The Gender Gap Defining the Presidential Race in the U.S.
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Why the earnings of the biggest U.S. banks are a positive signal for the American economy. And how the voting gender gap defines this presidential race. When we ask questions that reflect what should the role of the government be, is it more important for the government to help people who have challenges in the economy, or more important to cut taxes, we see differences by gender in the responses. Plus, why blue-collar companies have caught the attention of private equities.

It's Tuesday, October 15th. I'm Tracy Hunt for The Wall Street Journal. This is the p.m. edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. It's round two of bank earnings and the results are solid. The country's biggest banks said American consumers appear to be on steadier financial footing in the third quarter, with executives suggesting the economy has either reached or neared a soft landing.

Goldman Sachs reported a 45% jump in profits, beating Wall Street expectations, while Bank of America and Citigroup also posted strong results. The reports come after Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase reported strong earnings last week. Joining us now to discuss the main takeaways is Wall Street Journal reporter Alexander Saidi. Hi, Alex. Hello. So, Alex, start us off. How did the big banks perform? From what we've seen through data,

the second major day of bank earnings. Very solid performance overall from the banks. Most of them are beating Wall Street expectations on how much they would earn. Profits are coming down, but they're not coming down as much as

as Wall Street had expected. Banks are finding ways to make money in this economic environment, and that's largely because the economy is looking good. It's looking strong. Consumers are spending, but they're not spending so much that they're going to lose a lot of money. Banks that have a particularly big business in M&A are

Debt underwriting, making loans, IPOing companies. These companies are starting to do well again after a bit of a slowdown since 2021, 2022.

Finally, after a while in the doldrums, a pickup in activity. Right now, we're in a phase where anything that's a little bit more trading and investment banking focused is doing pretty well. So the banks are doing better. Does that mean that the customers are doing better as well? What we're hearing overall is that in the aggregate, consumers are looking good. Certainly since the pandemic, the amount of savings they've had in total has gone down.

People aren't too much in debt and spending is also still strong. It may be slowing down a bit, but that's sort of what we're seeing in the economy overall. And it's also what the Federal Reserve wants. It wants to have...

slower inflation, a slightly slower economy, but one that is still healthy. And I do think that the results we're seeing today and also late last week definitely buttress the case that that is what's happening. Alexander Saidi is a Wall Street Journal reporter covering banking and finance. Thanks, Alex. Thank you.

In U.S. markets, all three major indexes ended down today after a sell-off in chip stocks triggered by the Dutch chip equipment manufacturer ASML. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 1%. The Dow and the S&P 500 both dropped 0.8%.

UnitedHealth said today its earnings for 2025 will likely fall short of Wall Street's early expectations. The projection disappointed investors and underscored worries about the insurance industry's core Medicare business. UnitedHealth is considered a bellwether for the industry, and the move sparked a drop in its shares and pushed down other companies in the sector, including CVS Health and Humana, as it appeared to firm up investors' concerns about Medicare as well as Medicaid.

UnitedHealth estimated that its formal guidance for 2025 will top it at about $30 in earnings per share, which according to FactSet is well below analysts' current expectations. UnitedHealth Chief Executive Andrew Witte said today the company was choosing to be conservative in its initial views and hopes to raise its outlook over the course of the next year, a pattern that has been common for UnitedHealth.

Boeing is looking to raise at least $10 billion in new shares in a bid to stabilize its precarious finances. In a pair of regulatory filings, the jet maker told investors it could issue up to $25 billion in shares or debt during the next three years while also entering into a new credit agreement with lenders.

A strike by Boeing's largest union is exacerbating financial woes at the jet maker, which last turned a profit in 2018. Boeing ended September with $10.3 billion in cash and securities, close to the minimum amount the company has said it needs to operate. And on Friday, it announced it would cut roughly 17,000 jobs. Credit rating firms have warned that the company needed to raise capital and that its debt could be downgraded to junk status.

Coming up, why this might be the most gendered election ever. That's after the break.

I'm Jimmy Veilkind from The Wall Street Journal, and I'm hitting the road again for a new series on the election, looking at how big campaign arguments are playing out on the ground. Like, how's the economy shaping people's thoughts? My daughter went a lot further when Trump was in there. And how is Kamala Harris's sudden rise being received? She's already proven herself to be a formidable opponent for Trump. Join me for the ride.

