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CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago (FHLBank Chicago) has opened the application period for its 2026 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) General Fund. With $51 million available and up to $2 million per project, the program supports the development and preservation of affordable housing across Illinois and Wisconsin. AHP grants help fund the acquisition, new construction, or rehabilitation of rental and owner-occupied housing. Through the program, FHLBank Chicago financ

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Phillips 66 will host its 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders on Wednesday, May 13 at 8 a.m. CT.

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--COEO Solutions (“COEO”), a Riata Capital Group portfolio company focused on providing managed network and cloud communications to multi-location mid-market enterprises, today announced the acquisition of S-NET Communications, Inc. (“S-NET”). The acquisition advances COEO’s growth strategy of building a more complete platform for mid-market businesses that are underserved by major carriers -- the very companies at the heart of what COEO calls the Forgotten 5000

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Traffic & Mobility Consultants Acquires CTSi, Expanding Its Presence in Northeast Florida

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Valtris Specialty Chemicals, a leading global manufacturer of a comprehensive portfolio of specialty additives, announced today the appointment of Clint Shephard as the company’s new Chief Human Resources Officer. Mr. Shephard will play a key role in leading the company’s global talent strategy. Mr. Shephard will be based in the company’s new office in Midland, Michigan. Mr. Shephard most recently served as Senior Director of Human Resources at Myers Industr

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ncontracts, the leading provider of integrated compliance, risk, and vendor management solutions to the financial industry, today launched Nquiry Ntelligence — an AI-powered compliance intelligence platform purpose built to help financial organizations get fast, accurate, cited, auditable answers to complex regulatory questions in minutes. Compliance teams at banks, credit unions, mortgage companies, and wealth management firms face a growing and often unmanag

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Audax Private Debt Closes $1 Billion Private Credit Continuation Vehicle, Led by Pantheon

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE: HTGC) (“Hercules,” “Hercules Capital,” or the “Company”), the largest and leading specialty financing provider to innovative venture, growth and established stage companies backed by some of the leading and top-tier venture capital and select private equity firms, today announced a strategic evolution of its executive leadership team to accelerate its next phase of growth and operational scaling. Effective May 18, 2026, Seth Meye

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NIQ’s report, examines how commerce intelligence is helping brands, retailers, and platforms succeed in a rapidly converging global market.

NORWOOD, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Affiliates of funds advised by SK Capital Partners, LP (“SK Capital”), a private investment firm focused on the material sciences, specialty ingredients, and life sciences sectors, announced today that it has completed the sale of Phoenix Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (“Phoenix” or the “Company”) to Turpaz Industries Ltd (TLV: TRPZ), a global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of specialty fragrance, flavor, and natural ingredient solutions for consumer and in

BRUSSELS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News: Titan SA (Euronext Brussels, Paris and Euronext Athens, TITC) announces that its subsidiary, Titan America SA (“Titan America”), has completed the acquisition of Keystone Cement, a Pennsylvania-based cement manufacturer and aggregates producer, following the agreement announced on 9 January 2026. With this closing, the three acquisitions announced by the Group since November 2025, are now complete: Vracs de L’ Estuaire (port of Le Havre, France) - gri

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Coty, one of the world's largest beauty companies, and Pencil, the world's #1 generative AI marketing platform, today announced a partnership to put real-time, AI-powered content creation at the heart of Coty's Consumer Beauty division. With a transformation and creative team led by sister company Jellyfish, Pencil's end-to-end content platform will be embedded across Coty's Consumer Beauty brands, enabling creative and marketing teams to generate, deploy, and optimiz

LOS ANGELES, BOSTON & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Two River, LLC (“Two River”) and Vida Ventures (“Vida”), both part of the Bellco Health ecosystem, today acknowledged the announced acquisition of Candid Therapeutics (“Candid”), a privately held clinical-stage biotechnology company redefining the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases through novel T-cell engagers (TCEs), by UCB (Euronext: UCB), a global biopharmaceutical company, for up to $2.2 billion, including $2.0 billion upfront

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Stable Asset Management (“Stable”), one of the largest and most-tenured GP stake builders focused on GP seed and acceleration investing, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell a portfolio of minority, net revenue-share interests in alternative asset managers (the “Target Portfolio”) to Navigator Global Investments (ASX: NGI), a diversified alternative asset management company, for $195 million. Stable and NGI also announced a long-term

Small Businesses Are Carrying the Labor Market—Here is What the Data Actually Says

Every year, National Small Business Week brings the usual wave of appreciation posts and anecdotal success stories. Those are warranted. But they often miss the more important point: small businesses are not just culturally important; they are structurally essential to the U.S. labor market.

The latest data from ADP Research, highlighted by Chief Economist Nela Richardson, sharpens that reality in a way that should reframe how leaders, policymakers, and operators think about “Main Street.”

Let’s be precise about what is happening.

Job Creation: Not Just Resilient—Dominant

In 2025, businesses with fewer than 20 employees created more than 525,000 jobs*,more than any other segment of private-sector employers.

That is not a marginal contribution. It is the difference between growth and contraction.

Without those smallest employers, the U.S. economy would have lost approximately 110,000 private-sector jobs* last year.

Pause on that. Strip out microbusinesses, and the narrative flips from expansion to decline.

