Closer to a soft landing

The US economy continued to expand at a robust pace in the third quarter as household purchases accelerated and the federal government ramped up defense spending. Hiring jumped by the most in more than a year. The numbers are so good that some are saying the magic “soft landing” has been achieved. Inflation-adjusted gross domestic product increased at a 2.8% annualized pace after rising 3% in the previous quarter, according to the government’s initial estimate published Wednesday. Consumer spending, which comprises the largest share of economic activity, advanced 3.7%, the most since early 2023. The uptick was led by broad increases across goods—including autos, household furnishings and recreational items. At the same time, a closely watched measure of underlying inflation rose 2.2%, roughly in line with the Federal Reserve’s target, figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed. “There is almost nothing wrong with this picture,” Carl Weinberg and Rubeela Farooqi, economists at High Frequency Economics, said in a note. “Steady normalization of rates at a moderate pace is what the economy needs, nothing more.” Here’s your markets wrap. —David E. Rovella

Capital Group and KKR have partnered to debut two funds for wealthy individuals that invest across public and private debt markets. The collaboration between Capital Group, an asset management firm, and alternative investment powerhouse KKR is the latest example of money managers creating private-investment offerings for individual investors, whose wealth is largely invested in public markets. It’s also an example of how traditional asset managers are trying to capture higher fees from managing illiquid and higher-risk assets—and catch the fast growth of private credit.

Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris have long worried that the nine-member US Supreme Court, dominated by a supermajority of six Republican appointees including three picked by Donald Trump, would make itself heard in any election litigation. In the first such case, those six justices handed Republicans a victory while reversing a district judge and federal appeals court to do it. Over the dissents of three Democratic-appointees, the supermajority allowed Virginia’s GOP governor to purge 1,600 voters from the rolls, and perhaps more before election day. The ruling came a day after Harris made a final case to Americans, speaking from where a special Congressional committee said Trump urged on the deadly violence of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. On Wednesday, Trump’s campaign sued the board of elections in a suburban county just north of Philadelphia for allegedly turning away voters who sought mail-in ballots.

Ernst & Young resigned as the auditor to troubled server maker Super Micro Computer, citing concerns about the company’s governance and transparency. Wall Street didn’t take it well, as the company’s shares nosedived. The resignation comes after news broke last month that the US Department of Justice had launched a probe into an ex-employee’s claims that Super Micro violated accounting rules. A month earlier, Super Micro said it would delay its annual financial filings and that a special committee was evaluating internal controls over financial reporting.

BYD notched another win over Tesla on Wednesday, reporting quarterly revenue that beat Elon Musk’s carmaker for the first time since the pair have gone head-to-head in global electric vehicles sales. Revenue for China’s best-selling automaker soared 24% to 201.1 billion yuan ($28.2 billion) for the three months that ended in September, falling short of estimates but exceeding Tesla’s $25.2 billion in sales for the same period. Tesla has been dealing with a limited and increasingly stale EV-only lineup, focused more on ramping up production of its Cybertruck and expanding the use of its partial-automation system. BYD meanwhile has been racing ahead with new models.

People who took advantage of historically low US interest rates to buy homes right before the pandemic have seen their wealth grow by about $32,000 annually over the last five years—even when taking the cost of home ownership into account. Those who’ve rented since 2019 have missed out on a historic period of wealth-generating price appreciation, according to a new analysis from First American Financial Corp based on median home prices and rents.

Despite widespread skepticism about how much trust investors should place in the signals being sent by cryptocurrency-based predictions market Polymarket, Wall Street is paying close attention to betting on the platform that shows a high chance Trump will win the election. While naysayers argue that outsized bets and pro-crypto bias can skew the probabilities being presented on the site, some traders and strategists are following Polymarket closely. Harris and Trump are basically in a dead heat ahead of the Nov. 5 election based on recent polling, yet wagers on Polymarket indicate a 67% probability that Trump will win.

How will the US election impact your money? Bloomberg News experts will answer your questions in a live Q&A on Oct. 30 at 10:30am ET. Send questions to [email protected].

Enjoying Evening Briefing? Check out these newsletters:

Explore all newsletters at Bloomberg.com.