net worth of $5.7 billion, according to a Forbes estimate. He spends much of his time advocating for his online pharmacy Cost Plus Drugs, which aims to make a variety of common prescription drugs more affordable by selling them at cost, plus a 15% markup.

 “I was a hustler … I have always been selling,” he said during an episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank” that aired in 2016. “I always had something going on. That was just my nature.”

Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to “Shark Tank,” which features Mark Cuban as a panelist.

Want to make extra money outside of your day job? Sign up for CNBC’s online course How to Earn Passive Income Online to learn about common passive income streams, tips to get started and real-life success stories.

Salesforce shares jumped 98% in 2023 in part after the business software maker increased its adjusted operating margin after Starboard Value and other activist investors raised concerns about the company’s financial performance. Starboard now sees more room for improvement.

“They’ve been doing a great job executing, improving their margins, moving up in the Rule of 40 or Rule of 50 for their for their industry, and we think there’s a lot more to go,” Starboard CEO Jeff Smith told CNBC’s David Faber at the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit in New York on Tuesday.

The Rule of 40 refers to the idea that a company’s revenue growth rate and profit margin should add up to at least 40%. It became a more widely favored measurement in 2022 among software executives as share prices drifted lower, with investors worrying about central banks pushing up interest rates. For many years, many software companies prioritized fast growth at the expense of profitability.

Starboard argued in 2022 that, even as Salesforce ruled the market for customer relationship management software, it delivered a lower operating margin than some of its peers. Starboard revealed a holding in the stock and Salesforce responded by cutting thousands of employees and moving up its timeline for widening its adjusted operating margin.

Starboard had a $432 million Salesforce stake as of June 30, according to a regulatory filing.

Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s co-founder, chair and CEO, has said he “enjoyed getting to know” the activist investors who invested. Mason Morfit, co-CEO of ValueAct Capital, joined Salesforce’s board in March 2023. And by June 2023, most of the stock’s seven activists had moved on, Amy Weaver, Salesforce’s finance chief, said at a UBS event.

On Tuesday, Starboard said in a presentation that Salesforce “can continue to become more efficient and more profitable.” Other large software companies spend less on sales and marketing and general and administrative costs as a percentage of revenue, and Salesforce can catch up, according to the presentation. Starboard used an aggregate of Adobe, Intuit, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, ServiceNow and Workday for comparison.

And Starboard said Salesforce should commit to adhering to the Rule of 50 by the 2028 fiscal year. The activist firm laid out two scenarios, both of which involved Salesforce’s revenue growth accelerating and its adjusted operating margin widening.

The Agentforce technology for automating customer interactions, which Salesforce discussed at its Dreamforce conference in September, has the potential to boost revenue growth, Starboard said.

Salesforce shares slipped 1% during Tuesday’s trading session.

“We appreciate feedback and dialogue with our investor base. Starboard continues to be a constructive shareholder in our conversations,” a Salesforce spokesperson told CNBC in an email.

WATCH: Microsoft takes aim at Salesforce with new autonomous AI agents

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Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether, is set to speak Tuesday at the DC Fintech Week conference at Fannie Mae’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Tether is the company behind the largest stablecoin, USDT, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar. It is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap. USDT accounts for about 71% of the market of U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins, with a market cap of about $120 billion, according to CryptoQuant.

Tether has faced criticism over a lack of transparency, while USDT has come under fire for its alleged use by criminals. Nevertheless, it remains the most popular and most easily accessible stablecoin due to its ubiquity across global exchanges.

Ardoino’s remarks arrive as stablecoins become increasingly important to institutions. While the U.S. has been slow to implement clear rules for stablecoin operators and industry partners, Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation will fully take effect by the end of this year, which could have big implications for Tether.

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Anthropic, the Amazon-backed AI startup founded by former OpenAI research executives, announced Tuesday that it’s reached an artificial intelligence milestone for the company: AI agents that can use a computer to complete complex tasks like a human would.

Anthropic is the company behind Claude — one of the chatbots that, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, has exploded in popularity. Startups like Anthropic, alongside tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta, are all part of a generative AI arms race to ensure they don’t fall behind in a market predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade.

Anthropic’s new Computer Use capability, part of its two newest AI models, allows its tech to interpret what’s on a computer screen, select buttons, enter text, navigate websites and execute tasks through any software and real-time internet browsing.

The tool can “use computers in basically the same way that we do,” Jared Kaplan, Anthropic’s chief science officer, told CNBC in an interview, adding it can do tasks with “tens or even hundreds of steps.”

Amazon had early access to the tool, Anthropic told CNBC, and early customers and beta testers included Asana, Canva and Notion. The company has been working on the tool since early this year, according to Kaplan.

Anthropic released the feature Tuesday in public beta for developers. The team hopes to open up use to consumers and enterprise clients over the next few months, or early next year, per Kaplan.

Anthropic said that future consumer applications include booking flights, scheduling appointments, filling out forms, conducting online research and filing expense reports.

“We want Claude to be able to actually assist people with all sorts of different kinds of work, and we think the chatbot setup is fairly limited because you can ask a question and [get] context but it stops there,” Kaplan told CNBC.

What is an AI agent?

After the viral popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the industry quickly moved past text responses into AI-generated photos, videos and voice. Now, startups and Big Tech alike are going all in on AI agents.

Rather than just providing answers — the realm of chatbots and image generators — agents are built for productivity and to complete multistep, complex tasks on a user’s behalf. And though the term isn’t neatly defined across the tech sector, AI agents are viewed as a step beyond chatbots, in that they’re typically designed for specific business functions and can be customized on large AI models. Think of J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony Stark’s multifaceted AI assistant from the Marvel Universe.

Grace Isford, a partner at venture firm Lux Capital, told CNBC in June that there’s been a “dramatic increase” in interest among tech investors in startups focused on building AI agents. They’ve collectively raised hundreds of millions of dollars and seen their valuations climb alongside the broader generative AI market.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on an earnings call earlier this year that he wants to offer an AI agent that can complete more tasks on a user’s behalf, though there is “a lot of execution ahead.” Executives from Meta and Google have also touted their work in pushing AI agents to become increasingly productive.

Anthropic is competing with OpenAI on multiple fronts

Anthropic has become one of the hottest AI startups since it released the first version of Claude in March 2023, a product that directly competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT in both the enterprise and consumer markets, without any consumer access or major fanfare. Backers include Google, Salesforce and Amazon, Since January, it has introduced iOS and Android apps, a Team plan for businesses, and an international expansion into Europe.

″[We’re] moving to a world where these models will behave much more like virtual collaborators than virtual assistants,” Scott White, a product manager at Anthropic, told CNBC in September.

Anthropic’s Tuesday announcements are the latest step in its long-term strategy to build those virtual collaborators, or agents.

Last month, Anthropic rolled out Claude Enterprise, its biggest new product since its chatbot’s debut, designed for businesses looking to integrate Anthropic’s AI. The enterprise product’s beta testers and early clients included GitLab, Midjourney and Menlo Ventures, according to the company.

Claude Enterprise allows clients to upload relevant documents with a much larger context window than before — the equivalent of 100 30-minute sales conversations, 100,000 lines of code or 15 full financial reports, according to Anthropic. The plan also allows “activity feeds” for super-users within a company to show those newer to AI how others are using the technology, White said.

The Claude Enterprise launch followed Anthropic’s June debut of its more powerful Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and its May rollout of its “Team” plan for smaller businesses.

In June, Anthropic also announced “Artifacts,” which it said allows a user to ask its Claude chatbot to, for example, generate a text document or code and then opens the result in a dedicated window.

Artifacts, or “workspaces” that allow users to “see, edit and build upon Claude’s creations in real time,” White told CNBC in September, will allow Anthropic’s enterprise-level clients to create marketing calendars, feed in sales data, make dashboards or forecasts, draft code for features, write legal documents, summarize complex contracts, automate legal tasks and more.

Shortly after Anthropic’s debut of Teams in May, Mike Krieger, co-founder and former chief technology officer of Meta-owned Instagram, joined the company as chief product officer. Under Krieger, the platform grew to 1 billion users and its engineering team increased to more than 450 people, according to a press release. OpenAI’s former safety leader, Jan Leike, joined the company that same month.

“For those of us that were fortunate enough to work with him, he was the teacher of a lifetime,” Cook told The Wall Street Journal on Sunday. The lessons he picked up from his longtime mentor more than justified his decision to ignore doubters and leave a good job at Compaq to join Apple in 1998, he said.

“I thought I had a chance of a lifetime to work with a genius that started the entire industry,” said Cook.

Cook was particularly “enamored” with one specific skill he learned from Jobs, he said: “Not to be married to my past views. Not to be so proud you can’t change your mind when you’re presented with new evidence in things. He could change like this. I, initially, was sort of taken aback by that. And, then I became so enamored with it.”

