JPMorgan Chase has announced a $75 million commitment over the next three years, to connect underserved small businesses with capital. This initiative is targeted at technical solutions and support networks, to help them grow and succeed. (Black Enterprise)

AMC Networks has finalized a partnership agreement with Robert Johnson’s RLJ Entertainment that calls for AMC to provide RLJ with $65 million in loans and obtain the right to acquire as much as half of the company. RLJ Entertainment, headed by the founder of BET Networks, primarily consists of the streaming services Acorn TV, which offers British programming, and Urban Movie Channel. AMC sees those SVOD outlets as a fit with its BBC America and We TV cable channels, respectively. AMC will use its programming and distribution clout to benefit Acorn and UMC. RLJ will remain a separate entity that is publicly traded on the Nasdaq. (Variety)

More than 9,000 business-minded attendees and 350 companies took part in the National Black MBA Association's Annual Conference and Exposition last week in New Orleans. Check out some of the images from the event.

The Economist has released its annual ranking of the world's best MBAs. A Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) is a fast-track to success and can catapult its graduates into a high-paying career. (Business Insider)

These days, a lot of companies expect their employees to regularly work more than 40 hours a week. But here's a radical suggestion: Just stop. ( CNN Money)

The good news is that there is broad agreement that diversity serves a social good. The vast majority of technology executives (72%), for instance, see diversity as very important, according to a recent survey by Lawless Research. The bad news is that businesspeople fail to recognize that diversity also has benefits to the bottom line. Only 23% of respondents in that same study said they see a clear connection between diversity and financial performance. (American Banker)

LinkedIn’s latest workforce diversity figures show that white and Asian employees still far outnumber black and Latino workers, but the tech firm says it’s striving to improve those numbers by creating a more inclusive culture for underrepresented groups. (The Mercury News)

Saudi Arabia launched the sale of $17.5 billion of debt on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the deal, in what would be the largest emerging-market bond issue. It is the kingdom’s first international bond sale, a bid to support a sweeping effort to keep its economy afloat as oil income dwindles. (The Wall Street Journal)

U.S. citizens living in Switzerland have found themselves largely shut out of the country's banking system after the U.S. introduced tough new regulations that require banks to disclose all foreign accounts held by Americans. (CNN Money)

U.K. retail sales stagnated for a second month in September as soaring prices and warm weather hit demand for clothing. The figures, from the Office for National Statistics Thursday, also showed that sales excluding auto fuel were unchanged from August. Small increases on both measures had been expected by economists. (Bloomberg)

New research from Google shows that black students are less likely to have computer science classes in school and are less likely to use computers at home even though they are 1.5 times more interested in studying computer science than their white peers. (USA TODAY)

Clayton State University has received a $4.8 million, 5-year federal grant to help more African-American students stay in school and graduate. The school’s 6-year graduation rate is currently 29 percent, below the national average. Clayton State will use the money to develop a program that will include scholarships, an expanded summer program for at-risk students, tutoring, mentoring, financial counseling, online courses, faculty training and other elements. (myAJC)

As the University of Louisville-Clemson football game was played last weekend, dozens of attendees ate, drank and filled the Green Building in NuLu for the culmination of Diversity Pitch Fest. But this wasn’t just a party. The all-day event, hosted by the Kentucky Chapter of the National Black MBA Association, aimed to build connections and capital for business-owners of color. (WFPL)

Multicultural diversity is having an out-sized impact on the consumer habits of a growing number of millennials, an important distinction for brands and marketers to realize as the largest generation in U.S. history moves into its prime spending years, according to one marketing expert. (The New Orleans Advocate)

The National Black MBA Association has partnered with the National Society of Black Engineers to provide STEM professionals with enhanced leadership development and access to the country’s top corporations with interest in recruiting management level professionals with experience in science and technology disciplines. (MITECHNEWS)

