For: October 29, 2025
>>Ahead Of The Bell
(New York, NY) -- The opening bell rings this morning after stocks notched record highs yesterday on Wall Street. Tech stocks helped power the market's gains. Nvidia shares climbed five percent after announcing it will take a one-billion-dollar stake in Nokia. At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 161 points to 47-706. The S&P 500 added 15 points to 68-90. The Nasdaq rose 190 points to 23-827.
>>Fed Expected To Cut Rates
(Washington, DC) -- The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates today, following a string of poor labor market reports, coupled with news that inflation has slowed. The Fed is expected to approve a second consecutive quarter percentage point for 2025. A cut from the central bank will have a trickle-down effect on consumers, lowering mortgage, credit card and auto loan interest rates.
>>Federal Judge Indefinitely Blocks Trump Shutdown Layoffs
(San Francisco, CA) -- A federal judge is indefinitely blocking the Trump administration's efforts to lay off thousands of federal employees. The San Francisco-based judge and Clinton-appointee has sided with government employee unions seeking to prevent the administration from carrying out reductions in force as the lawsuit moves forward. The preliminary injunction will extend a previous order to temporarily stop the layoffs, ultimately impacting more than four-thousand workers. The judge has previously said she believes the RIFs will be deemed illegal and an overstep of executive authority.
>>Musk Launches Grokipedia As A Wikipedia Alternative
(Undated) -- Elon Musk is announcing the launch of an alternative to Wikipedia. The tech billionaire launched Grokipedia on Monday and it is backed by xAI but still uses Wikipedia as a source on most subjects. Musk has previously teased the development as a "massive improvement over Wikipedia," which he has taken aim at in the past, calling it "Wokipedia." A spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation issued a statement explaining that "Wikipedia's knowledge is and always will be human, and noted that the "human-created knowledge is what AI companies rely on to generate content; even Grokipedia needs Wikipedia to exist."
>>PayPal Teams Up With OpenAI
(San Jose, CA) -- PayPal is teaming with OpenAI. The company announced Tuesday that it will allow users to make purchases through ChatGPT starting next year. It will also allow merchants to use the same platform. The move makes PayPal the first digital wallet in ChatGPT. It also comes as OpenAI has been dipping its toes into e-commerce, with recent partnerships with Shopify, Etsy and Walmart.
>>UPS Cutting Another 14,000 Jobs
(Sandy Springs, GA) -- UPS says it has cut 34-thousand jobs to date, with an additional 14-thousand cuts coming by year's end. The company says most of those layoffs are in management. The announcement on Tuesday comes after the shipping giant reported third-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street's expectations. Additionally, it's closed daily operations at 93 buildings and is looking to shut down more. As of last month, UPS has achieved approximately two-point-two-billion-dollars in cost savings and expects to reach a total of three-point-five-billion-dollars in savings for the year.
>>Google Chrome To Make Secure Connections A Default Setting
(Mountain View, CA) -- Google Chrome says it will start making secure connections one of its default settings next year. Chrome currently has the optional feature to "Always Use Secure Connections" when browsing. On Tuesday, Google said the optional feature will become part of the browser's default setting as a part of Chrome 154 that's due in October of 2026. Google says Chrome 154 will attempt to load every website over an encrypted connection, and will warn users if a site doesn't support it.
