Credit Suisse unveils 9K job cuts and a retreat from Wall Street. Plus: More regulators target greenwashing, tech earnings drag stocks lower, and more

Welcome to?This Week in Finance, your weekly digest of the top news, conversations, and voices trending among financial professionals on LinkedIn. Click 'Subscribe' to be notified of each edition. This week:

Credit Suisse to cut 9K jobs

Credit Suisse is beating a retreat from Wall Street and cutting 9,000 jobs as it goes. The Swiss bank, attempting to move on from losses, executive churn, and regulatory probes, is selling a large chunk of its investment bank and rebranding another as CS First Boston — resurrecting the name of the U.S. bank it merged with in 1978. Credit Suisse also reported a $4 billion net loss in the third quarter, its fourth straight loss, and said it would raise as much in new capital to complete its makeover into a lender focused on wealth management. Job cuts are expected to be completed in three years, with the first wave of 2,700 now, The Wall Street Journal reported. ?? Here's what people are saying.

U.S. economy returns to growth

The U.S. economy snapped a losing streak, returning to growth in the third quarter. Gross domestic product rose 0.6%, fueled by volatile exports. While the 2.6% annualized pace of growth from July through September beat economists’ expectations, a core gauge of demand that strips out trade and inventories increased 0.5% — one of the lowest readings of the pandemic. Faster inflation, rising interest rates, and a deflating housing sector are expected to weigh on consumer spending, the leading engine of growth, in coming months.

• The preliminary third-quarter reading follows two consecutive quarters of contraction that met a commonly accepted definition of recession.
• New jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, rose slightly to 217,000 last week, still near pre-pandemic lows of 2019.
• Here's what people are saying.
• California economy overtaking Germany's: California is catching up to or surpassing some of the world's largest national economies. Golden State GDP is about to overtake that of Germany as the fourth-largest in the world.

Bank of Canada hikes less than expected

The Bank of Canada defied market expectations with a lower-than-expected interest rate hike. The central bank raised its benchmark overnight lending rate by 50 bps to 3.75%, less than the widely expected 75 bps. Officials say more rate hikes are coming, but the lower-than-expected rate hike raises questions about how much damage the Bank of Canada is willing to do to the economy as it teeters on the brink of recession.

• The central bank expects inflation to fall below 3% by the end of next year, which would bring it within its target range for the first time since 2021.
• The bank had hiked by three-quarters of a percentage point last month, and a full percentage point in July.
• Here's what people are saying.

RBC unveils emissions plan

RBC’s new emissions plan includes slashes to the concentration of emissions for its energy investments, but stops short of an absolute reduction. RBC is planning to lower the intensity of the emissions of its oil and gas clients by 35% by 2030, while shrinking the intensity of emissions these fuel companies produce by up to 27% in that time frame. Kyra Bell-Pasht of Investors for Paris Compliance told Bloomberg News the plan is “a big step in the right direction,” but also called it “weak.”

• RBC has been criticized in the past for its fossil-fuel investments. A 2021 report found the bank invested and underwrote $201 billion to fossil-fuel companies between 2016 and 2021.
• Here's what people are saying.

UK plans crackdown on greenwashing

As part of a crackdown on greenwashing, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority has proposed rules restricting investment managers from using terms like "green" and "ESG" in fund marketing. The regulator has suggested new sustainable-investment labels that would be more consumer-friendly and make it easier to distinguish between actual holdings and future investment intentions. The FCA joins regulators worldwide in trying to prevent investment managers from making unsupported environmental claims about their offerings. According to a recent study by the sustainability data platform ESG Book, one in seven "sustainable" funds had higher emissions than the average investment fund. ?? Here's what people are saying.

Big Tech sees tough times ahead

Big Tech firms have been growth machines for the past decade, lifting the stock market even during the darkest days of the pandemic. But with inflation at a four-decade high, interest rates on the ascent, and consumers curtailing spending, tech giants are suffering a sudden slowdown — sending a worrying signal about the wider economy. This week, Google reported a 27% drop in quarterly profit, Meta saw its stock plunge more than 20% after revenue dropped for a second quarter, and Microsoft (parent company of LinkedIn) predicted slowing growth for at least the next three months. ?? Here's what people are saying.

And more from earnings season:

• European banks profit as rates rise: Barclays, Santander, UniCredit, Standard Chartered, HSBC, and UBS all beat analysts' estimates in the last quarter. Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank posted its highest third-quarter profit since the 2008 financial crisis. High earnings were attributed to banks passing on rising central bank rates to their loan products, even as deposit rates lagged.
• Meta tumbles to six-year low
• YouTube ad decline burns Alphabet
• Unilever grows on record price hikes
• Price hikes keep Coke sales bubbly
• JetBlue posts first profit since pandemic
• Boeing gets Alaska boost after tough quarter
• GE's forecasts are dragged lower
• Shopify pops, defying tech gloom
• Spotify mulls price hike
• Is TikTok thriving as rivals struggle?

Musk: Twitter deal closing by Friday

Friday could be Elon Musk's T-Day, or the day he finalizes his long-anticipated, high-drama takeover of Twitter. Musk told a group of equity investors via video conference Tuesday that he pledged to close the deal by Friday. Debt investors including Sequoia Capital and Binance are providing $13 billion of financing, reports Bloomberg, and are in the process of readying to move the funds. A Delaware judge had set Friday as the deal deadline. Meanwhile, Reuters obtained internal Twitter data that revealed the social giant is "losing its most active users." ?? Here's what people are saying.

Housing prices slump most since '09

Housing prices in the U.S. have fallen the farthest since March 2009, during the financial crisis, as the Federal Reserve pushes up interest rates to curb the fastest consumer-price inflation in decades. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index showed a 1.3% drop in August from July, led by West Coast cities. Affordability issues, accentuated by soaring mortgage rates, are cooling demand fastest in San Francisco, Seattle, and San Diego. Nationally, prices are still 13% higher than a year ago. ?? Here's what people are saying.

• Mortgages soar past 7%, 20-year high: The average 30-year mortgage rate has more than doubled over the past year, and it's now cresting beyond the 7% mark — the highest level in two decades.

With?Cate Chapman, Jessy Bains, Ben Cousins, Manas Pratap Singh, Harriet Sinclair, Theunis Bates,?Saundra Latham, Sam Shead, and Monica Fike.

What's your take on the week's news and other developments impacting you or your business? Join the conversation in the comments below.