Author: Marketplace

The holiday shopping season is here, and AI companies are pushing new chatbot retail partnerships. But, can these tools deliver on their promises to make shopping easier? Plus, the return of Vine, the beloved video app known for its ultra-short absurdist memes.

But first, Meta is not a monopoly, according to a federal judge’s ruling this week in the longstanding antitrust case against the social media giant, which claimed Meta had stifled competition by buying Instagram and WhatsApp.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, to discuss all of the above on this week’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”

The September jobs report finally arrived after a six-week delay, showing employers added 119,000 jobs — well above expectations. The BLS also recorded an unusually strong 80% employer response rate, the highest since 2019. Improved accuracy came as a consequence of the deferred report. Also in this episode: Food service gained 36,000 jobs, America’s brand image hit a new low, and a scholarship celebrated 20 years of supporting Latina students.

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Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

The United Nations’ climate summit, COP30, is underway in Brazil. But one country is notably absent: the United States. On today’s show, climate law expert Jennifer Haverkamp joins Kimberly to share her takeaways from COP30 so far and what the United States’ absence means for the future of global climate progress. Plus, the growing debate over whether climate finance should prioritize adapting to climate change or curbing fossil fuels.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• "Cop30 live: current climate pathway ‘a death sentence for many’, says UN secretary-general" from The Guardian 
• "Debatable: How to fight climate change" from Semafor
• "With Trump absent from COP30 talks, the world moves on without U.S." from The Washington Post 
• "Brazil Officials Are Divided Over Fossil Fuel Plan at COP30" from Bloomberg
• "India wants COP30 to focus on climate adaptation, but dries up own fund" from Al Jazeera  

We love hearing from you. Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or email makemesmart@marketplace.org.

After a month and a half delay due to the government shutdown, we are finally getting some official economic data. It is old (from September), but it's here. The economy gained 119,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate went up for the third month in a row. What's that mean for job seekers? Plus, declining consumer sentiment doesn't translate to declining consumer spending, Walmart's quarterly results beat expectations, and international student enrollment has dipped.

Nvidia reported earnings yesterday after markets closed, and it did not disappoint. Nvidia makes 90% of all chips used in AI. Tech stocks, including Nvidia, have been carrying a lot of weight in markets, and investors had started getting a little nervous about whether the AI boom was a bubble — but Nvidia's results have been pretty reassuring. Also: stale data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Japan's tensions with China.

From the BBC World Service: Wall Street was cheered last night by better-than-expected results from the chip giant Nvidia. But the AI boom continues to fuel fears of a market bubble. In the past few weeks, a growing number of the world’s leading figures in finance have suggested that AI stocks are unrealistically inflated in value. Plus, Meta says it's shutting down accounts for younger teenagers in Australia ahead of the country's social media ban for youths under 16.

Grokipedia, the AI-powered encyclopedia launched by Elon Musk's xAI last month, promises to be an ideological alternative to Wikipedia. But the tool doesn't just have a different political flavor, argues Ryan McGrady, senior fellow at the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

He recently wrote, for Tech Policy Press, that Grokipedia takes a more top-down approach to knowledge, one that harks back to less democratized eras.

China's purchase of 1 million tons of U.S. soybeans ends a trade war freeze. And while it's better than nothing, it's still far below typical November numbers. With no confirmation of more big shipments, and cheaper suppliers like Brazil and Argentina ready to fill in, how are U.S. farmers reacting? Plus: What to expect in September's jobs report, how the rise of gambling might change political media, and why tech giants are issuing debt to fuel expansion.

Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.

Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

In a word: uncertainty. Retail chains like Target are pulling back on hiring temporary workers ahead of this year’s holiday shopping season as tariffs take their toll, consumer sentiment slumps, and little government data leaves them with little guidance. We’ll hear more. But first: there’s a lot riding on Nvidia results, and investors are split on predictions for the Fed’s next rate decision.

Some 24 million people buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. But subsidies and tax credits that have made these plans more affordable for the past few years are expiring, and the cost of health insurance is likely going to double, on average, for those losing subsidies. How do you plan for that? Plus, a Cloudflare outage took down sites yesterday, and tensions between China and Japan escalated.