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Regional Administrator Cassius Butts formally committed SBA resources to strengthen small business startups and expansion among members of the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) during the Entrepreneurial Institute Closing Session at the NBMBAA’s 38th National Conference & Exposition at the New Orleans Convention Center on Oct. 14, 2016. (Biz New Orleans)

A new Nielsen report offers a comprehensive look at how most African Americans use technology and consume digital content. (Black Enterprise)

Yet, despite the growing influence of the tech sector as a key driver of U.S. innovation, many Americans, particularly minorities and women remain on the outside looking in. Disappointingly, in 2015, less than five percent of the total tech workforce was African-American or Latino. While overall, minorities own 15% of small businesses in the U.S. less than 10 percent of tech pitches are presented by minority or women entrepreneurs. Of those making investment decisions, only 22 percent of senior investment professionals are minorities, with women representing just 8 percent of such professionals. (Huffington Post)

Patronizing the Black community businesses is a great way of supporting Black entrepreneurs. The way of doing this is to find a way of spending on Black businesses. That’s why Fabian Scott, 28, Black entrepreneur from the Washington, D.C. area decided to create an online marketplace (www.Trafek.com) designed for Black-owned businesses. (Westside Gazette)

There are many barriers that prevent business owned by black women from making as much as those owned by black men, and a new report from the National Women's Business Council, prepared by Walker's Legacy, highlights the most pertinent. But even among the handful highlighted by the report--including a lack of mentors, discrimination, and a lack of adequate networks--one in particular stands out: access to capital. (Inc.)

he U.S. Small Business Administration announced it was putting its weight behind a new initiative for helping minority entrepreneurs break through some of the longstanding barriers that have stifled their access to capital. It’s called the Partnership for Lending in Underserved Markets (PLUM), and it’ll bring local businesses, politicians and researchers together in Los Angeles and Baltimore, the first trial cities, with the hope of rolling out a national model before the end of the decade. (Next City)

Mortgage rates and home sales each rose to four-month highs, according to data released Thursday.The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for the week ending Thursday was 3.52%, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey. (USA TODAY)

The number of Americans seeking first-time jobless benefits rose last week, but the jump could reflect a hurricane striking the Southeast and a bounce back after touching a four-decade low. Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, rose by 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 260,000 in the week ended Oct. 15, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected 250,000 new claims last week. (The Wall Street Journal)

In 58 of 100 metros, including such diverse cities as Chicago, Houston, Long Island (N.Y.), and Nashville, mortgage rates would have to top 10 percent—a level they haven’t reached since 1990—before renting became a better deal. In 26 of 100 metros, including Detroit and Dallas, home prices would have to double to make renting look like a good financial move. (Bloomberg)

With holiday shopping season approaching, consumers need to gird themselves against the question they often face at the check-out counter: "Do you want to sign up for the store card?" A new study released today from Creditcards.com, a division of Bankrate, finds that store cards are charging record-high interest rates, significantly higher than the national average, and not offering much by way of sign-up bonuses or ongoing discounts in return. (Reuters)

Minority groups represent a growing and largely untapped market for outdoor gear manufacturers and retailers with buying power that is rising much faster than for the general population, marketing experts say. (Los Angeles Times)

In early 2015, Walmart announced it would actually pay its workers more. That set in motion the biggest test imaginable of a basic argument that has consumed ivory-tower economists, union-hall organizers and corporate executives for years on end: What if paying workers more, training them better and offering better opportunities for advancement can actually make a company more profitable, rather than less? (The New York Times)

Verizon Communications Inc. on Thursday reported declining revenue and plunging subscriber growth, and said it is assessing whether it will need to renegotiate its acquisition of Yahoo Inc. after a major data breach. Verizon’s Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo described the recently announced breach of 500 million Yahoo accounts as "extremely large." (The Wall Street Journal)

People often complain that their job is killing them, or that they’re working themselves to death, but new research suggests there may be more truth to those clichés than we realize. A recent study conducted by Indiana University's Kelley School of Business found that those who work in high-stress jobs with little control are more likely to die sooner than those who have more control over and balance in their work. (Fast Company)