I thought the labor market was supposed to be tight, but there are a lot of these CEO jobs going around. EY, Morgan Stanley, and now PwC. Clearly it’s one rule for them and another for us.

The lowdown

• ⛽️ BP earnings more than halve amid gas trading slump.

• 🏭 China’s factory activity unexpectedly drops in October, dampening hopes of a manufacturing rebound.

• 🦤 X is valued at $19 billion, less than half of what Elon Musk paid for it.

Featured story

PwC picks Mohamed Kande as global chair

It’s all change at the top of the world’s biggest accounting firms. I recently told you about EY’s new CEO, and now PwC has picked its next global chair ($). The board selected Mohamed Kande, who’s currently head of PwC’s international advisory business. That’ll make him the first consulting partner to lead the organization.

The succession race at PwC got interesting last month, when US senior partner Tim Ryan pulled out. He was considered a frontrunner – previous heads of PwC’s US operations have gone on to become global chair – but some questioned whether Ryan’s management style was suited to PwC’s corporate structure.

Providing the decision is signed off by member firms in individual countries, Kande will take over from current chair Bob Moritz in June next year. One of his first jobs will be handling the fallout from the scandal in Australia, where a former partner used confidential information about the government’s tax plans to win business.

The content we're consuming today

• Insider: ‘Super commuting’ is on the rise – and that spells big trouble for mid-size cities

• Neal.fun: Take a tour through the history of the internet

• WSJ: The three young activists who helped UAW win ($)

Off-balance sheet items

• Happy Halloween. Here’s what it’s like to be a haunted house actor.

The bottom line