Cook went on to call Jobs’ willingness to change his mind on any topic “a brilliant skill” — and one that’s less common than you might think.

“Very few people have that skill, because they get married to their past views,” said Cook.

People often form opinions based on emotions, like fear or anger, making it much more difficult for them to stray from their long-held beliefs, research shows. Those cognitive biases are often so strong that even a new set of clear facts might not convince a person to change their mind, University of Connecticut human development professor Keith Bellizzi wrote in 2022.

The ability to change your mind can be of great benefit to leaders, who often rely on research and opinions from employees to shape their decision-making. Seeking out and weighing a range of informed opinions, which psychologists also call “cognitive flexibility,” is key to getting smarter and making better decisions, research shows.

One of Amazon’s famous leadership principles, penned by founder Jeff Bezos, is that good leaders “are right, a lot.” The idea isn’t that people who know everything should become leaders — it’s that you increase your chances of being right by proactively seeking out differing opinions and being willing to change your mind.

“With practice, you can be right more often,” Bezos said in a speech at the Pathfinder Awards in Seattle in 2016. “People who are right a lot, they listen a lot, and people who are right a lot, change their mind a lot.”

Bezos passed that attitude to his successor, current Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. “I often question my most closely held beliefs on a particular topic to see if they’re really right,” Jassy said in July. “The key is to get the right people involved in giving feedback, listen to the different perspectives and then think about the best possible answer for customers or for the business. It doesn’t matter if it was your idea or not.”

Similarly, Jobs passed the trait to his successor, Cook.

“He loved to debate and he loved [having] someone to debate him,” Cook added. “And, you could always change his mind if you had the best idea. We changed each other’s minds. That’s the reason it worked so well.”

Want to earn more money at work? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Negotiate a Higher Salary. Expert instructors will teach you the skills you need to get a bigger paycheck, including how to prepare and build your confidence, what to do and say, and how to craft a counteroffer. Start today and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 50% off through November 26, 2024.

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But have you ever thought about negotiating your exit from the company?

Doing so helped Tessa White, a career coach with 20 years of HR experience and founder of The Job Doctor, weather a layoff earlier in her career.

“The smartest thing I ever did was, I pre-negotiated my severance agreement,” White tells CNBC Make It.

At the time, White was up for a head of HR position for UnitedHealth Group.

She didn’t anticipate they’d actually change their severance policy, “but I was a single parent raising three children at the time, and I wanted to make sure if I [joined the company], that I would be protected from unknowns,” she says.

DON’T MISS: The ultimate guide to negotiating a higher salary

She likens it to when a couple gets a prenuptial agreement before marriage. “When they love you at the company” and want to hire you “is the time to negotiate your severance,” she says.

Her pre-negotiated severance paid off

By negotiating her severance early on, White says she could assure her new boss she was committed to the job while also future-proofing her career and finances.

She told her hiring manager, “Look, I have a lot of confidence in myself. I know I will do a good job for you,” she says. “I’m not asking for severance in the event I’m terminated for performance.”

Then, she made the case for additional financial security. She continued: “I’m taking a chance on something that’s really steady for me now to go into a new company, and I want to make sure that I am able to have the security that I’ll land on my feet if the unexpected happens” like a merger, acquisition or another shift in business priorities.

The company agreed to extend her severance pay from two months of coverage to four in the event White was let go for reasons unrelated to her performance.

As it happens, the company changed ownership several years later, moved its headquarters and asked White to move or lose her job with severance.

Knowing she’d secured extra severance coverage “made all of the panic go away when I heard the big changes that were ahead,” she says. “I knew I could care for my family and land on my feet.”

She now passes along the advice to others: “I tell my clients to do that all the time,” she says, and “every time I’ve had a client ask for that, they’ve gotten it.”

What you can negotiate in a severance agreement

Certain terms of severance agreements can be negotiated once a layoff is initiated, but there isn’t always a ton of flexibility. Companies generally have a policy around how much severance they pay out according to the employee’s years of service, for example, but it could be worthwhile to ask for longer coverage if you’re a star performer or in a senior role.

Severance is paid either as a lump sum or in installments, and you could negotiate for one method over another depending on your financial situation.

You may have more wiggle room negotiating the number of months or amount of coverage the company will provide through COBRA, White says.

Other post-layoff negotiations are less likely unless your termination is risky for the company and could result in a lawsuit.

Generally, White says, it’s much easier to have the severance discussion before a layoff actually happens, and “hard on the back-end, if not impossible.”

Want to earn more money at work? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Negotiate a Higher Salary. Expert instructors will teach you the skills you need to get a bigger paycheck, including how to prepare and build your confidence, what to do and say, and how to craft a counteroffer. Pre-register now and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 50% off through Nov. 26, 2024.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced a higher estate and gift tax exemption for 2025.

The “basic exclusion amount” rises to $13.99 million per person in 2025, up from $13.61 million in 2024, the agency said Tuesday. The exemptions apply to tax-free transfers during life and at death.

The IRS also boosted figures for dozens of other provisions, including federal income tax brackets, long-term capital gains tax brackets and eligibility for the earned income tax credit, among others.  

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After 2025, the higher estate and gift tax exemption enacted by former President Donald Trump will sunset without action from Congress. If the provision expires, the exclusion will revert to 2017 levels, adjusted for inflation. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the exemption to $11.18 million in 2018, according to the Tax Policy Center.

The IRS has unveiled higher capital gains tax brackets for 2025.

In its announcement Tuesday, the agency boosted the taxable income limits for the long-term capital gains brackets, which apply to assets owned for more than one year.  

The IRS also increased figures for dozens of other provisions, including federal income tax brackets, the estate and gift tax exemption and eligibility for the earned income tax credit, among others.

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The capital gains rate you pay is based on which bracket you fall into based on taxable income. 

You calculate taxable income by subtracting the greater of the standard or itemized deductions from your adjusted gross income. For 2025, the standard deduction will rise to $15,000 for single filers and $30,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Starting in 2025, single filers will qualify for the 0% long-term capital gains rate with taxable income of $48,350 or less and married couples filing jointly are eligible with $96,700 or less. 

The IRS has announced new federal income tax brackets and standard deductions for 2025.

In its announcement Tuesday, the agency raised the income thresholds for each bracket, which applies to tax year 2025 for returns filed in 2026. The top rate of 37% applies to individuals with taxable income above $626,350 and married couples filing jointly earning $751,600 or more for 2025.  

The IRS also boosted figures for dozens of other provisions, including long-term capital gains brackets, estate and gift tax exemption and eligibility for the earned income tax credit, among others. 

More from Personal Finance:
Tax brackets may increase after 2025. It could affect your brokerage account
Buying a home? Here are key steps to consider from top-ranked advisors
Trump’s tax cuts could expire after 2025. How advisors are preparing

Federal tax brackets for 2025

Federal income tax brackets show how much you owe on each part of your “taxable income,” which you calculate by subtracting the greater of the standard or itemized deductions from your adjusted gross income.

After 2025, lower taxes enacted by former President Donald Trump will sunset without action from Congress. If the provision expires, the tax brackets will revert to 2017 levels, shifting to 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35% and 39.6%.

Higher standard deduction

The standard deduction will also increase in 2025, rising to $30,000 for married couples filing jointly, up from $29,200 in 2024. Starting in 2025, single filers can claim $15,000, a bump from $14,600.

Trump’s tax cuts also included higher standard deductions, which will sunset after 2025 if Congress doesn’t extend that tax break. 

Boeing has already braced investors for a rough quarterly report. Now, new CEO Kelly Ortberg has the chance to share his vision for the troubled manufacturer, from a potential strike-ending labor agreement to a slimmed-down future.

When he takes the mic for his first earnings call as Boeing’s CEO on Wednesday, more than 32,000 striking machinists will start voting on a new, sweetened contract proposal. Results of the labor vote are expected Wednesday night.

Analysts are cautiously optimistic that the new proposal, which requires a simple majority of the vote, could pass, putting an end to the more than five-week work stoppage that has halted most of the company’s production of airplanes and added to its cash burn of about $8 billion in the first half of the year. Boeing last posted an annual profit in 2018.

“I think it’s going to be a tight vote,” Jon Holden, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751, told CNBC on Tuesday.

During Boeing’s earnings call, investors, analysts and the public could get clues from Ortberg about what Boeing will look like in the coming years as well as clearer estimates on the company’s production targets for the next year.

Executives at key Boeing suppliers GE Aerospace and RTX told investors on Tuesday that they are looking toward the work stoppage ending with a new agreement.

RTX CFO Neil Mitchill said on an earnings call that in the company’s Collins unit, commercial aircraft component sales to manufacturers will be flat this year, down from mid-single-digit growth it previously forecast.

