FIVE MINUTE DAILY
Pending home sales hit a record low after mortgage rates climb to 7.6%, while a cheese importer challenges Trump's 50% tariffs on Canadian goods. Meanwhile, the White House offers rewards for fraud tips, Ebola reaches Nigeria's capital, and Boeing's long-delayed 737 Max 10 finally wins approval.
Forward this to a friend who wants the world in five minutes.
Blu Dot surpasses 2,000% ROAS with self-serve CTV ads
Home furniture brand Blu Dot blew up on CTV with help from Roku Ads Manager. Here’s how:
After a test campaign reached 211,000 households and achieved 1,010% ROAS, the brand went all in to promote its annual sales event. It removed age and income constraints to expand reach and shifted budget to custom audiences and retargeting, where intent was strongest.
The results speak for themselves. As Blu Dot increased their investment by 10x, ROAS jumped to 2,308% and more page-view conversions surpassed 50,000.
“For CTV campaigns, Roku has been a top performer,” said Claire Folkestad, Paid Media Strategist, Blu Dot. “Comping to our other platforms, we have seen really strong ROAS… and highly efficient CPMs, lower than any other CTV partner we've worked with.”
Using Roku Ads Manager, the campaign moved from a pilot to a permanent performance engine for the brand.
The Big Read
Pending Home Sales Sink to a Record Low as Mortgage Rates Climb
Pending home sales plunged to an all-time low in September, dropping 7.3% in a month and 11.3% from a year earlier. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed from about 6.8% to 7.6% over the month, while analysts had expected sales to dip just 0.4%.
Construction cooled too, with housing starts and permits falling more sharply than predicted, leaving builders leaning on price cuts and incentives. One economist expects construction to stay "moribund into 2027," a modest drag on growth as the market adjusts to higher rates.
Cheese Importer Sues to Topple Trump's 50% Canada Tariffs
A New Jersey cheese importer filed suit against the 50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods, challenging Trump's use of a Depression-era law. Gellert Global Group, a third-generation family business, wants the trade court to declare the levies unlawful and order refunds with interest.
Trump invoked Section 338 of the 1930 Tariff Act in August, a power never used in a trade dispute, drawing dollar-for-dollar retaliation from Ottawa. The group behind the case won at the Supreme Court in February, when justices struck down Trump's emergency tariffs and forced billions in refunds.
Fraud Tipsters Could Earn Up to $30,000 Under New White House Program
Trump and JD Vance unveiled a $25 million whistleblower program, offering up to $30,000 for tips leading to fraud convictions or major enforcement actions. The Justice Department will run it, and Trump said payouts will equal a 1% commission on the fraud each tip uncovers.
"I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions," Trump said, adding he would settle cases where several people claim one tip. Journalists could take part too, he said, as the program expands an anti-fraud push Vance has led since March.
World View
Nigeria confirmed an Ebola case in its capital, Abuja, after a woman who arrived from Uganda tested positive, and health officials have begun tracing 44 of her contacts.
Drone strikes blamed on Sudan's army killed more than 300 people, including mourners heading to a funeral and 153 at a market in Abyei, a region disputed with South Sudan.
Striking truck drivers in southern Italy have left some supermarket shelves and gas pumps empty in Naples, protesting diesel prices roughly a third higher than before the Iran war.
Need To Know
A man is in police custody after shots were fired outside Chicago's Kluczynski Federal Building early Tuesday, though no one was hurt and federal property suffered only minor damage.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey commuted the death sentence of Toforest Johnson, citing doubts about the evidence in the 1995 killing of a deputy, while stressing it was not an innocence finding.
At least 478 Michigan races have no candidate or too few on the Nov. 3 ballot, threatening to leave close to one in ten offices vacant, especially in rural communities.
Money & Markets
Netflix topped third-quarter profit estimates, but shares fell on its revenue guidance after it narrowed its full-year forecast to $51.1 billion, just below Wall Street's $51.2 billion estimate.
SpaceX posted a $4.4 billion quarterly profit, more than double Wall Street's forecast, as revenue soared 161% to $14.6 billion, breaking more than a year of losses.
Salesforce agreed to buy Braze in a deal worth about $5.66 billion, paying $47.50 a share in cash and sending the marketing platform's stock soaring 51%.
How 2M+ Professionals Stay Ahead on AI
What’s the secret to staying ahead of the curve in the world of AI? Information.
