October 2025 Article Alert

At Marketing Wiz, our team actively monitors global financial markets to contextualize relevant stories for our clients and their stakeholders. This October, here are three themes that can serve as the foundation for a custom long-form article on behalf of your firm:

Bean Counter: China Refuses US Soybeans in Trade Flashpoint

• As trade tensions between the US and China remain elevated, one key product has become a negotiating flashpoint: soybeans. China, the world’s largest buyer of soybeans, has refused to purchase a single shipment from US farmers this season.
  
  
• Last year, sales to China accounted for roughly half the value of all US soybean exports. With China turning to South America as a supplier instead, the Trump administration has made soybeans a top priority in continued negotiations. 
  
  
• While lack of soybean demand may not undermine the US economy directly, this episode highlights how ongoing trade uncertainty continues to put pressure on American businesses. As the end of the year approaches, the Trump administration may seek to accelerate trade negotiations to secure a robust deal with China before 2026. 
  
  

Eye on Labor: Fed Cuts Rates as Job Market Weakens

• After holding rates steady for five straight meetings, the Federal Reserve elected to cut interest rates by 25 basis points in September. With job growth slowing and the unemployment rate ticking higher, risks to the labor market now appear to outweigh inflation.
  
  
• Nonetheless, it’s not clear whether investors should see this as the start of a new cutting cycle. Fed Chair Jerome Powell described the rate reduction as a “risk management cut,” indicating that future decisions will be made on a meeting-by-meeting basis.
  
  
• Notably, recent Trump nominee Stephen Miran voted for a larger 50-point basis cut. While Miran was the only governor to vote for a larger cut, additional nominees could help Trump tip the scales toward aggressively lowering rates.
  
  

Private Party: Electronic Arts Goes Private in Record Buyout

• Video game publisher Electronic Arts will be taken private in a record $55 billion deal, the largest leveraged buyout in history. The buyout is being undertaken by several private equity groups in coordination with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, supported by debt financing from JPMorgan.
  
  
• The massive deal shows that Wall Street’s appetite for M&A activity remains robust despite fears of an economic slowdown. That enthusiasm is also evidenced by several significant IPOs in recent months, including CoreWeave and Klarna.
  
  
• Despite these IPOs, EA’s exit also underscores the declining popularity of public markets among major companies. As firms choose to remain or go private, everyday investors may be losing access to some of the world’s most innovative companies.
  
  

Interested in building out long-form collateral relating to any of these themes? We invite you to  reach out to our team today for a discussion of our custom content capabilities.