Though high interest rates have consumers and businesses feeling the pinch, they’ve been a boon to the US’s largest banks. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo all had stronger-than-expected third-quarter results. In total, the banks earned $22 billion in profit, more than a third higher than in Q3 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported. Their combined revenue was $81 billion, or 14% higher than last year.

Bank stocks dipped last month following the Fed’s meeting, where it held interest rates steady. But though high rates have hurt some smaller banks, they’ve helped keep the large banks’ net interest margins healthy according to CNBC. JPMorgan’s net interest income (NII) was up 30% year over year, rising to $22.9 billion. Wells Fargo’s declined slightly from last quarter, but was still 8% higher than it was last year.

“Normalizing” economy: The US economy remains strong, but shows some signs of slowing, bank executives said during recent earnings calls. JPMorgan and Citi took note of consumer spending, with JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum saying, “we are coming on off a very low base. And so there’s a hope and an expectation that we are on the path to normalization and improvement.”

Click here to find out what bank earnings say about the economy.—CV

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Sorry folks, we’re going to be talking about inflation a little while longer.

Progress in the inflation fight stalled last month: Prices for consumer goods rose at a faster than expected pace in September, according to data released Thursday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Consumer Price Index climbed 3.7% from a year ago, and jumped 0.4% on the month. But core CPI, which analysts and policymakers weigh more heavily since it ignores fickle food and energy prices, decreased for the sixth straight month. It hopped 0.3% from August, and rose 4.1% from a year ago. That marks core CPI’s smallest yearly growth rate since 2021.

There’s one main culprit for the rise: rent. According to CNN, 70% of the jump in monthly core CPI, and “more than half of the overall monthly increase,” was attributable to the shelter index, which measures rental leases and the “implicit rental value of owner-occupied properties.”

Rent has been the main character in the inflation narrative lately, but some economists are optimistic the September shelter index figures will be a blip.

For more on what the CPI means for the inflation fight, click here.—NP

Deloitte recently published a new report about how organizations are approaching the ethics of emerging technologies, and you know generative AI is moving fast when even experts have to play catch-up.

Within the last year, we’ve witnessed a slew of rapid generative AI developments, all of which pose new ethical questions about plagiarism, misinformation, and worker displacement.

When Deloitte first published its “State of Ethics and Trust in Technology” report in 2022, “the state of artificial intelligence had been relatively stable over the past five years,” the new report’s authors note.

But we’re living in an entirely new world of AI, and how organizations are thinking about the ethics of technology is also changing fast.

Want to build ethical AI? Click here.—NP

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: 33%. That’s how much Goldman Sachs profit fell last quarter. This is the eighth consecutive quarter the investment bank’s profits dipped YoY. But we’re not setting up a GoFundMe for Goldman just yet; the firm still posted a $2.1 billion profit for the quarter. (the Wall Street Journal)

Quote: “The US consumer cannot stop spending. All three retail sales reports for Q3 were above estimates, which puts us on track for a strong GDP number later this month. It also gives the Fed zero reason to loosen policy, which keeps the 10-year Treasury yield pushing toward 5%.”—David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation, on rising retail sales last month. (CNBC)

Read: Turns out those carbon offset credits might not have been so, well, green after all. (the New Yorker)

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