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🔍Scoops Spotlight

🔍Scoops Spotlight

Breaking down the latest news impacting your life, business, and money.

Scoops Team
September 25, 2026

Hey friends - we’ve got our first hurricane of the season this weekend in the northeast. Stock up on ice cream.

Welcome back to the weekly Scoops Spotlight, where we’ll serve up a little summary of the most important business and money news of the week with the company scoops that got the most community reactions.

🌎 The Big Picture

Here's what's going on this week:

Business activity just hit its highest point in over five years.
Employers are holding onto their people; layoffs are near historic lows.
Switching jobs might be your best shot at a real raise right now.
Overall hiring's been pretty slow, though.

▶️ Business activity just hit its highest point in over five years.

Things are booming out there. S&P Global surveys executives across manufacturing and services every month to build its Purchasing Managers' Index, and in September, it jumped to the strongest reading in over five years, with activity speeding up for the fourth month in a row. Outside of the post-pandemic reopening bounce, we haven't seen numbers like this in over a decade.

Employers hired at the fastest pace in more than four years just to keep up with demand, and S&P Global thinks the economy could grow close to 4% annualized this quarter. That's nearly triple the pace of business we saw last quarter.

The snag? Demand is outrunning production. Unfinished orders are stacking up, supply chain delays are getting worse, partly tied to the US-Israel-Iran conflict, and costs are rising faster because of it. Companies saw their biggest jump in supply costs since late 2022, driven by an energy price spike. Overall, it's a pretty good moment if you're a business owner, but if you're a consumer, higher prices at checkout aren't going away anytime soon.

▶️ Layoffs are near historic lows.

If you've got a job right now, you're in a relatively secure spot. The Department of Labor reported just 197,000 new unemployment claims last week, down slightly from the week before and close to levels we haven't seen since the late 1960s. Far fewer people are collecting benefits compared to this point last year. That could mean folks are landing new roles faster, or running through their 26 weeks of benefits without finding something. Either way, if you're already employed, you're on pretty stable ground.

▶️ Switching jobs might be your best shot at a real raise.

Job switchers are coming out ahead right now. Workers who changed employers in July scored their biggest pay bumps in over three years, according to Bank of America's analysis of deposit account data. And Gen Z is leading the way. For the first time since 2021, Gen Z workers are changing jobs faster than any other generation, and they're seeing the biggest pay increases from doing so. Hourly workers on weekly paychecks who made a move earned nearly four times more than those who stayed put.

▶️ Overall hiring's been pretty slow, though.

The broader job market has been sluggish. Employers expanded overall staff by an average of just 31,000 a month over the past year, a fraction of the roughly 150,000 that's considered normal. But if you're thinking about making a move, the data is pretty clear. Even in a slow market, switching jobs can still pay off in a meaningful way.

How are you feeling about the economy?

👍 | 👎

🏭 The Companies Everyone’s Talking About

DoorDash shorted delivery workers on wages.

DoorDash shortchanged hundreds of thousands of New York City delivery workers. A city investigation found the company sometimes failed to pay them at all for hours spent on the road. DoorDash is now paying $131.5 million to make things right, with about 264,000 Dashers set to receive money and 209,000 getting paid back for missing or late wages.

Much of the settlement addresses a fight over how DoorDash pays workers who are logged into the app and waiting for an order, rather than actively delivering one. The company also agreed to pay the city a fine and share detailed pay records every month for three years so regulators can keep checking its work. DoorDash blamed technical errors and confusing delivery routes for the mistakes and says it has since fixed them.

Capital One and JPMorgan Chase are fighting Presidential lawsuits.

Capital One and JPMorgan Chase are choosing to fight lawsuits from President Donald Trump rather than settle, betting the legal risk is lower than giving in. President Trump, suing on behalf of his companies, accuses both banks of closing his accounts in 2021 for political reasons. Capital One says the closures followed an internal review aimed at detecting money laundering, while JPMorgan Chase denies acting for political reasons.

Legal experts say settling could open the door to lawsuits from other customers who claim they were also unfairly cut off, since the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is already reviewing about 100,000 similar complaints. Both banks have hired experienced legal teams, a sign they are prepared for a long fight rather than a quick resolution.

Paramount settled all of its lawsuits to clear the merger with Warner Bros.

Paramount Skydance cleared the last major hurdle in its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. They settled lawsuits brought by 12 state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America over the merger's threat to fair competition. The deal, announced in February, combines two Hollywood studios, networks CBS and CNN, and streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max.

Under the settlement, Paramount must release 30 films in theaters a year, rising to 32, or pay $30 million for each short of that target, meant to keep movies from funneling straight to streaming. The company will also establish a journalist-only board to keep CBS News and CNN's coverage independent of ownership influence. Separately, it will boost domestic film spending by at least $300 million a year. Paramount expects to close the deal within about two weeks.

Morgan Stanley accidentally leaked its private deal pipeline.

A Morgan Stanley banker accidentally sent clients an unredacted internal list of over 100 Asia deals. Exposing price-sensitive details on IPO candidates, private equity backers, and paused projects across China, India, and South Korea.

This mistake creates real consequences for clients planning sales, who now risk getting less for their deals when sellers learn what supply is coming to market. The bank says it responded quickly and is supporting affected clients, but the incident threatens years of trust-building as a leading Asia dealmaker. Hong Kong's securities regulator is already pressing banks to tighten internal controls.

Disney hired its first chief technology officer to spur more innovation.

Disney has hired its first-ever company-wide chief technology officer. Karandeep Anand, former head of artificial intelligence chatbot startup Character.AI, joins on October 2, reporting to Chief Executive Officer Josh D'Amaro. The role covers enterprise technology, infrastructure, data, and artificial intelligence platforms across the company.

The hire comes as D'Amaro pushes Disney to weave more technology into its businesses, from turning Disney+ into a hub for shows, games, and shopping to expanding theme parks. It's also notable given Disney sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist letter last year over unauthorized use of its characters, a dispute the startup resolved by removing them. Disney said the new role is meant to modernize how it builds and delivers technology across the whole company.

❔ The Big Question of the Week

Do you pay for all of the streaming services you use?

Scoops app users: We have taken the beta app offline for a short period for some major updates. Can’t wait to show you all what we’ve been working on! Reach out if you have any questions.

We’re going to switch up the content in this spotlight for a bit to make sure you all have the info you need to master your week.

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