Market Beats | More Americans Are Falling Behind on Car Payments; Whoop Eyes IPO Within Two Years, Explores Glucose Monitoring Feature; Morgan Stanley and GSA Buy $1 Billion US Student Housing Portfolio from ADIA; Trump to Host Wall Street Executives for White House Dinner; Walgreens Cuts Paid Holidays for Store Workers as New Owners Slash Costs; Anthropic to Spend $50 Billion on US AI Data Centers

—— More Americans Are Falling Behind on Car Payments; Whoop Eyes IPO Within Two Years, Explores Glucose Monitoring Feature; Morgan Stanley and GSA Buy $1 Billion US Student Housing Portfolio from ADIA; Trump to Host Wall Street Executives for White House Dinner; Walgreens Cuts Paid Holidays for Store Workers as New Owners Slash Costs; Anthropic to Spend $50 Billion on US AI Data Centers

1. Snowstorm in Chicago Deepens US Flight Chaos

More Americans than ever are struggling to stay current on their car loans.

The share of subprime borrowers at least 60 days delinquent on their auto loans climbed to 6.65% in October — the highest level in data going back to 1994, according to Fitch Ratings.

With inflation still squeezing budgets and student loan repayments resuming, millions of car owners are finding it harder to make their monthly payments. It’s the latest sign of financial strain in the US economy as the Federal Reserve weighs future rate cuts.

The cracks in consumer health became especially clear in September when Tricolor Holdings — a used-car dealer and subprime auto lender — abruptly filed for bankruptcy. That collapse has prompted major financial institutions to reassess their exposure to risky borrowers. Everyday Americans are likely to face further financial pressure as growth slows and the labor market softens.

In last week’s elections, affordability and cost-of-living concerns topped voters’ priorities. Consumer surveys show widespread pessimism about the economy. According to TransUnion, the share of consumers in the riskiest credit category rose this year to levels not seen since 2019.

Subprime borrowers made up 14.4% of tracked consumers in the third quarter, up from 13.9% a year earlier.

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2. Whoop Eyes IPO Within Two Years, Explores Glucose Monitoring Feature

Whoop Inc., maker of the popular screen-less fitness band, is considering an initial public offering within the next two years and exploring the addition of glucose monitoring to its health-tracking platform.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Will Ahmed said the company is well-positioned for a public listing now that it has expanded its portfolio to include proprietary technology, hardware, software, analytics, and even apparel and accessories.

“I would think about it over a horizon of two years,” Ahmed said. While he has previously signaled that an IPO was likely, this is the first time he has provided a rough timeframe. “We like to build things ourselves and want to create a home of health for our members,” he added. “If you ask yourself what public company today truly owns personal health, I draw kind of a blank. It feels like there should be a major global company known for that.”

Ahmed said talks with the US Food and Drug Administration over Whoop’s blood-pressure tracking tool have recently taken a “constructive” turn. A potential IPO would cement Whoop’s status as a leader in the wearables market, particularly within the growing niche of screen-less devices that serve as alternatives to smartwatches. Similar companies include Oura Health Oy, which makes a smart ring, and Samsung Electronics Co., which launched its own smart ring last year.

Originally designed for elite athletes, Whoop’s platform helps users optimize performance. The company saw a surge in subscriptions during the pandemic as more people sought general wellness insights. Membership has grown 20-fold since 2020 and is up 75% in the last two years, according to the company.

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3. Morgan Stanley and GSA Buy $1 Billion US Student Housing Portfolio from ADIA

Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Global Student Accommodation have purchased a portfolio of US student housing properties from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Landmark Properties in a deal valued at more than $1 billion.

The acquisition includes eight properties with 6,200 beds located near schools such as the University of Virginia and Penn State University, according to a statement Wednesday.

Morgan Stanley has been expanding its footprint in the student housing sector. With this deal, the firm’s asset management arm and GSA — which manages $8 billion — now own 50 properties across the US and are moving into new markets including Virginia, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.

The asset manager has also made student-housing acquisitions outside its partnership with GSA. Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Scion Group agreed to buy similar properties near the University of Mississippi for $262 million.

Real estate investors are betting that a third consecutive year of rising university enrollments in the US will bolster demand for student housing.

“This acquisition with GSA fully aligns with our strategy to acquire high-quality, resilient assets in prime locations,” said Will Milam, head of US investments at Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, in the statement.

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4. Trump to Host Wall Street Executives for White House Dinner

President Donald Trump will host financial industry executives for dinner Wednesday at the White House, according to two officials familiar with the plans — the latest effort by the administration to rally business leaders behind his policies.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon is among the attendees, one of the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Other invited executives include Nasdaq Inc.’s Adena Friedman, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Solomon, BlackRock Inc.’s Larry Fink, and Morgan Stanley’s Ted Pick, according to people briefed on the event. The White House public schedule listed a private dinner hosted by Trump at 7:30 p.m. local time.

