The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond shot above 5% in early trading on Monday—hitting its highest since 2007 and rattling investors—before retreating a bit so everyone could chill out.

While a high return on long-term government debt sounds like something only a Wall Street wonk would fret about, it can raise borrowing costs for everyone from homebuyers to small businesses.

• Treasury yields have been rising steadily for almost two years as investors kept anticipating (correctly) that Jerome Powell would raise interest rates to combat persistent inflation.
• Bond yields are used as the measure against which lots of other interest rates are set, so recent sky-high yields have contributed to the current eye-popping mortgage rates, which have made homeownership 52% more expensive than renting, and they’re part of the reason why the number of Americans struggling to make car payments is at its highest since at least 1994.

Yields crossed the symbolically significant 5% mark yesterday because investors rushed to sell off 10-year bonds, making them cheaper, per the Econ 101 law of supply and demand—that boosted the bond yields, since yields move in the opposite direction from price.

So, why did Wall Street press “sell” on Treasurys?

It’s usually a sign of confidence in the economy, but some analysts are concerned that this time, investors are shedding government debt because they perceive the US as being a spendthrift as the deficit grows.

However, the traditional psychology may also be at play: The influential billionaire investor Bill Ackman is believed to have single-handedly stopped yesterday’s bond market sell-off by saying he’d ended his bet on 30-year Treasury bond prices falling because he thinks there is “too much risk in the world” and the economy isn’t as strong as it seems. The 10-year bonds dropped back to 4.85% yesterday afternoon.

But everyone’s still watching JPow: The signs of a resilient economy Ackman dismissed have some investors believing the Fed will keep raising rates. But, ironically, if through-the-roof bond yields persist, they could keep the Fed from needing to hike rates since they too could slow the economy.—SK

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Hamas freed two more hostages. Citing humanitarian reasons, Hamas freed two elderly Israeli women who were among the more than 200 hostages taken during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, following the release of an American mother and daughter last week. The US has been pressing Israel to delay a ground war in Gaza to buy time to negotiate the return of more hostages. However, the Wall Street Journal reports that talks to free 50 hostages stalled after Israel rejected demands that fuel be allowed into Gaza as part of humanitarian aid out of fears it could end up in militants’ hands. Meanwhile, the war continues to escalate: The death toll in Gaza rose sharply as Israel increased airstrikes yesterday.

Chevron to buy Hess as Big Oil gets bigger. The companies have inked an all-stock deal for Chevron to acquire Hess for $53 billion. It’s the second mega-merger to be announced in the industry this month after Exxon Mobil’s $60 billion purchase of Pioneer. It shows that America’s No. 1 (Exxon) and No. 2 (Chevron) oil companies are still betting big on fossil fuels despite environmental concerns and European competitors turning toward renewable energy sources. It’s also a play by Chevron to tap into the resources of Guyana, where oil was more recently discovered than in some of its neighbors in Latin America.

Off-duty pilot tried to shut off a plane’s engines midflight. The off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot had been riding in the jump seat inside the cockpit, a common spot for pilots to hitch a ride, when he tried to “disrupt the operation of the engines” on a flight bound for San Francisco from Everett, Washington, on Sunday, the airline said. The pilots actually flying the plane responded quickly, so no one was harmed (just inconvenienced—the plane was rerouted to Portland, Oregon). The off-duty pilot has been charged with 83 counts of attempted murder.

Detroit’s Big Three automakers might as well be performing a ballet recital with the way the United Auto Workers union is keeping them on their toes.

In a surprise walkout yesterday, the UAW directed 6,800 workers at Stellantis’s largest Ram 1500 assembly plant to join the picket line, which now includes more than 40,000 of the ~145,000 UAW members at the three companies as the union continues to select specific plants to target. The Ram pickup trucks are Stellantis’s bestsellers in the US.

This tracks with UAW President Shawn Fain’s promise to increasingly squeeze Stellantis, Ford, and GM until they agree to the union’s demands. “It’s time to amp up the pressure,” Fain said yesterday, calling the Ram plant Stellantis’s “moneymaker.”

Since the strike began on Sept. 15…the Big Three have lost $4.2 million and their suppliers have lost $2.8 billion, according to the Anderson Economic Group. Stellantis, Ford, and GM have offered record improvements to wages and working conditions, but Fain believes they can offer more. Stellantis argued that the UAW’s strategy “sacrifices domestic market share to non-union competition.”

More on the strike’s impact soon: GM reports its quarterly earnings today, Ford’s report comes out Thursday, and Stellantis releases its earnings on Oct. 31.—ML

A behemoth collectible card game is joining forces with some heroic IP. Yesterday, Hasbro announced a collaboration with Marvel to bring superheroes to its billion-dollar collectible card game, Magic: The Gathering.

The first cards in the multiyear, multi-set collection will drop in 2025. Hasbro hasn’t revealed what the cards will look like, although the dramatic announcement video hints that Thor, the Scarlet Witch, and Captain America will be included.

Why it matters: Magic has collaborated with other media franchises on one-time special editions before, including Dr. Who and The Lord of the Rings, but this larger collab is the most ambitious yet. Partnering with some of the biggest IP in the world is a strategic move by Hasbro as it looks to expand the game’s appeal, something we may hear more about when the company reports its earnings on Thursday. Hasbro relies on Magic like the Kardashians rely on Kim—it’s the company’s most popular and profitable brand, outpacing the likes of G.I. Joe and the Transformers.

But…some players (and analysts) worry that the brand’s rapid release of new cards could flood the market and devalue the franchise, threatening the devotion of collectors, some of whom spend tens of thousands of dollars on rare cards.—CC

Stat: Bobi, a Portuguese pup certified by Guinness as the oldest dog ever, died this weekend at age 31 years and 165 days. And while his owner, who was just 8 years old when Bobi was born in 1992, will undoubtedly miss his loyal companion, there are no bones about the fact that Bobi—a dog that lived on a farm, was never put on a leash, and got to eat the same food as his humans—had a long, full life. He made it to ~217 years old in dog years, far eclipsing the expected 10- to 14- (human) year lifespan for his breed, the Rafeiro do Alentejo.

Quote: “At present, the production and operation of the company are normal in every respect!”

We always assumed that inappropriate urination was something that happened after beer drinking, not as part of the manufacturing process, but yesterday, Tsingtao had to respond to a viral video that appeared to show one of its uniformed employees peeing into a tank of ingredients. The Chinese beer company assured drinkers that the incident had been reported quickly, the malt involved was not being used, and its brewing facilities remained up and running.

Read: How tableside flambé became the hottest thing in fine dining. (Eater)

Watch: The trailer for Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge, where real people try to win real money but only fake die.

Learn: Theories on why some liquors are called spirits.

Eat: McDonald’s is giving away free fries on Fridays. Here’s how to claim yours.

Best bed: Curl up in a human-sized dog bed.

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