Look for Chasing the Vote in the Wall Street Journal's What's News feed. Kamala Harris is struggling to win support from men. Donald Trump is having the same problem with women. U.S. elections have always revealed a gender gap, with more women voting for Democrats and men overwhelmingly voting for Republicans. But the gap is widening, cutting across many racial, educational, and economic groups.

Joining us now to discuss this is Wall Street Journal reporter Erin Zittner.

So, Aaron, the executive director of Republicans Against Trump, she called this the most gendered election she had ever seen. And that was surprising to me because obviously this is not the first time we've had a woman candidate on a major party ticket. What makes this election so different? Well, partly it's what we're seeing from voters and what they tell us in polls. And partly it's what we're seeing from the candidates and their appeals, right?

According to AP VoteCast, which was a big, big survey that we rely on to tell us about who actually voted in 2020, Donald Trump won men by five points. Now, in most polls, including our Wall Street Journal polls,

His lead among men is 10 points. And Kamala Harris has expanded the Democratic advantage from 2020 among women by a lesser extent. And this is really important because it says something big about America. One reason that Trump is doing better among men is he's doing well among black men and particularly Latino men. And what that says is America is becoming a little less divided politically by race and

because some of these men from minority groups are shifting Republican, and it's becoming more divided by gender, at least when you compare to the last election. And that's, you know, that's a change. You know, as we mentioned in our morning show, Harris is making a push to shore up her standing with black men. What's her strategy?

Well, part of it is in her agenda. She's offered things that I think are meant to appeal to people who are starting families, money to help people who are first-time homebuyers, money to people who are new parents. And some of it's being left to surrogates. You're seeing Barack Obama go out and talk explicitly to black men saying, hey, get over it. You should vote for a black woman. It's okay to vote for a black woman. If you have any feelings of resistance about that, get over it.

What about Trump? How is Trump reaching out to women voters? He's cast himself as a protector of women, actually used that word. One thing he's done is he's fuzzed up his position on abortion. And even though he's the president who put in Supreme Court justices,

who overturned Roe v. Wade. He's saying that he's not so committed to a hardline position on abortion, which seems like an effort to make him less radioactive on an issue that we know is very important to women more than to men. We see it in our polls. A third of women in our polls say abortion is a deal breaker for them. They cannot vote for any candidate they disagree with on abortion. And it's a much lower number among men who say so, something like 18%.

Thank you so much, Aaron. Sure. Good to be with you. Aaron Zittner is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. The Biden administration is urging Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza within 30 days or risk a cut to arms sales. It's the starkest threat yet by the U.S. since the beginning of the war. In a letter to senior Israeli officials dated October 13th and signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the

The U.S. blamed Israel for a drastic drop in humanitarian aid into Gaza that contributed to starvation and widespread suffering, especially in the enclaves north, where Israel launched a renewed ground operation nearly two weeks ago. The Israeli military issued a statement today insisting humanitarian efforts in northern Gaza continued.

In the letter, Blinken and Austin specifically cite a part of the Foreign Assistance Act that bars the U.S. from providing security aid to any nation that prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.

There is no language in the act that has a specific time limit, like 30 days for a policy change noted in the letter. However, the law says the U.S. can continue providing military aid if the president determines that to do so is in the national security interests of the United States.

And finally, private equity is scooping up home services like heating, ventilation, air conditioning, as well as plumbing and electrical companies. According to PitchBook, private equity investors have purchased nearly 800 such companies since 2022. And those are just the biggest deals that have been tracked. Wall Street Journal reporter Teping Chen spoke to our Your Money Briefing podcast. Private equity has made inroads in a lot of other industries, particularly

They're pursuing similar strategies of buying up these smaller companies and rolling them up into bigger entities. And so the skill trades to a lot of investors seem similarly ripe with opportunity. You're also talking about an industry where it's a lot of recurring, pretty predictable revenue, like air conditioners are going to break, boilers are going to need upgrades. And so if you're an investor looking for steady returns, there's a lot to like.

And for owners, obviously, there's a lot of upside. Plenty of owners are ambitious for their companies and want to be able to grow and expand their territories and bundle up new services or what have you. And private equity many times can bring the resources that makes that possible in ways that might not have been on their own, especially when they're trying to run a business themselves.

and are pretty consumed with the day-to-day. The wave of investment is minting a new class of millionaires across the country, one that small business owners say is helping add more shine to working with a tool belt. And you can hear more about this story in our Your Money Briefing podcast. And that's what's news for this Tuesday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Anthony Bansi and Pierre Bien-Aimé with supervising producer Michael Cosmitas.

I'm Tracy Hunt for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.