“This outlook assumes that we’re able to restart some level of shipments to Boeing in the fourth quarter, and we see no change to the long-term structural demand” for products to plane makers, he said.

Narrowing businesses

Ortberg, a longtime aerospace veteran who previously ran Rockwell Collins, took the reins at Boeing in early August. His tall order was to right the ship.

The year began with a terrifying midair door plug blowout on one of Boeing’s new 737 Max planes after it left the factory without key bolts reinstalled. The near-catastrophe occurred just as the company’s leaders were hoping to have regained the trust of regulators years after two deadly crashes killed 346 people, the first of them six years ago this month.

Instead, Boeing’s rebuilding year is getting pushed to 2025, and Ortberg has hinted at big changes ahead, promising employees and the public greater focus at the 108-year-old company. Earlier this month, he said Boeing will slash 10% of its global workforce, about 170,000 people.

“We need to be clear-eyed about the work we face and realistic about the time it will take to achieve key milestones on the path to recovery,” he told employees in an Oct. 11 message. “We also need to focus our resources on performing and innovating in the areas that are core to who we are, rather than spreading ourselves across too many efforts that can often result in underperformance and underinvestment.”

When Ortberg speaks at 10:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, investors will be on the lookout for clues about what a smaller Boeing could look like, and which programs or assets could be on the chopping block.

“We believe [Boeing] is poised for further restructuring as the company looks to potentially divest parts of the portfolio and continues to focus on strengthening its supply chain,” said RBC analyst Ken Herbert in a note Sunday.

Raising cash

Boeing said earlier this month that it will post a nearly $10-per-share loss for the third quarter and report charges of about $5 billion in its defense and commercial businesses, where problems have spanned from manufacturing defects on passenger planes to problems with a refueling tanker and the delay of two 747s that will serve as new Air Force One jets.

As it bleeds cash, Boeing last week revealed plans to raise as much as $25 billion in debt or equity or a combination of both.

Ratings agencies warned in recent weeks that Boeing could lose its investment-grade rating and the company is planning to increase liquidity.

Mending ties with workers, stabilizing supply chain

The results of the union vote will come out hours after the earnings call. Meanwhile, the strike is costing Boeing $1 billion a month, according to S&P Global Ratings estimates.

Workers had complained that an earlier proposal wasn’t enough to combat the skyrocketing cost of living in the Seattle area over the past 16 years since the last contract was signed. In that time, high-paying jobs at technology companies flooded the area, driving up the cost of homes, the union said.

The union rejected a previously sweetened offer that Boeing called its “best and final.” The new proposal includes 35% raises, compared with the original tentative agreement’s 25%, as well as a $7,000 signing bonus, additional 401(k) contributions and other improvements.

Boeing also said it remains committed to building its next jetliner in the Puget Sound area, a major sticking point with workers who saw Boeing move 787 Dreamliner production to a nonunion factory in South Carolina.

Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su met with both parties earlier this month to work toward a deal.

Holden said the latest proposed wage increases are the highest the union has negotiated.

The union had originally sought wage increases of more than 40%. Many workers had also wanted a reinstatement of a pension.

“Sometimes, that’s how bargaining goes,” Holden said Tuesday. “You set your sights high, you set lofty goals to try to press further and further to expand what you can provide for your members. You never get everything you want, but we did very well and it was the responsible decision to put this in front of our membership.”

The aerospace industry, which is heavily reliant on Boeing’s success, is appealing directly to President Joe Biden to help put an end to the strike.

Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which makes fuselages for the 737, last week said it would temporarily furlough 700 workers but said it could resort to layoffs or more furloughs if the strike goes on. Meanwhile, Boeing has cut back orders for suppliers on several programs to save cash.

“Because the aerospace supply chain is vast and interconnected, the ramifications of this strike extend beyond a single company, affecting countless suppliers across the nation,” the Aerospace Industries Association wrote in a letter to Biden. “We urge you to continue engaging with all stakeholders involved to seek a prompt and equitable resolution as soon as possible before the effects become even more pronounced.”

— CNBC’s Phil LeBeau contributed to this report.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones is raising alarms about the U.S. government’s current fiscal deficit and the increased spending promised by both presidential candidates, saying the bond market may force the government’s hand after the election in addressing it.

“We are going to be broke really quickly unless we get serious about dealing with our spending issues,” Jones told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on Tuesday.

The founder and chief investment officer of Tudor Investment said he was worried that government spending could cause a big sell-off in the bond market, spiking interest rates. He said he plans to not own fixed income and will be betting against the longer-dated part of the bond market.

“The question is after this election will we have a Minsky moment here in the United States and U.S. debt markets?” Jones said, referring to shorthand for a dramatic decline in asset prices.

“Will we have a Minsky moment where all of a sudden there’s a point of recognition that what they’re talking about is fiscally impossible, financially impossible?” he continued.

The federal deficit for the 2024 fiscal year soared above $1.8 trillion, according to the Treasury Department, 8% higher than 2023.

The government offsets this deficit by selling Treasury bonds, and the time profile of the bonds and the cadence of the sales are closely watched by Wall Street traders. The increase in interest rates over the past three years is another concern for many economists and traders, as it makes the annual cost of the debt higher for the government.

Jones pointed out in the interview that budget deficits increased under the administrations of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, and said that Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are “least suited for the job ahead of them” in regard to the budget. He also said he is still concerned about inflation, particularly if Trump wins.

The hedge fund manager said there are multiple ways for the government to better align its spending but that it could require significant changes, such as allowing the tax cuts from Trump’s first term to expire or a major reduction of the federal workforce.

Jones founded his hedge fund more than four decades ago and rose to prominence by correctly predicting the stock market crash of 1987.

To get the idea off the ground, Bell took his idea to game developer Niantic, which created Pokémon Go and sponsors a Black Developers Initiative that financially supports Black game developers. Niantic initially rejected Bell’s pitch, so he emailed the company’s CEO once per week for three months — ultimately securing $150,000 in startup funds, Bell said.

“That’s brilliant, and I hate you, because now everybody out there is going to send us 600 emails a week,” investor judge Mark Cuban told Bell in response. (A Niantic spokesperson confirmed Bell’s account to CNBC Make It.)

Bell, 26, went on “Shark Tank” to ask the show’s investors for more funding. His Austin-based app, Card.io, is a social game where users compete for turf in their city by walking, running or biking. The app is free, with individual and group subscription tiers that remove ads and offer social media-type functions for members.

Card.io brought in $4,000 in revenue, with customers in 70 different countries, the month before the episode was filmed, said Bell. He asked the show’s panel for $150,000 — to spend on product and user growth, and Android app development, he now tells Make It — in exchange for a 5% equity stake in his company, which was founded in 2022.

Bell is a longtime “Shark Tank” viewer, he added: His mom initially encouraged him to start watching the show when he was 10, to help fix his lisp and stutter. “I told my mom, ‘We’re going to be on this show one day, Mom, and I’m going to bring you,'” he said.

‘I got to be part of this’

A few of the judges quickly dropped out. Lori Greiner and Mark Cuban both said they probably couldn’t help the business grow much, and Kevin O’Leary said he didn’t have enough data to justify the investment.

That left Daymond John and guest investor Rashaun Williams, a venture capitalist and minority owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. The pair teamed up to offer Bell $150,000, in exchange for 15% of his company. Bell countered with 10%, which the investors rejected.

Then Bell asked a question: “Can I go talk to my mom?” Bell’s mom came on stage and encouraged him to accept the offer on the table. He agreed, and the deal was finalized after the episode’s taping, Bell now says.

On the show, Williams and John said they offered Bell a deal because they appreciated his determination and grit.

“I got to be part of this, and I don’t care how I’m part of this,” said John, the founder and longtime CEO of apparel company FUBU. “I love your energy. I did the same thing. I just did it with a phone. Forty years ago, I made 50 calls a day for six months, until people picked up.”

How to write a great cold email

Cold pitches really can work: Cuban, for example, purchased online pharmacy Cost Plus Drugs after responding to a shot-in-the-dark email from its founder, Alex Oshmyansky. A well-written cold email requires research to find the right recipient, establishing a connection with that person, frankness and patience, experts say.

“Connections are key,” Monster career expert Vicki Salemi told Make It last year. “Leverage the subject line in the email. Something like, “Hello from an [insert alma mater name] alum” or “Networking via [insert mutual contact’s name]” or the [professional industry organization].”

Then, get to the point: Ask directly for what you want, describe what makes you stand out and keep your email short. Once you’ve checked it over for spelling errors and sent it, try hard to be patient.

“It may take a day or two,” said Salemi. “It may take a week or two and that’s OK, that’s normal and similar to the job search.”

Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to “Shark Tank.”

Want to earn more money at work? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Negotiate a Higher Salary. Expert instructors will teach you the skills you need to get a bigger paycheck, including how to prepare and build your confidence, what to do and say, and how to craft a counteroffer. Start today and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 50% off through November 26, 2024.

Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries and two other men were arrested on charges of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution that allegedly occurred when Jeffries was leading the iconic clothing brand, authorities said Tuesday.

Jeffries, 80, and his romantic partner Matthew Smith are accused of coercing men into sex acts and paying for dozens of others to travel around the world to have sex with them for money, often leading the men to believe it would result in modeling work for Abercrombie.

The third defendant, James Jacobson, 71, was employed to recruit men “to perform commercial sex acts” for Jeffries and the 61-year-old Smith, according to a graphic, 16-count indictment in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

The indictment, which alleges criminal conduct spanning from 2008 to 2015, says that in some instances Jeffries and Smith engaged in “non-consensual” sexual activity with the men, who were trafficked in the U.S. and to England, France, Italy, Morocco and St. Barts at the cost of millions of dollars.

“Many of the victims, at least one of whom was as young as 19 years old, were financially vulnerable and aspired to become models in the fashion industry, a notoriously cut-throat world,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

“Indeed, some of the men they recruited had previously worked at Abercrombie stores or modeled for Abercrombie.”

Jeffries served as CEO from 1992 through 2014 at Abercrombie. The company is in the midst of a comeback under CEO Fran Horowitz, who took the reins in 2017.

All three defendants face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted of sex trafficking, and the potential for a life sentence on that charge alone.

The criminal case comes a year after the clothing company, Jeffries and Smith were sued in Manhattan federal court for allegedly turning a blind eye to sexual misconduct by the former CEO.

Jeffries and Smith are accused in that civil class-action complaint of operating a sex trafficking ring that exploited young men who had hoped to become models for the company.

“The message from today’s prosecution is clear: Sexually exploiting vulnerable human beings is a crime, and doing so by dangling of dreams of a future in fashion or modeling or any other business is no different,” Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said at a news conference Tuesday.

Jeffries was arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida. Smith also was arrested in that state.

At a hearing in federal court in West Palm Beach, a magistrate judge allowed Jeffries to be released on a $10 million bond, but said the former CEO must remain in his home and wear a GPS monitoring device.

Smith was ordered held pending his arraignment at a later date in federal court in New York. Prosecutors want him detained without bond because he is a citizen of the United Kingdom and therefore “poses the must substantial risk of flight.”

Jacobson was arrested in Wisconsin, where he lives. He was released on a $500,000 bond after making his initial appearance in federal court in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Tuesday afternoon.

Jeffries and Jacobson are set to be arraigned on Friday at 3 p.m. ET in federal court in Central Islip, Long Island, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Tiscione.

All three men are charged with one count of sex trafficking, and 15 counts of interstate prostitution. Each prostitution charge carries a maximum possible prison sentence of 20 years.

The three defendants will be arraigned in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York at a later date, according to a spokesman for Peace.

Brian Bieber, an attorney for Jeffries, told NBC News in a statement, “We will respond in detail to the allegations after the Indictment is unsealed, and when appropriate, but plan to do so in the courthouse – not the media.”

Brittany Henderson, an attorney for the plaintiff in the civil suit, told CNBC, “Today’s arrests are monumental for the aspiring male models who were victimized by these individuals.”

“Their fight for justice does not end here. We look forward to holding Abercrombie and Fitch liable for facilitating this terrible conduct and ensuring that this cannot happen again,” Henderson said.

Abercrombie & Fitch declined to comment.

The criminal indictment alleges that Jeffries and Smith, using Jeffries’ family office, allegedly hired and paid “an exclusive set of household staff” to facilitate “Sex Events,” which included arranging physical spaces and transporting the men.

Household staff acted as security for the events, and provided the participants, including Jeffries and Smith, with alcohol, drugs, and sex paraphernalia, the indictment alleges.

Jacobson or other staff paid the men recruited for the sessions, according to the indictment.

The defendants allegedly used “coercive, fraudulent and deceptive” recruiting tactics, including by leading men “to believe that attending the Sex Events could yield modeling opportunities with Abercrombie or otherwise benefit their careers,” the indictment says.

They also allegedly required prospective candidates to participate in “tryouts” with Jacobson.

The defendants are accused of misleading the men about the nature of the events, including by “incorporating Abercrombie products” into them or sending advance itineraries that resembled those used in photo shoots.

The men were forced to sign nondisclosure agreements and hand over personal items during the events, according to the indictment.

And “on more than one occasion,” Jeffries and Smith allegedly caused the men to inject their penises with a substance to induce erections — an act that “frequently caused the men to suffer painful physical reactions that lasted for several hours.”

The previously filed civil lawsuit says Abercrombie has settled several complaints “related to improper acts of Jeffries or Smith, some of which were related to sexual harassment or abuse.”

An amended complaint in that case, filed in September, notes that the BBC found after a 2023 investigation that “Jeffries and Smith sexually exploited what is believed to be over 100 men during Abercrombie events they hosted around the world.”

Jeffries led Abercrombie through its most explosive growth years in the 1990s and 2000s and used sex appeal to build an empire.

Under his direction, the brand became known for its use of half-naked models, sexually charged marketing and troops of shirtless men who were frequently positioned outside of its mall stores.

The accuser of Jeffries who sued the company last year, David Bradberry, said he was recruited for a modeling opportunity in 2010 and an associate of Jeffries made it clear that he needed to perform oral sex on him if he wanted to get the job and eventually meet with Jeffries.

Bradberry obliged and later went to a casting event at Jeffries’ house in the Hamptons that appeared to be a “legitimate Abercrombie-sponsored function” because the function included a meeting with Jeffries and he had to wear the brand’s clothes, according to his civil claim.

However, instead of a professional modeling event, Bradberry said in court records he was raped by Jeffries while four apparent security guards, dressed in Abercrombie clothing, watched.

Following the event, Bradberry was flown to Nice, France, and was again forced to perform sex acts on Jeffries, his complaint states.

The lawsuit, when amended in September to seek class-action status, alleged that similar events happened to more than 100 other victims and that Abercrombie did not do enough to stop it.

When the lawsuit was filed in October 2023, an Abercrombie spokesperson told CNBC the company does not comment on pending litigation.

But Abercrombie told the BBC last year that it was “appalled and disgusted” by Jeffries’ alleged behavior and had contacted an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation into the issues raised by the news outlet.

“The company’s current executive leadership team and board of directors were not aware of the allegations of sexual misconduct by Mr. Jeffries,” the company told the BBC.

“For close to a decade, a new executive leadership team and refreshed board of directors have successfully transformed our brands and culture into the values-driven organization we are today,” Abercrombie said.

“We have zero tolerance for abuse, harassment or discrimination of any kind.”

The company has ditched the sexualized models and skintight clothes that made the store a go-to for teenage mall shoppers in the 1990s and 2000s, but later stirred controversy and fell out of favor with consumer trends.

Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch are up nearly 80% so far this year, after outperforming tech stars like Nvidia and Meta in 2023.

LONDON — The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday raised its 2024 growth outlook for the United Kingdom, saying declines in interest rates and inflation would boost domestic demand.

The IMF now sees 1.1% growth for the U.K. economy this year, up from a July forecast of 0.7%. The agency also reiterated its forecast for a 1.5% expansion in 2025.

Inflation in the U.K. came in at 1.7% in September, a decline from 11.1% in October 2022. Lower rates of services inflation and wage growth have led economists over the last week to forecast a faster pace of interest rate cuts from the Bank of England, forecasting the central bank will take its key rate from 5.25% at the start of the year to 4.5% by the end of 2024.

Economic growth has been tepid so far this year, coming in at 0.2% in August after flatlining in June and July.

The IMF’s brighter outlook comes as the country braces for the center-left Labour Party to this month deliver its first budget in 14 years. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has warned that the package will contain “tough” decisions in order to fill what he claims is a looming £22 billion ($28.5 billion) financing shortfall — a figure disputed by his predecessors in the Conservative Party — after Labour committed to slash net borrowing.

While Starmer has ruled out increases to some major taxes, including on income and corporations, a broader package of tax hikes is anticipated. Uncertainty over the budget weighed on consumer confidence readings in August, though the S&P Global UK Consumer Sentiment Index released Monday showed households were slightly more optimistic about their finances and more willing to make large purchases.

“It’s welcome that the IMF have upgraded our growth forecast for this year, but I know there is more work to do,” Finance Minister Rachel Reeves, who took office in July, said Tuesday. Labour has previously pledged to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 group of nations and make higher growth the core focus of its policymaking.

On Tuesday, the IMF also trimmed its 2024 growth outlook for the euro zone to 0.8% from 0.9% previously, forecasting stagnation in the bloc’s biggest economy Germany. Analysts flag a multitude of challenges facing the German economy, including intense competition for the country’s autos and wider manufacturing products, along with higher energy prices and macro uncertainty weighing on its industrial production.