The dinner comes as Trump faces mounting political pressure over economic and affordability issues — the same themes that helped Democrats secure electoral victories in New Jersey and Virginia last week.

Trump strengthened his standing with Wall Street elites during the 2024 campaign with promises of tax cuts and sweeping deregulation that fueled optimism about his economic agenda.

While he has since signed into law a business-friendly tax measure making several provisions permanent and moved to roll back government regulations, other policies have at times strained his relationship with corporate America.

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5. Walgreens Cuts Paid Holidays for Store Workers as New Owners Slash Costs

Walgreens will no longer offer paid vacation time for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other major holidays to many of its retail workers as part of a cost-cutting push under new ownership.

The pharmacy chain eliminated six paid holidays for hourly store employees, cutting hundreds of dollars from their annual pay, according to interviews and documents reviewed by Bloomberg News. Walgreens informed workers of the change in early October — just weeks after it was acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners for $10 billion.

The move is the latest in a series of austerity measures as the once-iconic retailer struggles with falling sales, shrinking prescription margins, and growing competition from online and discount retailers. Walgreens’ stock has dropped more than 85% over the past decade, and the company has been closing hundreds of stores.

Following the buyout, Sycamore has fired about 80 corporate employees — including most of the communications team — and announced plans to shutter the firm’s downtown Chicago office, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

Previously, full-time hourly employees received paid holidays for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day if they met tenure requirements. Those who worked on holidays earned additional pay.

Under the new policy, employees will only be paid if they work on those days, though they will continue to receive extra holiday pay.

One store manager said she expects to lose over $1,000 in wages this year due to the policy change and plans to cut back on her family vacation this winter to make up for the loss.

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6. Anthropic to Spend $50 Billion on US AI Data Centers

Anthropic PBC plans to spend $50 billion to build custom data centers for artificial intelligence across several US locations, including Texas and New York, marking its largest direct investment in infrastructure to date.

The new facilities, developed in partnership with UK-based Fluidstack Ltd., will begin coming online throughout 2026, the company said Wednesday. Unlike previous reliance on cloud partners such as Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Anthropic is directly overseeing this major build-out. The OpenAI rival said the initiative supports the Trump administration’s goal of maintaining US leadership in AI by strengthening domestic technology infrastructure.

The projects are expected to create about 800 permanent jobs and 2,400 construction positions. Fluidstack will supply “gigawatts” of power to the sites, according to the statement.

“We’re getting closer to AI that can accelerate scientific discovery and solve complex problems in ways that weren’t possible before,” said Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s CEO and co-founder. “These sites will help us build more capable AI systems that drive breakthroughs while creating American jobs.”

Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, Anthropic has built a reputation as a reliable and safety-focused AI company. Though smaller than OpenAI, its Claude chatbot and underlying technology have gained traction among enterprise clients in finance, health care, and developer communities.

The company raised $13 billion in September at a $183 billion valuation and now counts more than 300,000 business customers.

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7. Tesla Faces More Executive Departures

Tesla Inc. is losing key leaders from its Cybertruck, Model 3, and Model Y programs — the latest wave of high-level exits this year as the electric-vehicle maker contends with volatile sales and an uncertain outlook.

Siddhant Awasthi, who oversaw the development and production ramp-up of the Cybertruck as program manager for three years, said on LinkedIn that he has left the company. Awasthi, who joined Tesla as an intern in 2017, had shifted to the Model 3 program in July. “This decision wasn’t easy, especially with so much exciting growth on the horizon,” he wrote.

Separately, Emmanuel Lamacchia, program manager for Tesla’s top-selling Model Y SUV, also announced his departure after eight years. Neither executive specified their next career moves.

The departures add to a growing list of senior exits at Tesla, which has struggled with tepid consumer demand and the loss of key US incentives, even as it expands into new areas such as robotaxis and humanoid robots. David Lau, Tesla’s vice president of software engineering, left for OpenAI earlier this year after nearly 13 years, while Milan Kovac, head of engineering for the Optimus robot, also stepped down. In June, Bloomberg reported that Omead Afshar — a powerful Tesla executive and longtime confidant of CEO Elon Musk — had left the company.

Tesla is on track for its second straight annual decline in vehicle sales, even as the Model Y and Model 3 remain among the top-selling vehicles in the US. The angular Cybertruck, however, has disappointed, facing multiple recalls and lagging sales since its 2019 debut.

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