October 29, 2026

Presented By

We’ve come a long way. On this day in 1969, researchers successfully sent the first message via ARPANET, the tech that would eventually become the internet. And now we can all send funny memes to our grandmas.

—Dave Lozo, Molly Liebergall, Matty Merritt, Holly Van Leuven, Abby Rubenstein

In today’s newsletter, we’ll get into:

The Fed holding rates steady
Google’s search revenue slowing down
The WNBA’s scheduling snafu

Markets

Nasdaq

26,549.85

+0.27%

S&P

7,743.98

+0.28%

Dow

52,475.1

+0.19%

10-Year

5.045%

+5.0 bps

Bitcoin

$81,335.8

+0.69%

Wendy’s

$7.07

+15.15%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:30pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: Stocks made it a three-peat yesterday, rising again as the Fed made the expected move of not changing interest rates (more on that in one sec).
Stock spotlight: Wendy’s shot up with the energy of a kid who was offered a Frosty yesterday, after Nelson Peltz’s fund offered to buy the burger chain for $1.4 billion.

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RATE LIMITS

Warsh changes something, but it’s not interest rates

Kevin Warsh walking across stage waving in front of American flags

Saul Loeb/Getty Images

As expected, the Federal Reserve’s rate-setting committee left interest rates unchanged yesterday. And in the future, you can expect even less from the committee because Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said he’d have it set rates less often going forward:

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided yesterday to maintain the 3.75% to 4.00% interest rate benchmark, despite two dissenters believing an immediate increase is necessary to help quell inflation.
Also, Warsh said that starting in 2027, only seven of the eight FOMC meetings will be used to set rates, and that ratio will shift to 6:2 in 2028.

For now…

Warsh’s stated reason for holding interest rates steady amid “elevated” inflation is to wait for more information. That includes this morning’s latest personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index report, which is widely expected to show costs are continuing to rise.

My two dissents: After a unanimous vote to raise rates last month, two voters felt another quarter-point hike was prudent yesterday. They reasoned that the causes for inflation have spread beyond the Iran war, including massive infrastructure spending by AI companies driving up prices of computer chips and components.

This meeting could have been…a different meeting

Warsh said eight yearly FOMC meetings remains the ideal number, but the content of those meetings needs adjustment. He wants to set aside one next year and two in 2028 to discuss “broad monetary policy.”

The Wall Street Journal sees distinct pros and cons to this change:

The extra time between rate decisions can allow data to be reviewed more holistically and less piecemeal.
But it could make the Fed slower to react to quick economic changes, like ones that can stem from a sudden new war or an unexpected market crash.

Speaking of rate changes…the odds of a rate hike in December sit at ~85%, and two more quarter-point bumps are likely to come in the first half of 2027, according to FedWatch.—DL

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World

Tour de headlines

Getty Images

📉 Slowing Google search growth led Alphabet to miss Wall Street’s expectations. The tech giant’s cloud computing business outperformed expectations for the third quarter, but its services business, where revenue from search advertising gets recorded, missed the mark. While Google’s search queries are growing at the fastest rate in five years thanks to users warming up to its “AI Mode” search, AI Mode search monetization isn’t yet on par with traditional search. Alphabet also reported negative free cash flow of $9.1 billion, which did not leave investors feeling lucky. Fellow AI hyperscaler Microsoft also released earnings yesterday, and revealed it still had positive free cash flow, which helped send its stock up in after-hours trading.—HVL

⚾ The Milwaukee Brewers won the World Series for 1st time in franchise history. Further evidence you should never bet against the Brew Crew: Milwaukee’s Major League Baseball team won last night’s Game 5 of the 2026 Fall Classic 4–1, giving them an insurmountable four games won in the best-of-seven series. While the Tampa Bay Rays staged a 12-inning win in Game 4 to avoid being swept, no MLB team that ever went 3–0 in the World Series has ever forced a Game 6. Another fun fact: There are now just four MLB teams that have never won the whole enchilada: the Tampa Bay Rays (sorry, Rays), the Seattle Mariners, the Colorado Rockies, and the San Diego Padres.—HVL

🖥️ Apple finally debuts a touchscreen Mac. It’s an idea that both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook rejected, but under CEO John Ternus, Apple unveiled its first touchscreen MacBook Pro yesterday. Anyone who’s ever used an iPhone or iPad knows Apple is no stranger to touchscreens, but the company had long resisted integrating them into computers. The new model, which goes on sale on Nov. 6, costs $2,899+, has an OLED screen, and runs Apple’s MacOS, not a version of its iPhone system. It’s the third major product launch since Ternus took the reins in September.—AR

FOUL CALL

The WNBA Finals might be won during the workday

Illustration of an analog alarm clock ringing, with a basketball on its face.