Among other so-called “advanced economies,” the IMF forecasts economic expansion of 2.8% in the U.S., 1.3% in Canada and just 0.3% in Japan, which has suffered from weak demand this year amid high inflation.

The 31-year-old ended a 40-year-drought for the U.S. by placing first in the women’s road race; she also took home the women’s track cycling team pursuit gold. Just a few weeks later, she was the highest-placing American rider in the Tour de France Femmes.

And yet just a few years ago, cycling was all but a hobby for Faulkner, who picked up the sport in 2017 when she moved to New York to work as a venture capitalist.

“I needed an outdoors fix,” Faulkner told NBC News, recalling how she signed up for an introductory women’s cycling clinic in Central Park. 

Faulkner grew up hiking and rowing in Homer, Alaska and competed on the women’s crew team at Harvard University, where she graduated in 2016. 

What started as a fun workout quickly turned into a passion for Faulkner, who quit venture capital to commit to the sport full-time in 2021 — a move that she assumed would be a brief detour from her career. 

“I was thinking about doing it for one, maybe two, and then reevaluating,” she told New York Magazine’s the Cut in a recent interview. 

Instead, Faulkner, who now rides for the American Continental Women Team EF-Oatly-Cannondale, said she’s developed an even deeper passion for the sport: the competitiveness, the camaraderie with her teammates, even the constant grind of training. Faulkner, who now lives in Girona, Spain, rides for three hours a day. 

There were times after switching careers when Faulkner felt isolated and uncertain about her future — no one in her family had been a professional athlete, and none of her cycling teammates had made the transition to the sport so late in life, either. But she trusted her instincts. 

“I never regretted it,” she told the Cut. “But a lot of my VC peers, my family, my friends, were like, ‘Is she having a quarter-life crisis?'”

Leaving a job with six-figure prospects to make $25,000 as a pro athlete

Faulkner didn’t jump into her new career without a safety net. 

“My big thing before leaving my job was that I wanted to have a year of savings so I’d be able to support myself,” she said. “If I didn’t get a contract after my first year, then I would reevaluate.” 

Some financial planners recommend saving enough money to cover 12 months of living expenses (rent/mortgage, transportation, insurance, food, debt repayments, etc.) before quitting a job without another one lined up.

In her first year of competitive cycling, Faulkner earned just $7,000. “I couldn’t live off that,” she said, so she kept her job as an investor at Threshold Ventures, a VC firm based in San Francisco.

Another reason Faulkner wanted to continue working in venture capital was so she’d have at least 5 years of professional experience before taking a hiatus. 

 “I wanted to have credibility in the VC field so that if I ever went back to it, I would be able to say, ‘Here’s my résumé, here’s why I’m employable,” she shared.

By her second year, Faulkner’s cycling earnings jumped to $25,000, and along with her savings, she finally felt ready to take the plunge. 

“I was like, ‘Okay, I can be good at this,'” she recalls. “‘I have enough financial savings, and I have a résumé to point to.'”

How therapy helped her navigate a major career change

Preparing financially wasn’t the only hurdle Faulkner faced in switching careers. 

During an April 2023 episode of  “The Hard Way” podcast, Faulkner said she worked with a therapist for a year and a half to overcome her fear of leaving venture capital. “Emotionally, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but intellectually, I couldn’t accept the risk at the time,” she said.

Faulkner worried that if cycling didn’t work out, she would be “completely broke without a job,” and that quitting venture capital meant letting go of some of the goals she had been working toward, like becoming a partner at a venture capital fund by 30.

“It’s one thing to leave what you’re doing, and it’s another thing to leave behind these goals that you’ve envisioned for yourself for so many years, to just let them go,” she said. “There were a lot of risks, and I was terrified.”

Leaving a job she loved wasn’t easy either. “I didn’t want to let my bosses down — they were the best managers I’d ever had,” Faulkner said. 

What helped her navigate the emotional toll of quitting her job, she added, was visualizing how future her would feel about the decision. 

“I realized that the worst case scenario wasn’t being broke, it was being 80 years old and looking back on my life and being like, ‘Wow, I really wish I’d done that,” she said. “Even if it didn’t work out, I knew I would regret it if I didn’t try.” 

As soon as Faulkner quit, she said, that fear was placed with unbridled optimism. “I felt like my entire life was just a blank canvas, and I could go write anything on it that I wanted,” she said on the podcast. “And I can dream up any possibility and make it happen.”

Looking ahead, Faulkner has no plans to retire from cycling. She’s already eyeing the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and possibly beyond. “If I keep getting better and I’m still enjoying it, I’m not going to stop,” she told the Cut.

She’s also committed to advocating for equality in women’s cycling, noting that while salaries have improved, there’s still a long way to go. 

“Most women are making between $60,000 and $80,000 a year, whereas an equivalent man might make $300,000 to $500,000,” Faulkner said. “So my goal in my cycling career is to see greater equality before I leave.” 

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Much of the world has managed to successfully lower inflation and engineer an economic soft landing, avoiding recession, but faces rising geopolitical risks and weaker long-term growth prospects, according to the International Monetary Fund. 

Global headline inflation will fall to 3.5% on an annual basis by the end of 2025, from an average 5.8% in 2024, the agency said in its World Economic Outlook released Tuesday. Inflation peaked at a year-over-year rate of 9.4% in the third quarter of 2022. The year-end 2025 rate is slightly below the average annual rise in prices in the two decades before the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“The global battle against inflation is almost won,” the IMF report trumpeted, even as it called for “a policy triple pivot” to address interest rates, government spending, and reforms and investment to boost productivity.

“Despite the good news on inflation, downside risks are increasing and now dominate the outlook,” said the IMF’s chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas. Now that inflation is headed in the right direction, global policymakers face a new challenge stemming from the rate of growth in the world economy, the IMF warned.

The fund kept its global growth estimate at 3.2% for 2024 and 2025 — which it called “stable yet underwhelming.” The United States is now forecast to see faster growth, and strong expansions are also likely in emerging Asian economies as a result of robust artificial intelligence-related investments. But the IMF lowered its outlook for other advanced economies — notably the largest European nations — as well as several emerging markets, blaming intensifying global conflicts and ensuing risk to commodity prices. 

Vigilance needed in final stretch of disinflation 

The Washington-based IMF, with 190 member countries, said in its overview that responsive monetary policy was key to bringing down inflation while labor market conditions normalized and supply shocks unwound, all of which helped avoid a global recession. 

Central banks will need to remain vigilant in fully bringing down inflation, the report warned. It added that services inflation still remains nearly double pre-pandemic levels as wages in certain countries continue catching up to an increase in the cost of living, leading several emerging market economies such as Brazil and Mexico to see an uptick in inflationary pressures. 

“While inflation expectations have remained well anchored this time around, it may be harder next time, as workers and firms will be more vigilant in protecting their standards of living and profits going forward,” the report stated.

Lower-income countries, where food and energy costs account for a greater share of household expenses, are also more sensitive to spikes in commodity prices that could lead to higher inflation. Poorer countries are already under greater stress from sovereign debt repayments, which could further limit funding for public programs. 

Market volatility among key downside risks 

Heightened financial volatility is another threat to global growth, the IMF report said. Sudden market sell-offs, such as occurred in early August, were cited by the IMF as a key risk that clouds the economic outlook. Although markets have steadied since the brief August slump, fueled by an unwinding of the yen carry trade and weaker-than-expected U.S. labor market data, worries remain, according to the fund. 

“The return of financial market volatility over the summer has stirred old fears about hidden vulnerabilities. This has heightened anxiety over the appropriate monetary policy stance,” the report said. 

Further challenges to global financial markets could come in the final stretch of the fight against inflation. Market turbulence and contagion is a key risk if underlying inflation remains stubborn — a crucial risk to low-income countries that are already under stress from high sovereign debt and currency market volatility. 

Other downside risks include geopolitical concerns, notably the Middle East conflict and potential spikes in commodity prices. A potentially deeper Chinese property market contraction, interest rates remaining too high for too long and rising protectionism in global trade are other threats to prosperity, the IMF said.  

The outlook is murkier longer term. The IMF forecasts global growth will rise 3.1% annually at the end of the 2020s, the lowest level in decades. While China’s weaker outlook has weighed on medium-term projections, so does a deteriorating outlook in Latin America and Europe. Structural headwinds such as low productivity and aging populations are also limiting growth prospects. 

“Projected slowdowns in the largest emerging market and developing economies imply a longer path to close the income gaps between poor and rich countries. Having growth stuck in low gear could also further exacerbate income inequality within economies,” the IMF warned.

Peloton’s stationary bikes will soon sell at Costco’s stores and on its website as the beleaguered fitness company looks for new ways to reach younger and affluent customers, Peloton is set to announce Tuesday.

