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    TJ Maxx parent company posts strong holiday, but issues weaker-than-expected guidance

    The company behind T.J. Maxx, Marshall’s and Home Goods easily beat Wall Street’s expectations for its holiday quarter but it issued guidance that came in below expectations.
    TJX Companies has been growing and taking market share from department stores as consumers hunt for a deal and legacy retailers shrink their footprints.
    TJX’s growth has been slowing, but it’s one of the few retailers that stands to benefit from President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

    North Miami Beach, Florida, T.J. Maxx & HomeGoods discount department store, furniture display and welcome sign.
    Jeff Greenberg | Getty Images

    TJX Companies posted a better-than-expected holiday quarter driven entirely by customer transactions, indicating the off-price giant is still taking market share from department stores and other discounters as price-conscious consumers hunt for deals.
    The discounter behind T.J. Maxx, Marshall’s and Home Goods beat Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines, but it gave cautious guidance for the current fiscal year and current quarter.

    For its fiscal 2026, TJX is planning for comparable sales to rise between 2% and 3%, below Wall Street expectations of up 3.4%, according to StreetAccount. Its fiscal 2026 earnings guidance of between $4.34 and $4.43 per share is well below estimates of $4.59 per share, according to LSEG, and its forecast for its current quarter also looks weaker than expected.
    TJX is expecting comparable sales to climb between 2% and 3%, behind StreetAccount estimates of 3.4%, and it’s expecting earnings per share to be between 87 and 89 cents. Analysts were looking for 99 cents per share, according to LSEG.
    A strong U.S. dollar and unfavorable exchange rates are expected to weigh on earnings growth by 3% in fiscal 2026, the company said in a news release.
    Here’s how TJX did in its fiscal 2025 fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

    Earnings per share: $1.23 vs. $1.16 expected
    Revenue: $16.35 billion vs. $16.20 billion expected

    The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Feb. 1 was $1.40 billion, or $1.23 per share, roughly flat compared with $1.40 billion a year earlier, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier.

    Sales were basically unchanged at $16.35 billion, compared to $16.41 billion a year earlier. In the year-ago period, TJX benefited from an extra selling week that it didn’t have in fiscal 2025.
    The discounter behind T.J. Maxx, Marshall’s and HomeGoods has been on a torrid growth path over the last couple of years as consumers look for cheaper options amid persistent inflation, high interest rates and an uncertain economic outlook. 
    Shoppers who’ve long gone to department stores like Macy’s, Kohl’s and even discounter Target have looked to TJX to buy not just clothes, but also household goods and other discretionary items they want but aren’t willing to pay full-price for. 
    That trade-down effect has been a boon to TJX, and even as its growth begins to slow, it’s one of the few retailers that stands to benefit from President Donald Trump’s tariff policies. To avoid paying high duties for imports out of China, and potentially Mexico and Canada, some companies have been stocking up and over-ordering deliveries.
    If they’re ultimately unable to sell through that inventory and end up needing to liquidate it in off-price channels, that could be advantageous to TJX, which has long benefited from supply chain disruptions and other “chaos” in the market, its CEO Ernie Herrman told analysts in November when the company reported fiscal third-quarter earnings. 
    As TJX’s growth has slowed in the U.S., the discounter has started expanding overseas. It’s taken a stake in Brands for Less, a Dubai-based off-price chain, and also plans to enter Spain early next year.  More

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    GM raises quarterly dividend, initiates $6 billion stock buyback

    General Motors said Wednesday it is increasing its quarterly dividend by 25% to 15 cents per share — matching that of crosstown rival Ford Motor.
    It also announced a $6 billion stock repurchase program, $2 billion of which is expected to be completed during the second quarter.
    As of the end of last year, GM had fewer than 1 billion shares outstanding – achieving a target announced earlier in the year by GM CFO Paul Jacobson.

    DETROIT – General Motors is raising its quarterly dividend and initiating a new $6 billion share repurchase program as the company attempts to reward investors amid slowing industry sales and profits.
    GM announced Wednesday it is increasing its quarterly dividend by 25% to 15 cents per share — matching that of crosstown rival Ford Motor. The higher dividend is expected to take effect with the company’s next planned payout, scheduled to be announced in April.

