The new power couple

Citigroup and Apollo Global Management are teaming up in the fast-growing private credit market, agreeing to work together on $25 billion worth of deals over the next five years. The two Wall Street heavyweights have struck an exclusive partnership to arrange financings for corporate and private equity clients, according to a statement seen by Bloomberg. Mubadala Investment and Apollo’s insurance unit Athene will also participate in the venture, which will initially focus on North America. —David E. Rovella

At a finance conference in London this summer, four senior investment bankers set about persuading the room that the $1.7-trillion private credit market isn’t a threat to Wall Street. Barely three months later, two of them have jumped ship to seek their fortunes in the upstart asset class. Goldman Sachs’ Luke Gillam and Bank of America’s Murad Khaled—set to join AlbaCore Capital and Apollo Global Management—are the latest in a growing list of top bankers to make the leap. The brain drain is yet more evidence of private capital firms’ emergence as an enduring threat to banking’s traditional dominance of the lucrative corporate loan market.

The structure Bank of New York Mellon is using to offer custody services for digital assets could be used beyond the Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETF) that the bank is considering, according to US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler. Earlier this week, the bank acknowledged that it had presented a plan to the SEC to custody those two assets in a way that would protect customer funds in the event of bank insolvency. The agency provided BNY with a “non-objection” to the plan.

Silver hit the highest level since 2012 while gold reached a new record as expectations for additional Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts boosted precious metals. Silver is one of the year’s best-performing major commodities, and the prospect of further cuts benefit the metals. Gains also have been supported by the possibility of increased industrial use as China moves to boost its economy, while flows into silver-backed ETFs have shown signs of picking up.

China’s top leaders ramped up efforts to revive growth with pledges to support fiscal spending and stabilize the beleaguered property sector, giving new momentum to stimulus measures aimed at arresting an economic slowdown. Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s meeting of the 24-man Politburo reportedly concluded with a promise to strive to achieve the country’s annual economic goals. Officials pledged action to make the real estate market “stop declining,” their strongest vow yet to stabilize the crucial sector after new-home prices fell in August at the fastest pace since 2014.

Bernard Arnault began Thursday having lost more wealth this year than any other billionaire, with his luxury-goods fortune slumping by $24 billion. Then China’s leaders gave the green light on supercharged stimulus. And with that, the French tycoon’s wealth has been given new life. Arnault’s net worth soared by $17 billion to $201 billion, his third-largest one-day increase ever. Shares of his company, LVMH, jumped by 9.9% on bets that China’s stimulus measures would revive its appetite for luxury goods.

Wells Fargo has entered a key new phase of its almost seven-year effort to escape a Federal Reserve cap on its assets, a punishment that’s become the most feared in banking. Behind the scenes, the firm is said to have submitted a third-party review of its risk and control overhauls to the Fed for its analysis and sign-off. That follows a years-long process in which Wells Fargo had to submit a plan and get it accepted—which took multiple tries—and then enact it and hire an outside auditor to assess its implementation.

Eric Adams has been mayor of New York for less than three years, and during much of that time the often-conservative Democrat has been the center of controversy, from attacking his own party over immigrants being bused in by Republican governors, to defending his scandal-plagued police department’s violence against New Yorkers and even repeated questions about his actual place of residence and the tickets for rat infestation he got there. But the biggest issue has been the swirl of breathtaking corruption allegations around him and a significant number of his aides and adjutants. And on Friday, that all came to a head with his sweeping federal grand jury indictment on bribery and conspiracy charges, among others.

Big pants are driving big changes across the entire wardrobe. A shift in fashion toward wide-leg jeans has driven the likes of Gap, J Crew Group’s Madewell and even Lululemon Athletica to offer these styles, boosting sales. Now the brands are enjoying an extra benefit that comes with the popularity of the new silhouette: Consumers are buying a host of other items to go with the pants.

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