Luckily, you can join 2,000,000+ early adopters reading The Rundown AI — the free newsletter that makes you smarter on AI with just a 5-minute read per day.
Future Frontiers
The Orionid meteor shower peaks Wednesday night, when skywatchers could spot up to 20 meteors an hour from debris shed by Halley's comet, though a large moon will dim visibility.
Three of Earth's Big Five extinctions may have been gradual declines rather than sudden cataclysms, according to a model trained on fossil records from tens of thousands of sites.
An experimental obesity shot called CagriSema was linked to 25% average weight loss among women over 68 weeks in a new analysis, compared with 3% for those on placebo.
The Score
The NBA's 2026-27 season tipped off Tuesday with a tripleheader featuring ring night at Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks raise their first banner in 50 years against LeBron's Sixers.
Angel Reese piled up 30 points and 16 rebounds as Atlanta beat Golden State 79-65, evening the WNBA Finals at one game apiece and ending the Dream's 0-10 Finals drought.
The NFL won't punish Philadelphia, reports say, over their handling of Jalen Hurts' clots, with the quarterback expected to miss the rest of the season after clots reached his lungs.
Ballon d'Or winner Ousmane Dembélé limped off after about 20 minutes as PSG lost two star forwards to injury against Barcelona, with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia helped off after landing hard.
Life & Culture
Christina Applegate revealed she does not have MS, saying on her podcast that doctors concluded she was misdiagnosed, leaving her "back at square one" as her daily symptoms persist.
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are backing a major new Beatles attraction in Liverpool, moving The Beatles Story into a former market hall more than four times its current size.
Prince Harry says he wants to reconcile with King Charles and Prince William, telling a magazine that reconciling is "the key point" given everything else going on in the world.
Deep Dive
What Boeing's Max 10 Approval Means for Your Next Flight
What it is: Federal regulators cleared Boeing's long-delayed 737 Max 10 for passenger service Tuesday, years after the largest model in the bestselling 737 family was supposed to start flying in 2020. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the approval "a major win for American manufacturing," and with certification done, the jet can now be sold to domestic and foreign airlines.
The detail: The Max 10 typically seats 185 to 210 passengers, compared with 175 to 195 on the Max 9, and Boeing says it accounts for about 30% of its Max backlog. Certification stalled after two Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 brought heavy scrutiny, and engineers had to rework the engines' anti-icing system before regulators would sign off.
Why it matters: Bigger planes let airlines carry more passengers per flight and potentially lower costs per seat, which could eventually mean more seats on popular routes for everyday travelers. Customers waiting on the jet include Alaska, American, United and Delta, and the plane is central to Boeing's push to regain ground against Airbus in the single-aisle market.
What to watch: Any fare relief will depend on how airlines deploy the planes and how much competition they face, so extra seats offer no guarantee of cheaper tickets. Duffy was scheduled to visit Boeing's plant in Everett, Washington, on Tuesday, and the next test is how quickly Boeing can turn the approval into actual deliveries.
Your Search Bar Is Haunted
Shoppers type exactly what they want and get “0 results found” back. They don’t complain. They just vanish to a competitor.
Gladly understands what shoppers mean, typos and all, and turns dead-end searches into product recommendations.
Today's Trivia
Extra Bits
An Idaho deputy freed a juvenile moose tangled head to body in wire fencing, with officials reporting it left "safe, sound and full of apples" after the rescue.
Texas now claims the world's largest cowboy hat, a fiberglass sculpture measuring 43 feet wide and 17 feet tall that Guinness certified Monday at the Circuit of the Americas racetrack.
An escaped emu named Eddie went wandering down a mountain bike trail in an Ohio forest, where parks staff admitted they "didn't expect to find an emu" before returning him.
On This Day
The Senate approves the Louisiana Purchase treaty (1803) · The RMS Olympic, Titanic's sister ship, is launched in Belfast (1910) · Mickey Mantle is born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma (1931) · Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis on Skorpios (1968) · Muammar Gaddafi is killed near Sirte, Libya (2011)
"We have a bargain now in our power, which, once missed, we never shall have again." — Sen. James Jackson, urging approval of the Louisiana Purchase, 1803
That's all for today. Thanks for spending a few minutes with us. See you tomorrow with more stories worth knowing.
—The Five Minute Daily Team