Under the terms of the deal, Costco will offer Peloton’s Bike+ in 300 of its U.S. stores for $1,999, and on Costco.com for $2,199 between Nov. 1 and Feb. 15. It is a steep discount from the typical price of the Bike+, which is selling on Peloton’s website for $2,495. It is unclear how the price will compare to any holiday promotions Peloton plans to offer. 

The new partnership comes during a state of transition for Peloton, which is being led by two board members after its former CEO Barry McCarthy stepped down earlier this year.

Long focused on growth at all costs, Peloton has turned its sights to profitability and has had to become more creative as it tries to reach new users.

As sales fall and losses mount, Peloton is looking for cheaper ways to attract new customers. Costco is one way to get there, Dion Camp Sanders, Peloton’s chief emerging business officer, told CNBC in an interview. 

“We’ve been able to architect a deal with Costco that meets our needs with regard to profitable, sustainable unit economics, while at the same time delivering robust and clear value to Costco members,” said Camp Sanders. “We’ve structured this deal with Costco to both meet our needs for profitable, sustainable growth and getting us access to Costco’s very large net incremental audience.” 

Camp Sanders said Peloton’s partnership with Costco is only for a limited time because fitness is a seasonal category for the company, but Peloton hopes to keep building on the relationship and perhaps expand it to future locations both in the U.S. and abroad.

The deal with Costco gets Peloton onto the shelves of a retailer with a strong fan following and wealthier customers. The membership-based club has gained popularity as shoppers across all incomes prioritize value and try to get more for their money with bulk packs and private-label items.

As of Sept. 1, store traffic at Costco had increased 31% compared with the same period in pre-pandemic 2019, according to Placer.ai, an analytics company that estimates visits to locations based on smartphone data. 

Costco’s members are also getting younger. Those consumers prioritize health and wellness — and are willing to invest in it — in ways that older generations do not. 

About half of Costco’s new membership sign-ups last fiscal year came from people who were under 40 years old, and the average age of its 76 million members has fallen since the Covid-19 pandemic, Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip said on an earnings call in late September. 

According to Numerator, 36% of Costco’s customers have a household income of more than $125,000. Numerator has a panel of 150,000 U.S. consumers that is balanced to be representative of the country’s population.

Camp Sanders said Costco’s members “have the disposable income to be able to afford our premium products,” and their lifestyles align with what Peloton offers. 

“Many of Peloton’s members are affluent, they often have larger homes in the suburbs and they also have life situations where Peloton fits a clear need,” said Camp Sanders. “Many Costco members are juggling families, they maybe have a busy career … and they’ve got the space in their home” to build their own gyms, he continued. 

Costco’s Executive Vice President of Merchandising Claudine Adamo declined to comment to CNBC.

Peloton already sells its workout equipment through Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods, but has also been working to develop relationships with other companies that cater to similar customer bases. 

For example, hundreds of Hyatt Hotel properties have Peloton equipment on site. As of this month, hotel members can earn points for completing workouts on the Peloton Bike and Row during their stay. 

It also announced a deal with Truemed — the PayPal of the health savings account and flexible spending account world — that allows Peloton members to use pretax earnings to buy certain hardware products, including the Bike, Bike+ and Tread.

Europe should avoid regulating artificial intelligence and focus its attention on the results of the technology instead, the CEO of German enterprise tech giant SAP told CNBC Tuesday.

Christian Klein, who has held the top job at SAP since April 2020, said Europe risks falling behind the U.S. and China if it overregulates the AI sector.

While it’s important to mitigate the risks associated with AI, Klein argued that regulating the tech while it’s still in its infancy would be misguided.

“It’s very important that how we train our algorithms, the AI use cases we embed into the businesses of our customers — they need to deliver the right outcome for the employees, for the society,” Klein said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” Tuesday.

“If you only regulate technology in Europe, how can our startups here in Europe, how can they compete against the other startups in China, in Asia, in the U.S.?” Klein added.

“Especially for the startup scene here in Europe, it’s very important to think about the outcome of the technology but not to regulate the AI technology itself.”

Instead, Klein argued, businesses need a more harmonized, pan-European approach to pressing issues like the energy crisis and digital transformation — and less regulation overall, not more.

Upbeat earnings

His comments came after SAP reported bumper third-quarter earnings late Monday. Shares of the software vendor jumped more than 4% to a record high.

The software giant posted total revenue of 8.5 billion euros ($9.2 billion) for the quarter, up 9% year-over-year as sales related to cloud products jumped 25%.

SAP raised its 2024 outlook for cloud and software revenue, operating profit and free cash flow. The German firm has been working toward a transition to cloud computing over the last decade.

In 2016, SAP acquired Concur, the business travel and expenses platform, in a bet that software would move to the cloud.

More recently, SAP has made AI a big focus of its strategy as it looks to reposition itself for faster growth after higher interest rates and macroeconomic headwinds dented tech spending and led to industry-wide layoffs.

In January, SAP announced a restructuring plan affecting over 7% of its global workforce — or the equivalent of 8,000 roles.

Qatar Airways launched Tuesday its inaugural Boeing 777 flight equipped with Elon Musk’s Starlink internet, paving the way for a new era of in-flight connectivity across its entire fleet by next year. 

To demonstrate the milestone, Qatar Airways CEO Badr Al Meer held a video call with Starlink founder Musk while flying at 35,000 feet from Doha to London.

“We’re literally just talking over Starlink right now – that’s super cool,” Musk said on the call from his home, which was filmed and released by the Qatari airline. “It’s Starlink across the laser links of the satellites all the way to your aircraft.”

Qatar Airways’ move to introduce free high-speed internet across its fleet is a direct challenge to competitor airlines who typically offer lower-speed and often patchy paid services, or status-restricted wi-fi access to the flying public. 

“It’s going to get better. We launched new satellites and keep improving the software. Over time I think you’ll find it just gets better and better,” Musk said before Al Meer gave him a video tour of the cockpit. 

“Think of this as the minimum. It only gets better from here,” Musk said to Qatar Tourism Chairman Saad bin Ali Al-Kharji, who was sitting next to Badr Al Meer on board the flight. 

The Qatari state carrier plans to deliver 12 Boeing 777-300s equipped with the service by the end of 2024, with coverage for the entire Boeing 777 fleet in 2025 and its Airbus A350 fleet following in the summer of 2025.

Regional First

Starlink, which operates as a satellite internet constellation, provides high-speed and low-latency internet via some 6,000 satellites, allowing passengers to stream videos, send messages and hold calls over wi-fi on multiple devices. Qatar Airways, which is undertaking a major strategic overhaul under its new leadership, added that the service will be free of charge and will be operative from gate to gate.

The Gulf airline will be the first in the Middle East and North Africa region to offer Starlink-supplied wi-fi to its passengers, it said in a company statement. But it’s certainly not alone in its aims – earlier in October, Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran told CNBC that reliable and speedy wi-fi on full-service carriers will become “ubiquitous” as airlines compete to provide enhanced services for travelers.

For its part, Air New Zealand announced in late 2023 that Starlink would be launched on two of its domestic aircraft by late 2024.

Rising Competition

Qatar Airways told CNBC in March that it was developing a First Class concept and pursuing aircraft orders from aviation giants Boeing and Airbus, as part of its “Qatar Airways 2.0” strategic overhaul.

It comes as new IATA data shows global passenger demand continued to soar in August, rising 8.6% compared to August 2023. Middle Eastern carriers saw a 4.9% year-on-year increase in demand.

As CVS and Walgreens shutter hundreds of stores nationwide to shore up profits and investor sentiment, Walmart said Tuesday that it is offering a new option for customers: Delivering prescriptions to their doorsteps.

The nation’s largest retailer said deliveries are now available in six states: Arkansas, Missouri, New York, Nevada, South Carolina and Wisconsin. The company said in a news release that it expects to deliver prescriptions in 49 states by the end of January. Prescription deliveries will not be available in North Dakota due to state laws, Walmart said.

The prescription delivery service is another example of how Walmart is trying to outmatch competitors on convenience along with low prices. With the new service, customers can get a mix of items dropped off during the same delivery, such as a box of tissues, blanket or chicken noodle soup.

Walmart’s new delivery offering could be another blow to drugstore chains, which are falling out of favor with consumers in a trend that has hit their profits and stock prices and forced them to reconsider their strategies. Still, it is unclear how much market share Walmart could win from CVS and Walgreens, both of which offer same-day, one-day and two-day prescription deliveries.

Tom Ward, chief e-commerce officer for Walmart U.S., said the company added pharmacy deliveries because of shopper demand.

“This is actually the number one service requested by our customers,” he said.

He said Walmart tested the deliveries in several states and saw that customers took advantage of getting a mix of items, including the prescription, in a single delivery.

Walmart’s delivery service will be available for new prescriptions and refills, the company said. It will cost $9.95 for a delivery, the standard price for Walmart doorstep deliveries, but will be free for members of Walmart+, the company’s membership program.

