Midterm Races Heat Up; Milwaukee Brewers Win World Series

The Bloomberg Tech Minute, reported by Bloomberg Businessweek’s Lauren Grush, said getting hired at SpaceX requires exceptional ability and may involve Elon Musk personally reviewing a candidate’s résumé. The company culture is described as being defined by Musk, so applicants are expected not only to understand SpaceX’s mission but also to show loyalty to him and a willingness to follow that culture. According to recruiters, advisers, and people who have interviewed for SpaceX jobs, candidates must demonstrate concrete achievements from earlier jobs. Recruiters reportedly value hands-on experience more than advanced degrees and seek “raw, innate intelligence.” The space-exploration mission is a major attraction, and Musk is said to invoke that dream regularly to remind employees why they are doing demanding work. SpaceX job advertisements warn that employees must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed. The principal financial perk described is access to equity, either through the right to buy shares or through restricted stock units that vest over time. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment about its recruiting and hiring practices.

The program opened its election coverage by noting that only five days remained before the midterm elections that would determine control of Congress. President Trump campaigned at Ohio State University for Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, whose campaign is under pressure over an advertisement featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton. Leaders of both parties have called for the advertisement to be removed. Trump defended the ad and repeated the mother’s attack on Acton, saying she called her daughter a liar and “no good,” then asked, “How the hell is that his problem?” Despite Trump’s defense, Republicans worry the controversy could damage other Ohio candidates, including Senator John Houston. The cited Real Clear Politics averages had Houston trailing former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown by more than three points, while Acton led Ramaswamy by more than four. Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Democrats in Atlanta with Senator John Ossoff and gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms. Obama repeated a joke comparing Trump’s White House renovations to Saddam Hussein opening a Cheesecake Factory. Ossoff held a comfortable lead over Republican Mike Collins, while Bottoms trailed Ray Jackson by about one percentage point in the cited polling average.

The Alaska Senate race featured another controversy. The New York Times reported that Democrat Mary Peltola’s team secretly recruited spoiler candidates intended to draw votes away from Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, including a retired teacher with the same name as Sullivan. Peltola’s campaign denied that she was involved. Trump rejected that denial, said “we got him cold,” and argued that Peltola should resign and be criminally prosecuted. The broadcast noted that so-called ballot stacking is common in U.S. politics and is generally considered legal. Alaska Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy nevertheless posted on X that he had ordered an investigation into whether Peltola should face criminal or civil charges. A federal judge in California also rejected the Trump administration’s request to set aside as many as 20,000 mail ballots that the administration said might have been cast by noncitizens. Judge David Carter said doing so would wreak havoc on voting already underway. State officials argued that the government’s list of suspected noncitizens could not be trusted, and the Justice Department was appealing the decision to the U.S. appeals court in San Francisco. Bloomberg also promoted election-night coverage on Tuesday, November 3, beginning at 6 p.m. Wall Street time.

The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 4–1 in Game 5 at Tampa Bay and won the World Series four games to one. Bloomberg Sports reporter John Stashauer said Milwaukee had been baseball’s best regular-season team, winning 103 games, and then went 11–2 in the postseason. The championship was the first World Series title in Brewers franchise history; the city’s last title had come when the Braves won there in 1957. Before the clubhouse champagne began, manager Pat Murphy addressed the team. He told the players, “You did it for the city. You did it for the state,” and said they should be proud to be the first Milwaukee Brewers team to become world champions. The report said Milwaukee planned a homecoming celebration. The later sports update repeated that the Brewers had the most regular-season wins and had gone 11–2 in the postseason. Slugging catcher William Contreras was named World Series MVP. The update also reported that Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, the NBA’s second-leading scorer at 33 points per game, would miss two months after arthroscopic knee surgery.

More than a day after Israel’s election, votes were still being counted and no outright winner had been declared. Bloomberg’s Dan Williams reported from Jerusalem that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had performed better than expected against rival Gadi Eisenkot, but the coalition arithmetic remained uncertain. Israel’s largely ceremonial president is expected, after about a week of consultations with party leaders, to assign one leading candidate the first opportunity to form a government. Williams said the bulk of parties appeared aligned against Netanyahu and might recommend Eisenkot, giving him the first chance. However, Eisenkot’s presumed bloc had 48 seats, and adding an Arab party’s eight seats would bring him only to 56. The larger Arab party was considered incompatible with both candidates because of disagreements over Israel’s Jewish character and military-service rules. The smaller Arab party had suggested it might be more flexible. Eisenkot would also face difficulty politically because he lost a son and two nephews serving in Gaza, while members of the Arab parties had expressed sympathy for Palestinians and generally refused to label Hamas a terrorist organization. Williams said authorities were investigating suspected foreign-funded vote tampering and possible vote buying, following allegations from Netanyahu’s party that wrongdoing occurred in the Arab sector. Eisenkot welcomed the investigation but warned it could be politically exploited to disqualify Arab votes and weaken his coalition prospects.

The broadcast reported that the United States had issued visas allowing Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, his wife, and their two daughters to enter the country. They arrived in Florida after Bolsonaro sought refuge, and President Trump said he had permitted the move because he believed Bolsonaro had been treated unfairly in Brazil’s tightly contested election and alleged fraud. Trump said he had not taken a position in the election but would raise what he considered inappropriate treatment. Trump also tried to distance himself from the next steps, saying he would not become involved. Bloomberg sources said Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was watching the Trump administration’s actions before deciding how the episode would affect relations between Brasília and Washington. The episode’s description characterized Bolsonaro as presenting himself as the victim of a “politically motivated witch hunt.” It also raised broader questions about whether the Bolsonaro family could remain the force behind the conservative movement Jair Bolsonaro built over the previous decade. The senator’s departure therefore mattered not only as a diplomatic issue but also as a test of the family’s future leadership of Brazil’s political right.

Microsoft shares rose nearly 4% after the company reported better-than-expected cloud revenue. Gil Luria of DA Davidson said Azure growth accelerated from 43% to 48%, exceeding expectations, while the rest of Microsoft’s business was strong enough to lift overall revenue and earnings above forecasts. The company is trying to monetize artificial intelligence through enhanced workplace applications and access to AI models through its Azure cloud division. Alphabet shares fell about 10% in the reported morning trading. Bloomberg’s Ed Ludlow said search-query growth was at its fastest pace in roughly five years, but search revenue missed Wall Street’s expectations by $1.5 billion. Google attributed pressure to rapid growth in AI Mode queries, where monetization is lower than in conventional search. Alphabet’s financial statements also showed that AI infrastructure spending had pushed capital expenditures to record levels. Separately, Arvel Technology was reported to be in advanced talks to acquire data-center optics maker Lumentum Holdings, illustrating the deal-making surge around AI infrastructure. The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged, but Chair Kevin Warsh signaled that the central bank remained on track to raise rates again this year because inflation was still too high and energy-related prices had risen. Fed Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack dissented because they preferred a hike.