Business & Markets

BURBANK, Calif. — Disney is preparing a round of job cuts that would run to the thousands, Bloomberg News reported on Monday night, citing anonymous sources. Some managers have been told to reduce annualized expenses by 20%. It would be the fourth round of cuts this year under CEO Josh D'Amaro and the largest in headcount. Bloomberg said some operations would be hit harder than others but gave no specifics. D'Amaro reportedly plans to reinvest part of the savings in film and TV programming, technology, theme parks and cruise ships. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Disney was planning a restructuring of its TV operations that would eliminate hundreds of jobs. Disney has not confirmed the latest report. Netflix cut about 1,000 workers last month, and Skydance is expected to announce cuts by year-end.

SYDNEY — Canva announced a sweeping restructuring affecting 1,271 people, or 22% of its workforce, in a note from CEO Melanie Perkins to staff. Employees will lose their jobs, move into different roles, or relocate to central hubs. Bloomberg said the overhaul reflects the pressure artificial intelligence is putting on one of Australia's best-known tech companies. Australian outlet Capital Brief had reported unannounced cuts at Canva a day earlier and said staff feared bigger layoffs were coming. It noted that not everyone affected will actually lose a job, and called the plan the biggest transformation attempted by an Australian startup. Canva cut its revenue-growth forecast in August after the cost of delivering AI features was higher than expected and forced it to slow rollouts.

SUGAR LAND, Texas — CVR Energy agreed to buy Marathon Petroleum's St. Paul Park, Minnesota, and Mandan, North Dakota, refineries and a fuels marketing business for about $4.2 billion plus working capital, the company said in an SEC filing. Marathon receives $3.45 billion and its MPLX unit $750 million for pipeline, storage and terminal assets. The refineries have a combined 177,000 barrels a day of capacity, taking CVR to about 384,000 and producing an expected $70 million in annual synergies, according to Oil & Gas Journal. CVR said the assets earned roughly $1.2 billion of adjusted EBITDA in the 12 months to September 30. Funding includes $2.5 billion of secured debt, a $500 million commitment from its controlling shareholder, and an $800 million equity investment from Trafigura, which also gets crude supply rights.

Google is giving more businesses access to an AI-powered messaging feature on Business Profiles, Search Engine Roundtable reported. Customers can text a business from Search and Maps through their phone's native messaging app. An AI agent answers routine questions at no cost. It passes anything it cannot answer to the owner, who can take over at any time. The agent works only on networks and phones that support RCS. Other texts go straight to the owner's phone, and standard rates may apply. An email to restaurant operators describes the feature as an early-access pilot that also handles reservation help. Barry Schwartz advises businesses to update their menus, hours and services first, since the agent can only answer as well as the profile does. Separately, Google has been emailing businesses that it is automatically adding Facebook Messenger m.me links to their profiles.

WASHINGTON — The remedies from the federal search monopoly case remain in place while appeals proceed. Alphabet's most recent quarterly filing, for the period ended June 30, says a final judgment was entered in December 2025. It restricts how Google distributes its services. It also requires Google to share certain search data with certain competitors and to offer them syndication services. Google appealed in January 2026 and asked to pause some remedies. The Justice Department and state attorneys general appealed in February 2026. Google has argued that sharing search data and syndication raise privacy risks and could discourage rivals from building their own products. The Justice Department had sought tougher measures, including a Chrome sale, which the court declined to order. The filing does not give a date for appellate rulings.

WASHINGTON — U.S. job openings rose to 7.523 million in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. Economists had expected about 7.1 million to 7.2 million, and August was revised up by 111,000 to 7.2 million. Hires climbed to 5.4 million, and quits rose to 3.4 million, a rate of 2.1%. Layoffs and discharges stayed near 1.6 million, a rate of 1.0%. The BLS described most monthly changes as statistically small. There were 1.06 openings per unemployed worker. Bloomberg's analysis, summarized by TheStreet, said the pickup would have to last several months to show a stronger labor market. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh called employment conditions "quite positive" last week. Futures priced an 85% chance of a December hike on one gauge; another showed 73%. October payrolls arrive Friday.

NEW YORK — Fitch Ratings said its U.S. private credit default rate reached 6.3% for the 12 months ended in the third quarter. That is the highest on record, up from 6.0% in the second quarter. Fitch counted 27 default events in the quarter, bringing the trailing total to 91 unique defaulters. Roughly 88% of events were soft restructurings, mainly interest deferrals, payment-in-kind switches and stressed maturity extensions, according to a Forbes summary of the report. Fitch's Lyle Margolis blamed persistently high real interest rates for pressuring highly leveraged borrowers. Industrial and manufacturing firms and consumer products firms each had 9.7% default rates. Software was lowest at 0.6%. Measures differ widely: Proskauer's index showed 2.51% in the second quarter, because it counts only payment and covenant defaults. Moody's found a 4% reported rate in middle-market loan pools rose to 5.8% when distressed exchanges were counted.

NEW YORK — Apple weighed on the Dow Tuesday after a disappointing profit-margin forecast. CNBC reported the stock ended the session about $94 billion below its Monday market value. Chip stocks rebounded and lifted the Nasdaq Composite 0.83%, ending a three-day losing streak for the S&P 500. After the close, AMD and Arista Networks jumped on sales above their own forecasts, with AMD up nearly 4% in overnight trading. Palantir slid despite strong results. The Nasdaq-100 closed Monday more than 10% below its October 6 record, and Schwab counted 51% of its members in a bear market, down 20% or more from highs. Schwab's data showed the Cboe Volatility Index near 21 and the 10-year yield at 4.91%. Futures later fell on election results, putting AMD's gains in doubt.

Rising household power bills tied to AI data centers were a live issue in battleground states as voters headed to the polls. Forbes reports that PJM capacity auctions have added about $16 a month to the average residential bill in Ohio and about $18 in western Maryland. More than 60 percent of that increase is attributed to projected data-center demand. PJM's independent market monitor puts data-center capacity charges at $7.3 billion this year and $6.5 billion next year. A Heatmap poll found more than 70 percent of Americans would oppose a data center nearby, and rising prices were the top reason. The evidence is contested. A June study by the Electric Power Research Institute, reported by Fortune, found data-center growth from 2015 to 2024 was associated with modestly lower retail rates. Fortune noted that trend may not hold during the current buildout.

A powerful El Niño is under way, and it will show whether the changed U.S. generation mix has made the grid more resilient, Axios reports. California now has more than 21 gigawatts of battery capacity, a tool it barely had during the last very strong event. A March study found earlier super El Niños were linked to cuts of nearly 5 percent in potential solar output in parts of California over 12 months. In the north of the state the cut exceeded 10 percent in winter. Vincent Tidwell, chief scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, said a wetter California could boost hydropower, while less precipitation or snowpack in the Pacific Northwest would reduce generation there. He expects natural gas to play a larger backup role if that happens. The effect of El Niño on wind output remains poorly understood.