| | | | | | | | | | | Axios Markets | | By Emily Peck and Matt Phillips · Aug 23, 2022 | | Morning everybody. Emily is back from her summer break. Trust me, she's thrilled! I wonder if she'd be quite so enthused if she had to schlep back to the office. She explores the foot-dragging on RTO from the WFH set, below. Today's newsletter is 783 words, 3 minutes. | | | | | | 1 big thing: No U-turn for office workers |  | | | Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios | | | | Efforts by CEOs to push workers back to the office are failing, as it's becoming increasingly clear that the world of strictly in-office work is gone, Emily writes. Why it matters: While the country is back to normal from the pandemic in so many ways — we go to restaurants, movies, get on planes — office life appears to be permanently changed. - What was once unthinkable — white-collar work done almost entirely from your house — has now become pretty typical.
Driving the news: Some employees at Apple are pushing back against an order from CEO Tim Cook to return to the office three days a week starting next month, the FT reports. Cook wants to hang on to the "in-person collaboration essential to our culture," according to the report. - Apple declined to comment to Axios.
Survey data from the New York Fed shows that 20% of the work getting done at service firms in the tri-state area (basically most companies that aren't in manufacturing) is now being done remotely. Employers don't expect that number to budge much. What they're saying: "I do think it's dead," Erin Grau, co-founder of Charter, a media and services company focused on the future of work, said of the five-day in-office schedule. - Jason Bram, an N.Y. Fed economist, who recently wrote a post entitled, "Remote work is sticking," said, "Things are not likely to go back to 'normal,' the way it was before the pandemic — in most industries."
Employees often don't understand why they need to come to work — especially when they arrive and wind up doing a lot of Zoom meetings, said Grau, who works with employers on best practices around remote work. Read more. |     | | | | | | 2. Charted: Natural gas pains |  Data: FactSet; Chart: Axios Visuals Europe is plunging headlong into an energy crisis, with the Russian gas supplies that power the continent coming close to a halt, Matt writes. Driving the news: Natural gas futures prices shot to a new record high in Europe, as Russia signaled that it will end supplies through its Nord Stream 1, pipeline at the end of the month, ostensibly for maintenance. - Benchmark European natural gas prices shot higher by roughly 13%, to roughly €280 per megawatt hour.
- That's more than 10 times higher than the price at the end of 2020.
Yes, but: Americans will also feel the pinch. - U.S. natural gas prices have climbed in sympathy with prices across the Atlantic, pushing close to $10 per million British thermal units. That's the highest since 2008, a jump that will raise utility bills for Americans already stressed by inflation.
| | | | | | | | 3. Catch up quick | | 🐻 Wall Street bears take revenge after a $7 trillion rally. (Bloomberg) 🪓 Ford to cut around 3,000 jobs in U.S. and Canada. (Axios) 📉 The euro hits a new 20-year low, on energy panic. (CNBC) | | | | | | | | A message from Axios | | NEW: Subscribe to Axios Communicators | | |  | | | | Get the latest topics and trends impacting the way leaders, organizations and employers communicate. Why it matters: Axios Communicators will help inform your strategy and offer insight into the rapidly evolving world of sharing and receiving information. Subscribe for free | | | | | | 4. Nuclear stocks power up |  Data: FactSet; Chart: Axios Visuals Nuclear power providers are outperforming, as investors take a fresh look at the sector amid a global energy spike and growing climate crisis, Matt writes. Driving the news: Utilities with nuclear power operations are handily outpacing the overall market this year, after getting a helpful fillip from the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. - Constellation Energy, one of the biggest U.S. nuclear power companies, has soared roughly 90% this year, including a nearly 50% gallop over the last month.
- Other nuclear power stocks — such as NRG Energy, Xcel Energy and Entergy Corp. — have also posted solid gains over the last month, far outpacing the S&P 500.
Why it matters: If shares of nuclear providers keep posting outsized returns, it could drive additional capital into the aging atomic sector, a crucial part of cutting U.S. carbon emissions. - Nuclear power provides more than 50% of U.S. emission-free energy, and more than all other sources such as wind, solar and hydroelectric, combined, according to the Department of Energy.
Context: The romp in nuke stocks got rolling as it became clear that Congress would pass the Inflation Reduction Act. - The law included climate-related provisions that were positive for nuclear, including extending a kind of subsidy known as "production tax credits" to existing plants for the first time.
| | | | |  | | | | If you like this newsletter, your friends may, too! Refer your friends and get free Axios swag when they sign up. | | | | | | | | 5. The Boise buyers' market |  Data: Redfin; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals Nearly 70% of home sellers in Boise, Idaho, cut the asking price on their house in July, Emily writes, a remarkable turn for the once-hot real estate market. - Nationwide, the number was 32% — up from 27% in July 2019.
Why it matters: This is just the latest indication that the pandemic housing boom is going bust, as higher mortgage rates chill demand for homes. Keep in mind: While the percentage of sellers cutting prices is very high in Boise, the actual price cuts are quite modest — less than 5% off the original list price. What's next: Home prices are likely to come down further. Go deeper. | | | | | | | | A message from Axios | | NEW: Subscribe to Axios Communicators | | | | | | | | Get the latest topics and trends impacting the way leaders, organizations and employers communicate. Why it matters: Axios Communicators will help inform your strategy and offer insight into the rapidly evolving world of sharing and receiving information. Subscribe for free | | | | 1 📖 book Matt loves: My wife slipped me a copy of Ross Gay's "The Book of Delights," a series of wonderful — and brief! — essays limning the pleasures of everyday existence. Gay is on the creative writing faculty at Indiana University, and also a gardener, which gets extra points around here. |  | | Why stop here? Let's go Pro. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here.
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