    Under the $6 billion repurchase plan, $2 billion in buybacks are expected to be completed during the second quarter.
    “The GM team’s execution continues to be strong across all three pillars of our capital allocation strategy, which are to reinvest in the business for profitable growth, maintain a strong investment grade balance sheet, and return capital to our shareholders,” said GM CEO Mary Barra in a news release.
    Barra last month suggested the company would continue to return capital to shareholders this year, pending board approval. Since 2023, the automaker has announced $16 billion in stock buyback programs, resulting in the retiring of more than 1 billion outstanding shares.
    Despite such actions and reporting strong quarterly results, including regularly outperforming Wall Street’s expectations, shares of GM are down more than 12% this year.

    Stock chart icon

    GM, Ford and Stellantis stocks in 2025.

    Wall Street analysts have cited plateauing industry sales, regulatory uncertainty around tariffs and a lack of potential growth opportunities as all weighing on the stock.

    GM said the total number of shares ultimately bought back the $2 billion accelerated share repurchase will be based on the average of the daily volume-weighted price of GM’s common stock during the term of the program. The program is being executed by JPMorgan and Barclays.
    Outside of the accelerated program, GM will have another $4.3 billion of capacity remaining under its share repurchase authorizations “for additional, opportunistic share repurchases,” the company said. That includes $300 million from its last $6 billion stock buyback program from June.
    As of the end of last year, GM had fewer than 1 billion shares outstanding – achieving a target announced earlier in the year by GM CFO Paul Jacobson.
    “We feel confident in our business plan, our balance sheet remains strong, and we will be agile if we need to respond to changes in public policy,” Jacobson said in a statement. “The repurchase authorization our board approved continues a commitment to our capital allocation policy.”
    GM’s 2025 guidance includes net income attributable to stockholders in a range of $11.2 billion to $12.5 billion, or $11 to $12 per share; adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $13.7 billion to $15.7 billion, or $11 to $12 adjusted EPS; and adjusted automotive free cash flow of between $11 billion and $13 billion.

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    Target strikes deal with sportswear brand Champion, as it tries to rev up apparel sales

    Target has struck a deal with Champion to carry an exclusive line of sportswear, including baseball caps, sweatshirts, skorts and duffel bags.
    The cheap chic retailer has long used brand collaborations to draw shoppers to its stores and website.
    The discounter is looking for ways to drive higher sales, especially in more profitable categories like apparel.

    Customers shop at a Target store on May 20, 2024 in Miami, Florida. 
    Joe Raedle | Getty Images

    Target will soon have another brand to dangle as the discounter tries to convince more shoppers to buy clothing and other discretionary merchandise — Champion.
    On Wednesday, the cheap chic retailer announced that it’s struck a multi-year deal with the sportswear brand long associated with hoodies and sweatpants. Authentic Brands Group bought Champion from HanesBrands last year.

    Starting in August, Target will carry an exclusive line of more than 500 items from Champion in most stores and online, including apparel for adults and kids, sporting goods, accessories and bags. It will also have a limited-time collection of varsity-inspired apparel for women and men from Champion in September. Most items will cost less than $40, the company said.
    Target’s deal with Champion comes as the Minneapolis-based retailer tries to rev up its stock performance and its sales, particularly in more profitable categories like apparel and home goods. The company raised its sales forecast for the fiscal fourth quarter, but not its profit outlook, as deals drew holiday shoppers in November and December.
    The big-box retailer said in January that it expected comparable sales in the holiday quarter to grow by about 1.5%. The metric includes sales on Target’s website and stores open at least 13 months. 
    For Target, apparel trends turned positive year-over-year in the fiscal second quarter. The category’s sales decelerated by about 4 percentage points sequentially in the fiscal third quarter, but company leaders blamed challenging weather and called out strength in its women’s apparel business.
    Momentum with apparel sales contributed to the company hiking its holiday-quarter sales forecast in January, Chief Commercial Officer Rick Gomez said.