And the trend is not slowing.

From January through March 2026, these same businesses added 169,000 workers*, outpacing mid-sized and large employers, many of which are either flattening or reducing headcount.

At a time when enterprise hiring is cautious and efficiency-driven, small businesses are doing the opposite: hiring into opportunity.

Acceleration, Not Stabilization

It would be easy to interpret this as a post-pandemic normalization story. It is not.

Job creation among the smallest employers is accelerating.

• 2025 average: ~43,833 new jobs* per month
• Q1 2026 average: ~66,667 new jobs* per month

That is a meaningful inflection.

This is not recovery, it is momentum. And it suggests that demand signals at the local level (where small businesses operate most directly) are stronger than top-line macro indicators might imply.

Turnover: A Signal of Stability, Not Stagnation

One of the more underappreciated data points is turnover.

In March 2026, turnover at establishments with fewer than 50 employees fell to a record low of 3.9%*.

Historically, small businesses have struggled with retention, often losing talent to larger firms with more structured compensation and benefits.

That dynamic appears to be shifting.

Lower turnover at this scale typically signals:

• Improved employee-employer alignment
• Greater job satisfaction or flexibility
• Fewer external opportunities pulling workers away

Or more bluntly: employees are choosing to stay.

For operators, that stability compounds. Reduced churn lowers hiring costs, preserves institutional knowledge, and increases productivity continuity.

The Pay Gap Is Narrowing—Quietly but Meaningfully

Compensation has long been the structural disadvantage for smaller employers.

That gap is shrinking.

The difference in annual pay growth between the largest and smallest employers peaked at 3.8 percentage points* in May 2022. By March 2026, it had narrowed to 2.3 points*.

This does not mean small businesses are out paying large enterprises, but it does mean they are becoming more competitive, faster than many expected.

Two implications stand out:

1. Talent arbitrage is weakening. Large companies can no longer rely as heavily on compensation alone to attract talent away from smaller firms.
2. Small business models are adapting. Whether through pricing power, productivity gains, or margin discipline, these firms are finding ways to fund higher wages.

What This Actually Means

There is a tendency to view small businesses as reactive, sensitive to macro volatility, dependent on local conditions, and structurally constrained.

The data suggests something different.

Small businesses are currently:

• Leading job creation
• Improving retention
• Closing compensation gaps

In other words, they are not just participating in the labor market, they are shaping it.

And importantly, they are doing so while larger organizations are optimizing, restructuring, or pausing hiring altogether.

A Reframing for Leaders

For executives and policymakers, this should prompt a shift in emphasis.

If the smallest employers are:

• Driving net job growth
• Stabilizing their workforce
• Increasing pay competitiveness

Then they are not a secondary layer of the economy, they are a primary engine.

That has implications for:

• Workforce development strategies
• Capital access and lending frameworks
• Regulatory burden considerations
• Talent pipeline design

Ignoring that reality leads to misaligned policy and missed opportunity.

The Bottom Line

National Small Business Week, May 3-9 this year, is often framed as recognition.

It should be treated as a reminder.

The U.S. labor market, as it stands today, is being disproportionately supported by its smallest employers. Remove them, and the system does not just slow, it contracts.

That is not sentiment. That is math.

And it is worth paying attention to.

* Data from ADP research

OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(BRK.A; BRK.B) – Berkshire’s operating results for the first quarters of 2026 and 2025 are summarized in the following paragraphs. However, we urge investors and reporters to read our 10-Q, which has been posted at www.berkshirehathaway.com. The limited information that follows in this press release is not adequate for making an informed investment judgment. Earnings of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries for the first quarters of 2026 and 202

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- #creditratingagency--KBRA releases research examining recent performance trends for U.S. credit unions (CU) with over $1 billion in assets, highlighting a meaningful inflection in earnings entering 2026. KBRA believes that 2025 marked a turning point for the CU sector, as margin recovery reestablished core earnings capacity following a period of funding pressure. Improving deposit dynamics, favorable earning-asset repricing, and more balanced loan and deposit growth supported a meaningful

OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- #insurance--AM Best has revised the outlooks to stable from negative and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICRs) of “a” (Excellent) of Auto Club Insurance Association (Dearborn, MI) and its wholly owned subsidiaries and affiliates, which are collectively referred to as Auto Club Group (ACG). Concurrently, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of “a-” (Excellent) of

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Boards of Trustees/Directors of the PIMCO closed-end funds below (each, a “Fund” and, collectively, the “Funds”) have declared a monthly distribution for each Fund’s common shares as summarized below. For the following Funds, the distributions are payable on June 1, 2026 to shareholders of record on May 11, 2026, with an ex-dividend date of May 11, 2026: Monthly Distribution Per Share Fund NYSE Symbol Amount Change From Previous Month Percentage Change From Previo

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- #creditratingagency--KBRA assigns its BBB rating to RD Michigan Property Owner I LLC’s $14 billion senior secured notes. The Outlook is Stable. Related Digital and Blackstone (the sponsors) have formed the special-purpose entity RD Michigan Property Owner I LLC (the issuer) to finance the construction of a 974MW data center campus in Washtenaw County, Michigan, consisting of four buildings: the Core (Building 1), Compute 1 (Building 2), Compute 2 (Building 3), and Compute 3(Building 4). T