Nick Iluzada

San Francisco may have to resurrect the three-martini lunch today. The Golden State Valkyries are one victory away from beating the Atlanta Dream in the WNBA Finals, but, to the dismay of both cities, Hillary Clinton, and Flavor Flav, Game 6 tips off in Atlanta at…12:30pm ET.

Why? To accommodate the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, who are hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena tonight. In an open letter this week, the Dream’s owners said that they raised the alarm on this scheduling issue months ago:

“Our concerns did not receive the attention, nor the urgency that they deserved,” the owners wrote. Meanwhile, the 12:30pm tipoff is “not what we would have chosen and not what we fought for.”
The WNBA alternatively could have held Game 6 at its originally scheduled time of 8pm at the Dream’s full-time venue, Gateway Center Arena, but that wasn’t a great option either—its capacity is only 3,500 people compared to State Farm Arena’s 17,000. (They plan to permanently move to the larger venue in 2027.)

Something like this happened last year, too: The Valkyries had to hold a first-round playoff game in San Jose because their home stadium in San Francisco was hosting a tennis tournament.—ML

Reader Poll

Will you be watching Game 6 during work hours today?

Yes, I am sat.
Maybe, I’ll try, but the timing is tough.
No, but I wish I could.
I won’t, but I wouldn’t have during primetime either.

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BRING THE BOOK

A lot of y’all are going to Cheesecake Factory

Exterior of a Cheesecake Factory at dusk

Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images

The Cheesecake Factory hasn’t gotten this much attention since your white Hummer limo for junior prom had to jump the curb to get out of its parking lot. The restaurant chain’s parent company reported its second straight quarter of billion-dollar revenue at a time when diners are eating out less…and politicians are arguing over its gaudy decor.

In Q3, the restaurant operator reported a profit of $61.3 million, up from $31.9 million during the same quarter last year. And while the company manages other restaurant chains, like North Italia and Flower Child, the namesake Cheesecake Factory locations have been leading comparable restaurant sales with a 15.2% YoY increase.

CEO David Overton credited the chain’s new rewards program, new menu items, and social media for the increase in traffic and sales.
Which social media? Last month, the chain was flooded with orders and customizations of its Cajun salmon after a souped-up version of the dish went viral on TikTok.

As if managing 250 menu items isn’t enough…now, The Cheesecake Factory has to worry about politics. At a campaign rally this weekend, former President Obama said the current administration’s White House renovations looked like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” which spurred President Trump and Republican commentators to not only defend the renovations, but also the restaurant. The Cheesecake Factory hasn’t commented.—MM

MOLLY EXPLAINS THE INTERNET

Ex-Yahoo CEO asked AI to help describe her child

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer speaking on stage

Kimberly White/Getty Images

Maybe it was earnest, maybe it was ragebait marketing, but either way, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer got flamed online this week for touting “tell me what my kid is like” as a good use case for her new startup’s AI agent, Dazzle.

Mayer “felt overwhelmed by the range and complexity of potential answers” when her daughter’s teacher asked for three bullet points on what makes her child special, the New York Times reported. So she asked Dazzle, which analyzes users’ photos to perform tasks:

Mayer told the NYT that Dazzle said her daughter was “empathetic, creative, and an animal lover,” and it referenced old memories as examples.
Mayer and her husband “marveled at what AI can unlock from our camera rolls,” she wrote in a post on X that addressed the internet’s reaction to the NYT article.

Déjà vu: Sam Altman incited internet backlash this summer when he suggested using ChatGPT to make a podcast that explains your kid’s interests to you. Mayer seems to be positioning Dazzle as a similar sort of family assistant or “AI wife”—one that plans play dates it thinks your kids will like, remembers Crazy Hat Day at school, and otherwise can “shoulder some of the domestic load” that tends to inequitably fall to women, per the NYT.—ML

Three Headlines and a Lie

Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than agreeing on an easy couples costume. Can you spot the odd one out?

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders take legal action against My Chemical Romance over onstage uniforms
Your water bottle might be the reason you can’t get a second date
Liz Truss’s new book is the most deranged thing I’ve ever read
Forget free lunch. Some workers just want an office bidet.

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Answer

We made up the one about your water bottle ruining your love life.

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: gaudy, meaning “marked by extravagance or sometimes tasteless showiness.” Thanks to Melissa from San Diego, CA, for the suggestion with just the right amount of pizzazz. Submit another Word of the Day here.

✢ A Note From Autocamp

This is a paid advertisement for AutoCamp’s Regulation Crowdfunding offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.autocamp.com. Forward-looking statements were included here that the Company believes to be accurate given the current information. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

✳︎ A Note From Chase for Business

*JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC.

Written by Abigail Rubenstein, Dave Lozo, Molly Liebergall, Matty Merritt, and Holly Van Leuven

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