The Chaos and Crisis on the FlyDubai Flight to Israel

Today we've got the latest on the flight to Tel Aviv that was forced into an emergency landing after one pilot stabbed the other, plus what kept stocks climbing during a turbulent quarter? In a word, tech, you have the AI build out really just keeping the market humming. You had double the diggings and stocks like Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, and Mattel's Inon cries will become co-CEO of the combined Paramount Warner Brothers Discovery once the deal closes. It's Wednesday, September 30th. I'm Danny Lewis for the Wall Street Journal, filling in for Alex Osolem. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. A plane flying from Dubai to Israel made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia early this morning after one of its pilots stabbed another. And what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as an attempt to crash the plane loaded with Israeli passengers. Anat Pellad, who covers Israel for the journal, joins us now with the latest. Anat, what do we know about what happened on the flight? What we know is that towards the end of the flight, after around two and a half hours in, the plane started to drop really dramatically. Someone I spoke to who was on the flight said it was just like a free fall, it was terrifying, like turbulence, but crazy turbulence and there was commotion. And it turns out that one pilot stabbed the other pilot and passengers and crew basically got involved and quickly were able to enter the cockpit and stop him. The plane actually made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, a country that Israel has no formal diplomatic relations with. The Saudis are conducting the investigation of what happened. What do we know about the attacker in his plans? Saudi officials and witnesses said that both pilots were taken off the plane with stab wounds after it landed. And one of the pilots was under arrest according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And Emirati authorities haven't said so far what the motive was for the attack. And the passengers are all safe now, right? The passengers landed in Begrio and Airport not so long ago until Aviv. And there was a lot of happiness, they met their families, there was clapping and cheering. So I think this is just a moment of relief. A not-palad covers Israel and the Palestinian territories for the Wall Street Journal. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. Turning to the U.S., the Federal Reserve's independent watchdog says it found no evidence of administrative misconduct over the renovation of the central bank's headquarters. The watchdog also said today there were no grounds for referring anyone for criminal prosecution. The findings by the Fed's Inspector General give something to both sides of a year-long fight, but they aren't likely to satisfy anyone. For one, the report was critical of how the central bank managed the renovation of two historic buildings, and at the same time, it removes the last formal threat to former chair Jerome Powell. The project had become a vehicle for the Trump administration's potential legal campaign against Powell, who said it was part of the president's ongoing pressure campaign to lower interest rates. The renovation is supposed to be finished next year. And in other news from Washington, the Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether anthropic and open AI misled consumers about potential harms from their technology. A senior FTC official says the investigation was needed after AI researchers shared their concerns that the technology could wipe out humanity. The agency plans to send civil subpoenas in the coming weeks, seeking documents from the companies as well as testimony from AI executives. Anthropic and open AI didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. We should note that Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, has a content licensing partnership with open AI. Coming up, a hedge fund titan is making the largest ever single donation to higher education. And could Eli Lilly's experimental obesity drug help solidify its lead in the market? That's after the break. We've reached the end of the third quarter, and it's been a turbulent one for markets. Still, the S&P and NASDAQ are on track to post double digit gains for the fourth year in a row, for the first time since the late 1990s. WSJA reporter Heather Gillars says one sector is responsible for a lot of those gains. You had double digit gains in stocks like Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, but then if you look at the equal weighted S&P 500, which is just a version of the S&P 500, where the larger market value of companies doesn't cause them to have a greater effect on the overall result. And that was actually down. So while the S&P 500 is up, those gains are really being driven by these big tech companies that make up a large share of that index. For the third quarter, the S&P closed up 2%, and the NASDAQ rose 2.5%. Heather says the rally will be tested. Where analysts are concerned is that the growth is starting to become narrower as rising interest rates and rising oil, energy prices resulting from the Iran War, way on the market. We've had stubborn inflation and at the same time an economy that seems strong enough to withstand efforts to remain in that inflation. It's an environment where the Fed could very well continue to push rates up. They've signaled that they're going to do that and that is very much on investors' minds. Per CME data, investors are projecting a roughly 60% chance of at least 4 more rate hikes over the next 12 months. The 10-year treasury yield ended the past 3 months with its largest quarterly gain since 1994, and today, the 10-year touched a 24-year high above 5.3%. In other trading today, international oil traded near $98 a barrel. Big banks, meanwhile, are warning that the third quarter's Wall Street results won't compare to this year's blockbuster second quarter. The summer saw profits surging from a boom in IPOs, like SpaceX, as well as mergers and acquisitions and trading in a volatile market. This year's third quarter is cooler, weighed down in part by the fixed income trading business. Executives say they'll still have one of the best third quarters ever. Banks traditionally kick off the earnings season, and Wall Street's largest banks are due to report the week of October 12th. That's in two weeks. Elsewhere, Mattel CEO Inan Crise is leaving the toy company to become co-CEO of the combined Paramount Warner Brothers' discovery once the $81 billion deal closes. Paramount says David Ellison will remain chairman and CEO of the new media conglomerate, and while Crise will be heavily involved in the day-to-day management and integration of the combined companies, both men will oversee its businesses. Succeeding Crise at Mattel is Condaynast CEO Roger Lynch, who spent the past seven years guiding the media company through disruption in a fast-changing industry. Mattel has been trying to expand beyond the toy aisle and become a more influential player in entertainment and live experiences, but the company still draws most of its revenue from toy sales. Mattel shares dropped more than 4% today. In health industry news, Eli Lilly's next-generation obesity drug looks like it's helping people lose even more weight. The drug combines Lilly's existing obesity treatment, Zepbound, with Alora Lindtide, which mimics a hormone called Amelun. And helps signal that you're full after eating. Our pharmaceutical industry reporter, Alex Jenin, says Lilly's study found that people taking the combination drug lost more weight than if they'd taken Zepbound by itself. On the highest dose of this combination treatment, patients with type 2 diabetes lost an average of 23.3% of their body weight, unless then a year. Those on Zepbound alone lost an average of 14.8% of their weight. So an almost 10 percentage point difference there, and in general, patients with diabetes have a harder time losing weight on these therapies. So for there to be such a big weight loss number is kind of the first of its kind. But there was a wrinkle to this study, as many as 27% of patients dropped out due to side effects. Lilly says that it's roughly comparable with the dropout rates of a mid-stage study of what is now Zepbound. They say it was a compressed time period. They went up on doses higher than they ordinarily would have. That's why they were having side effects. So the company's not worried about it. Wall Street has questions. Alex says analysts have largely been bullish on the new drug, and they see it potentially producing billions of dollars in global revenue. I think Wall Street sees it as a signal that Lilly is going to keep leading in this space. Novo is increasingly, it looks like trying to play a game of catch up. Novo is also trialing its own version of a combination GLP1 and Amelene drug. And hedge fund Titan Ken Griffin is donating $2 billion to start a Carnegie Mellon University campus in Miami. Combined with the $1 billion the Citadel CEO is also giving to the university's main campus in Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon says it's the largest single gift toward higher education from any person. The donation helps advance Griffin's efforts to establish South Florida as a leading global business and technology hub. Construction on the campus is set to begin next year with plans to enroll the first students in 2028. And that's what's news for this Wednesday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Anthony Bansy. with supervising producer Tollie R. Bell. I'm Danny Lewis for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening. (upbeat music)