Good morning, Quartz readers!
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
A huge typhoon struck Shanghai. More than 400,000 people were evacuated from the path of Typhoon Bebinca.
Amazon’s remote work era is over. The company is mandating a full five-days-a-week in-office schedule.
Boeing is doing a hiring freeze. The planemaker is dealing with a machinist strike with some belt-tightening.
Microsoft is unleashing new Copilot features. The program will use AI to let users automate business tasks.
Larry Ellison begged Jensen Huang for some chips at dinner. The Oracle CEO asked the Nvidia CEO for more GPUs during a shared meal.
That said: Ellison has plenty of something else. Forbes says he’s now the second-wealthiest person in the world.
Elon Musk said something inadvisable on X again
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is walking back a since-deleted post on his social media platform that was complaining about people not trying to assassinate Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
The comment came as Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump deals with the fallout of his second assassination attempt in two months.
Quartz’s William Gavin explains why Musk is trying to play the post off as a joke and how the missive fits in with the billionaire’s history of putting things in writing that a lawyer would suggest he not put in writing.
Banks are getting in their blocks for the rate cut race
As the Federal Reserve prepares to lower borrowing costs at the tail end of its pandemic-era fight with inflation, America’s largest lenders are figuring out their game plans.
Cheaper money means less profitable loans, but it might also make banks more stable as they build equity. Besides, lower rates in the (fingers-crossed) absence of a recession has historically been good for bank stocks.
Quartz’s Rocio Fabbro sets the stage for what might happen after the Federal Open Market Committee meeting this week.
MORE FROM QUARTZ
🚀 Tech stocks could get a big boost from some Fed rate cuts
🩰 TikTok owner ByteDance wants to design its own AI chips
🎯 Target is looking to hire 100,000 for its holiday shopping crush
💳 Boeing’s machinist strike is weighing on its credit rating
📉 Trump’s second assassination scare is bad for Trump Media stock
🥑 Chipotle is rolling out a robot to help with avocado prep
SURPRISING DISCOVERIES
An NFL quarterback can cost teams more than $2 million a touchdown. The position is becoming more expensive to staff than ever before.
Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserve hit a 16-year low in 2023. It’s yet another consequence of climate change.
AI is turbocharging fast fashion pollution. Shein found a way to make its carbon footprint even bigger.
There’s a secondary soda war that Coca-Cola also dominates. The team behind Pepsi’s Starry hopes it can succeed where Sierra Mist failed in trying to dethrone Sprite.
The first violin solo in orbit was an unsurprising choice. Sarah Gillis played John Williams’s “Rey’s Theme” from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
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Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, poorly thought-out X posts, and Nvidia chips for Larry Ellison to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Melvin Backman and Morgan Haefner.