Health insurance plans will be applied to the transaction, like they would in the store, the company said.

The deliveries will come with a few more safety steps than Walmart’s other deliveries, the company said: Medications will be put into tamper-evident packaging. Customers can track orders in real time through Walmart’s app or website and get a photo in the app or by email when the prescription is delivered. And when a customer orders a new prescription and chooses delivery, they are prompted to do a consultation with the pharmacy by phone.

Most of Walmart’s annual revenue in the U.S. – nearly 60% – comes from groceries, but health and wellness is a growing category for the company, according to the retailer’s most recent annual filing for the fiscal year that ended Jan. 31. Health and wellness accounts for about 12% of its annual revenue in the U.S. It includes pharmacy, over-the-counter drugs and other medical products, optical services and other clinical services.

A new challenge for drugstores

As of Monday’s close, shares of Walmart were up around 54% for the year. Meanwhile, shares of CVS were down roughly 26% so far this year, while shares of Walgreens were down nearly 60%.

CVS is the top U.S. pharmacy in terms of prescription drug revenue, holding more than 25% of the market share in 2023, according to Statista data released in March. Walgreens trailed behind with nearly 15% of that share last year, while Walmart held just 5% of that share.

CVS and Walgreens are grappling with falling reimbursement rates for prescription drugs. Inflation, softer consumer spending and competition from Amazon, big-box retailers and grocery stores are making it difficult for them to turn a profit at the front of the store, which carries cleaning supplies, beauty products and pantry staples, among other items.

CVS CEO Karen Lynch left the company and was replaced by David Joyner last week, as CVS faces pressure from Wall Street and, more recently, an activist investor to turn around its business. On top of the leadership shakeup, CVS plans to cut $2 billion in expenses over several years. That includes slashing less than 1% of its workforce, or roughly 2,900 jobs, on the corporate side of its business.

The company is also wrapping up a three-year plan to close 900 of its stores, with 851 locations closed as of August.

Walgreens is similarly cutting costs, announcing last week that it will close roughly 1,200 stores over the next three years, which includes 500 in fiscal 2025 alone. The chain has around 8,700 locations in the U.S., a quarter of which it says are unprofitable.

Walmart has faced its own financial challenges on the health-care side of the business. The discounter planned to bring its low-price spin to health care by opening clinics that offered doctor, dentist and therapy appointments for less.

Yet in the spring, Walmart shuttered all of the clinics, saying in a news release at the time that it couldn’t operate a profitable business because of “the challenging reimbursement environment and escalating operating costs.”

The hottest food and drink trend this year isn’t just spicy — it’s also sweet.

“Swicy,” a portmanteau of sweet and spicy, has taken over restaurant marketing. While the term hasn’t actually appeared on menus, the shorthand has become a popular way to describe the resurgence of foods and drinks marrying sweet and spicy flavors. The Food Institute even dubbed it the “Summer of Swicy” this year.

Nearly 10% of restaurant menus have “sweet and spicy” items, up 1.8% over the last 12 months, according to market research firm Datassential. Over the next four years, its menu penetration is expected to rise 9.6%.

A slew of restaurant chains have embraced the trend, from Shake Shack’s swicy menu to Burger King’s Fiery Strawberry & Sprite to Starbucks’ Spicy Lemonade Refreshers. Common menu items have paired fruity flavors and chili powder, or used sauces like hot honey and gochujang, a red chili paste that’s a popular Korean condiment.

Although the menu items were largely only available for a limited time, culinary experts think that the swicy trend has staying power.

Buzzy, trendy menu items are more important now to restaurants, which are leaning on both discounts and innovation to attract diners and reverse declining sales. In August, traffic to U.S. restaurants fell 3.6%, the industry’s second-worst monthly performance this year since January, according to Black Box Intelligence. Limited-time menu items are particularly attractive to Gen Z customers, a key demographic because they account for roughly a fifth of Americans.

The ‘swicy’ story

While the swicy portmanteau might be new, the flavor pairings have been around for decades, according to trendologist Kara Nielsen. The one element that might have changed over time are the spice levels.

“I’m sure food is hotter now than it was 20 years ago,” Nielsen said.

She remembers when Jeffrey Saad opened a fast-casual Mexican restaurant in San Francisco called Sweet Heat in 1993, before he became a celebrity chef and Food Network star.

The second coming of the sweet heat trend started when Mike’s Hot Honey started blowing up around 2010, according to Nielsen. Korean cuisine, especially its sweet and spicy gochujang sauces have become more popular, too, helping to drive more people to the flavor combination.

The pandemic also led more consumers to return to classic comfort foods: burgers, fried chicken sandwiches and pizza. But the desire for familiar favorites has faded, and now diners are once again seeking novelty — or at least a twist.

“Now, four years on, we’re moving out of this and adding more spicy flavors,” Nielsen said.

Experts at McCormick first called out the reemerging trend in its 2022 flavor forecast report, according to Hadar Cohen Aviram, executive chef for the spice and flavoring company’s U.S. consumer division.

McCormick highlighted “plus sweet,” when sweetness acts as a flavor enhancer rather than being the star of the show. The forecasters were even considering naming the trend “swicy” in their report but went with “plus sweet” because it was broader, she said.

The following year, McCormick, which owns Frank’s RedHot and Cholula, called out “beyond heat,” or using other flavors to bring out more flavor in addition to the spiciness.

“We see lots of different people wanting to add some heat to their plates, but they do want to make sure that there’s something for everyone,” Cohen Aviram said.

Gen Zwicy?

One reason why so many U.S. consumers are seeking out spicy foods and drinks? Increasing diversity.

“The reason that sweet heat or swicy is sort of everlasting is that it’s a key component of traditional global cuisines like Mexican, like Thai, like Korean, that a lot of people of those ancestries and heritages are familiar with it. Then it gets introduced and repackaged,” Nielsen said.

For example, Shake Shack’s culinary team was inspired to make Korean-inspired items for a limited-time menu, according to John Karangis, the company’s executive chef and vice president of culinary innovation.

One of the menu items was a Korean fried chicken sandwich, coated in a sweet and spicy gochujang glaze. After it created the limited-time menu, Shake Shack’s marketing team pitted the chicken sandwich against the Korean BBQ burger, with savory and salty flavors. It told customers to pick a side: team swicy or team umami.

The swicy trend also appeals to Gen Z, the cohort born between 1997 and 2012.

“We have a new generation, Generation Z, that’s really excited about complex flavor profiles — but there’s only so many you can taste: sweet, salty, bitter, umami,” Nielsen said.

Here’s one example of the generation’s heat-seeking behavior: over half of Gen Z consumers identify as “hot sauce connoisseurs,” according to a survey conducted by NCSolutions.

And with swicy, achieving the perfect ratio can be tough because it’s so personal, McCormick’s Cohen Aviram said.

Feedback from Shake Shack’s customers reflects that, too.

“Of course, we hear a lot of great feedback from guests, and we also heard other feedback like ‘Hey, you could have punched it up a little bit,'” Karangis said.

Cohen Aviram prefers about 40% sweet, 60% spicy when she’s creating swicy concoctions, like a Frank’s RedHot ice cream bar.

“The thing with sweetness if that it kind of hijacks your palate, so if you use too much of it, you’re just not going to sense the nuance,” she said.

When Burger King released its Fiery menu this summer, it ranked the items on a scale of spiciness. At one – meaning the least spicy – was its Fiery Strawberry & Sprite drink. The swicy menu item was inspired by another trend: “dirty sodas,” the combination of soda, creamers and syrups started in Utah, according to Pat O’Toole, Burger King North America’s chief marketing officer.

The drink marked the first time that Burger King tweaked a classic fountain beverage, but it previously introduced a Frozen Fanta Kickin’ Mango, with a similar swicy flavor profile.

“Guests can easily and accessibly try a ‘swicy’ beverage offering and work their way up the spice scale with other food items, if they so choose,” O’Toole said, adding that the chain saw strong interest across its focus groups for a spicy take on Sprite.

Of course, not all swicy profiles resonate with customers. For example, Coca-Cola in September discontinued its spiced Coke just six months after it hit shelves, after it initially intended it as a permanent offering.

But despite some missteps, the swicy pairing is likely here to stay – at least for a while.

“The flavors will stick around, for sure. I think the name will get tiresome. … It probably still has a couple of years to go,” Nielsen said.

Major League Soccer scored several regular season records, including for attendance and sponsorship, thanks in part to international super star Lionel Messi — and corporate strategy.

MLS has been nabbing well-known athletes like Messi and Luis Suárez, and leaning on the growing popularity of the sport within the U.S. in a bid to solidify its fanbase after nearly three decades of league play. It’s even created a corporate team to help clubs implement new business strategies.

