Air freight spot rates reached their highest level of 2026 this week, with the TAC index up 28.2% from a year earlier as late holiday shipments compete for scarce capacity. Rates out of Hong Kong rose 4.6% week on week and 29.2% year on year, while Shanghai gained 5.7% and 21.1%. The increase came even as jet fuel prices fell, a sign that space, not fuel, is driving the market. Ocean rates on the main lanes are easing as peak season ends, so shippers are paying a premium to move goods by air before Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas.
North American factories ordered 10,989 robots worth $723.5 million in the third quarter, up 24.8% in units and 26.1% in value from a year earlier, according to the Association for Advancing Automation. It was the strongest quarter of 2026 and followed a 22.9% unit gain in the second quarter. Year to date, orders reached 28,984 robots valued at $1.89 billion. Semiconductor and electronics orders nearly doubled, automotive component orders rose 90%, and plastics and rubber gained 68%. Food and consumer goods was the only large category to fall, down 23.7%, as grocers and packaged-food plants held back on capital spending.
US consumer prices rose 0.4% in October, more than economists expected, marking a third straight month of firm increases. The reading complicates the Federal Reserve's path as officials weigh whether to raise interest rates again in December. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed back to 5% after the data, and traders moved to price in the possibility of a larger-than-usual rate increase. Retail sales also rose, suggesting households are still spending. Gasoline prices fell below $4 a gallon for the first time since July, offering some relief, while food and shelter costs continued to push the index higher. Core services inflation, the category the Fed watches most closely, showed little improvement.
Anthropic agreed to pay about $3.4 billion for 1.7 gigawatts of gas-fired generators, according to a Financial Times report. The AI company bought commitments made in late September by OnePWR Solutions, a Texas supplier that had ordered the heavy-duty machines from Caterpillar two years earlier and needed financing. The deal included engineering and construction work, but Anthropic did not acquire the supplier itself. It is the largest known single purchase of power equipment by an AI lab, and it shows that electricity, not chips, is now the tighter constraint on AI expansion. The purchase also shows how valuable an existing spot in a manufacturer's backlog has become as AI companies compete for power.
US employers added 165,000 jobs in October, beating forecasts, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%. The report points to a labour market that has absorbed higher borrowing costs and the spread of artificial intelligence without breaking. It also complicates the Federal Reserve's next move: inflation picked up in September on the central bank's preferred measure, and officials are expected to act again in December.
Tesla fell about 9% and SpaceX about 11% on Thursday as investors weighed new congressional scrutiny of Elon Musk's companies after Democratic midterm wins, taking combined losses in market value past $420 billion since Tuesday's close. The concern is oversight of Tesla's Cybercab robotaxi plans, SpaceX's federal contracts and a Texas build-out that includes a chip factory, not any specific bill. Musk spent more than $470 million on Republican candidates, most of whom lost, and his fortune has slipped below $800 billion. The drop came inside a wider selloff in AI-linked shares that paused on Friday after the October jobs report.
US employers added 165,000 jobs in October, well above the 59,000 economists expected, and unemployment fell to 4.1%. Private payrolls rose by 159,000. Revisions added 84,000 jobs to August and September, lifting the three-month average to 137,000. The report lands four days after Democrats won Congress on a cost-of-living message and ahead of a December Federal Reserve meeting where the data complicates the case for a rate cut.
Wall Street's AI trade broke on Thursday, one day after a post-election rally. The Nasdaq Composite fell about 3.9% and closed more than 10% below its October record, a correction. Micron and AMD each lost roughly 15%, Nvidia fell about 8%, and the semiconductor ETF SOXX dropped as much as 11%, its worst day since March 2020. The trigger was political: Democrats won both chambers and data centers were on ballots across the country. UBS estimates nearly a third of new US data-center capacity due in 2028 could be delayed. OpenAI responded with a pledge to pay full power costs at its own sites.
CVS Health said it will separate its retail pharmacy chain from its insurance and pharmacy benefit businesses, reversing a strategy built over a decade of acquisitions and unwinding the logic of its $78 billion purchase of Aetna in 2018. The split is expected to be completed in the first half of 2028. David Joyner will lead the insurance and benefits company, which keeps the CVS Health name for now, while Prem Shah becomes chief executive of the pharmacy business. Lawmakers from both parties have questioned whether owning drugstores, a benefit manager and an insurer lets one company steer patients and pricing.
DoorDash agreed to acquire grocery delivery company Instacart for about $17bn, paying $65.00 a share, a 26% premium to Instacart's closing price on October 22. The deal combines DoorDash's courier network with Instacart's grocery picking and fulfilment software, adds roughly 50,000 stores to Instacart's reach and merges DashPass with Instacart+ into a single membership. Instacart's board approved the transaction unanimously and DoorDash shares rose more than 9% in pre-market trading. The purchase follows DoorDash's acquisition of Deliveroo and continues a consolidation wave in a thin-margin delivery industry. Regulators are expected to examine overlapping market share in dense urban areas.