It appears to be paying off. Nearly 11.5 million people attended MLS matches during the regular season — which ended this past weekend — the most in its history, according to data from the league. That’s up 5% from last year, and 14% from 2022. Each match during the 2024 season averaged 23,234 attendees, the highest ever for the regular season.

While those stats pale in comparison to other U.S. professional sports leagues — the National Basketball Association had more than 22.5 million attendees during the 2023-2024 regular season, for example — MLS seems to be building momentum.

Last year, MLS’ Inter Miami signed Messi, which caused a surge in attendance, jersey and other product sales, and overall fanbase engagement. The halo effect from the Messi, often referred to as the greatest of all time, seems to have held even with Messi playing fewer games this season due to an injury.

This past weekend Inter Miami ended the season with 74 points, breaking the MLS record for most scored in a season, and Messi notched a hat trick for the first time with the U.S. league. The MLS postseason begins this week.

But it wasn’t just on-the-field talent that made the difference.

This was the first full season that Chris McGowan served as executive vice president and chief club performance officer at the league since joining in June 2023. McGowan was hired to lead the new unit, which serves to advise and develop strategies to help clubs perform better, particularly on the business side.

While most of this season was focused on building out McGowan’s team, he said they also developed a strategic plan when it comes to identifying focus areas and creating relationships with clubs. McGowan’s role is akin to a consultant, making suggestions that the teams can choose to implement or not.

For example, McGowan and his unit helped the New York Red Bulls this season “with some decisions on premium seating that they’re going to launch in their stadium.”

“We foster continued growth by being a great resource for clubs in areas like quickly and efficiently sharing best practices,” said McGowan. “Being able to quickly get information for clubs to make business decisions … these are things that maybe weren’t happening as systematically and as efficiently as they are now.”

Kicking off new records

The bigger audience is drawing bigger sponsorship dollars.

The league signed 18 new sponsorship partners this season between MLS and Soccer United Marketing, or SUM, the commercial arm of MLS. Sponsorship revenue for the league and SUM was up 13% year to date, and sponsorship revenue at the club level was also up 13% for the same period.

League- and club-level sponsorship revenue both reached records.

Messi’s Inter Miami jersey continued to be a fan favorite, ranking as the highest-selling jersey in the league. It was also No. 1 globally for Adidas in jersey sales of individual players, according to MLS.

Meanwhile, its social media following grew faster than any other major men’s North American sports league on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, according to the league. On TikTok, followers were up 26% since the beginning of the year. On YouTube, followers were up 21%, and on Instagram, they were up 10%.

Inter Miami led the league as the most followed North American sports team on TikTok with 9.4 million followers, according to MLS. It was the third most followed North American sports team on Instagram with 17.2 million followers.

Like other sports leagues in the U.S., MLS has been focusing on growing its audience and presence internationally. Earlier this month it signed an agreement with German digital media platform OneFootball to provide highlights, stats and other content to a global audience.

When it comes to TV viewership — a marquee stat for most other professional sports leagues in the U.S. — MLS is in something of a league of its own. The league has an exclusive media rights deal with Apple, meaning most of its matches are only available through MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, a separate subscription alongside the Apple TV+ streaming service.

Viewership data isn’t available for MLS Season Pass, but Apple executives have said on public calls that the audience has risen since Messi joined the league.

U.S. crude oil futures extended gains on Tuesday after rising nearly 2% in the previous session.

Oil prices have bounced back somewhat after selling off steeply last week. Traders increasingly view a supply disruption in the Middle East due to Israel-Iran tensions as unlikely.

Weak demand in China has also weighed on prices recently. Beijing cuts its benchmark lending rates on Monday, lending some support to the futures market.

Here are Tuesday’s closing energy prices:

• West Texas Intermediate November contract: $72.09 per barrel, up $1.53, or 2.17%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil has risen nearly 1%.
• Brent December contract: $76.04 per barrel, up $1.75, or 2.36%. Year to date, the global benchmark has declined more than 1%.
• RBOB Gasoline November contract: $2.0675 per gallon, up 2.62%. Year to date, gasoline has pulled back more than 1%.
• Natural Gas November contract: $2.304 per thousand cubic feet, down 0.35%. Year to date, gas has fallen about 8%.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

1. Winning streak ends

Stock futures slid Tuesday morning after the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke its three-day winning streak by closing more than 344 points, or 0.8%, lower on Monday. The S&P 500 declined 0.2% during Monday’s trading session, while the Nasdaq Composite added close to 0.3%. Wall Street will continue to focus on third-quarter earnings season as about 14% of companies in the broad index have reported results, with more than 7 out of 10 topping earnings estimates, according to FactSet. Follow live market updates.

2. GM crushes earnings

General Motors raised its guidance targets for 2024 after easily exceeding Wall Street’s third-quarter earnings estimates. The Detroit automaker reported adjusted earnings of $2.96 per share compared with the $2.43 per share expected by an LSEG survey of analysts. Revenue was $48.76 billion and also beat the consensus estimate of $44.59 billion, as strong pricing offset losses in China and year-over-year increases in labor and warranty costs. GM now expects full-year adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of between $14 billion and $15 billion, or $10 and $10.50 a share, up from its prior estimate of $13 billion to $15 billion, or between $9.50 and $10.50 a share. This marks the third time this year that GM has updated its guidance after beating Wall Street’s top- and bottom-line expectations.

3. Disney leadership plans

Disney announced Monday that James Gorman will replace Mark Parker as the company’s next chairman, starting in January. The media giant also plans to name a successor for CEO Bob Iger in early 2026. Disney initially targeted 2025 to announce a successor, but pushing the date back to early 2026 will give the board more time to conduct due diligence on both internal and external candidates, said people familiar with the matter. Gorman joined Disney’s board less than a year ago and was named the head of the succession planning committee in August. He already had experience with succession planning, as the former Morgan Stanley CEO oversaw the process for Ted Pick to succeed him at the start of this year.

4. Trump’s tax reform

Donald Trump’s tax reform ideas could offer total or partial income tax exemptions to roughly 93.2 million Americans, according to CNBC’s analysis of several estimates. So far, the Republican presidential nominee has officially proposed eliminating income tax on tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay. Trump also said that he would consider tax exemptions for firefighters, police officers, military personnel and veterans. All in all, the proposals could exempt at least a portion, if not all, of their income taxes for about 38% of the 244 million Americans eligible to vote in 2024. On the flip side, Trump’s campaign proposals would significantly accelerate when Social Security is projected to run out of money, a nonpartisan budget group said Monday. The group found that Trump’s agenda would make the government program insolvent in six years, shrinking the current timeline by a third, and expanding Social Security’s cash shortfall by trillions of dollars.

5. Nike’s hoops dream

Nike will be the exclusive uniform and apparel provider for the National Basketball Association and Women’s National Basketball Association for another 12 years. The sneaker giant and the leagues announced their renewed partnership on Monday. Nike’s previous contract with the NBA, which started with the 2017-18 season, was reportedly worth $1 billion and its latest contract is “much bigger,” a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The company’s contract renewal with the NBA comes as new CEO Elliott Hill tries to regain market share and shore up relationships with its critical partnerships, including being the official uniform supplier for the National Football League and Major League Baseball. Nike’s deal with the NFL expires after the 2027 season but the league has opened up the process to other bidders and is already in talks with several interested companies, a source told CNBC.

— CNBC’s Michael Wayland, Alex Sherman, Hugh Son, Rebecca Picciotto, Kevin Breuninger, Lorie Konish, Jessica Golden and Gabrielle Fonrouge contributed to this report.

“Just 10 minutes of walking, that everybody anywhere could do, decreases your anxiety and depression levels,” Suzuki said during a recent appearance on TED Intersections.

Taking a short stroll can be the equivalent of giving yourself a “bubble bath of neurochemicals” like dopamine and serotonin, she explained.

Keeping up your daily walks over the course of weeks, months and years can give “your brain not only good neurochemicals, but growth factors” that may improve its health, she said.

And it’s never too late to start. Even if you were a “couch potato until you’re 75,” Suzuki said, consistent walks can still make your brain healthier.

For several years, she focused on her career and neglected her body, she recounted. Only once she found herself feeling “so good” after a river rafting trip to Peru did she begin to research the impacts of physical activity on the brain.

People who engaged in regular physical activity, including walking, had a 17% lower chance of developing dementia than those who didn’t exercise often, according to a 2022 systematic review in the medical journal Neurology.

If you want to challenge yourself, try to incorporate “forms of activity that require strategy [which] will work your prefrontal cortex more,” such as soccer or basketball, Suzuki said in a MasterClass about brain health.

Indeed, she said, she would prescribe physical activity to just about anyone, and she believes that the best form of exercise for you is the one that makes you the happiest. “Any time of day you can work out is the best time of day to work out, because our lives are so busy,” Suzuki said.

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