    Target will report its full holiday-quarter results on Tuesday.
    The results will come as shares of the retailer have fallen about 16% over the past year compared to the S&P 500’s roughly 17% gains during the same period.
    In an interview with CNBC, Gomez said shoppers have remained selective after years of feeling pinched by inflation. Yet he said Target has attracted customers’ attention and dollars with fresh items.
    For example, he said, customers responded in November when Target started selling leggings from All in Motion, which came in bright colors and glittery patterns, for $25. Shoppers also responded to the redesign of bras for Auden, its intimates and sleepwear line, he said.
    “When we have newness with style, on trend, at affordable prices, the consumer is willing to shop,” he said.
    Target has long used brand collaborations as a competitive differentiator. It has long-term partnerships with Levi’s, Ulta Beauty and Kendra Scott, and had limited-time collections with other brands, such as Diane Von Furstenberg.
    It’s not the first time that Target has carried Champion. The big-box retailer sold C9 by Champion for about 15 years, but replaced it with All in Motion, Target’s own brand of workout clothing, in 2020.
    Gomez said the new Champion line will have a more fashion-forward feel, premium fabrics and unique details, like the Champion logo in Target’s signature red. It’s made up of sportswear that’s designed to lounge or live in, rather than performance wear meant for the gym, he said.
    Items will cover a wide range, including baseball caps, sweatshirts, skorts and duffel bags. And the limited-time collection will include merchandise like a varsity-themed cardigan sold with patches that customers can add to customize their look.
    Target draws about 15% of its annual sales from apparel and accessories, according to the company’s fiscal 2023 filing, which is the most recent available.
    For the past two years, the apparel category has been on a bumpy ride, said Kristen Classi-Zummo, industry analyst at market research firm Circana who specializes in fashion and apparel. Consumers pulled back on purchases because they had refreshed their wardrobes at the end of the Covid pandemic. Then, she said, spending took a hit in 2023 as households looked for ways to trim the budget because of higher prices of necessities like groceries and housing.
    Apparel sales totaled $240.6 billion in 2024, down 2% year over year, according to Circana data. That’s up about 6% compared to pre-pandemic 2019. Yet it’s a sharp contrast from 2021, when sales jumped 32% year over year.
    Classi-Zummo said U.S. consumers have tended to look for ways to save on basics, such as new pajamas and underwear, and splurge on trendier statement pieces. For example, she said, men’s underwear packs under $20 and women’s denim over $150 have both driven sales growth, according to Circana’s analysis.
    “They’re being very strategic about where they’re spending,” she said. “It’s really about what they find value in and some may find value in investing in things people notice.” More

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    The record-breaking run of ‘Ne Zha 2’ may seem like a surprise. It shouldn’t

    Converge Home

    “Ne Zha 2” came out in China in late January as one of six movies for the week-long Spring Festival holiday — and took half the box office for the period, according to ticketing site Maoyan.
    It then beat Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” as the top-grossing animated film worldwide with a box office of more than 13 billion yuan ($1.79 billion).
    Chinese animated films have only started to make a splash in the last 10 years.

    Chinese animation blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” was released in late January alongside several other films for the local Spring Festival holiday period.
    Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

    BEIJING — For someone who’s lived in China since before the pandemic, the success of the animated film “Ne Zha 2” marks more of an industry milestone than a surprise.
    The steady drumbeat of homegrown animation had picked up in 2023, just after the end of Covid-19 restrictions, with popular releases such as “Chang An” — a re-telling of Chinese poet Li Bai’s life from the perspective of his friend. It raked in about $250 million as the only animated film in China’s top 10 movies for the year, according to box office data from Maoyan.

    The team behind “Chang An,” Light Chaser Animation, works largely out of an old white building in the sleepy outskirts of Beijing. The ceilings are high; stairs wind through the building to connect multiple floors and rooms — and a gym.
    When I visited this week, some animators — working on their computers in the dark — were racing to finish cinematic lighting effects on scenes for this summer’s movie. Others designed historical Chinese robes, detailed eyebrows and re-created buildings.
    “This place is no longer big enough,” Yu Zhou, president of the studio, said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.
    He said the 380-person company needs to hire at least 100 more people in the next year to keep up with its new production plan: two movie releases annually starting from 2026, up from one a year currently. AI, he said, can only be a tool for now. Light Chaser plans to move to a new office in the second half of this year.

    Beijing-based Light Chaser Animation had more than 380 employees as of February 2025.

    The studio sticks to a three-year production plan for all the movies it’s making simultaneously. It tries to imagine the future, and whether 20 million to 30 million people will watch it when the movie comes out, Yu said. “Will this story work in three years?”

    This film slated for this summer, “Curious Tales of a Temple,” re-tells “Chinese ghost stories,” Yu said. The studio is in talks with “Hollywood mainstream players” for releasing the movie in theaters overseas, including in North America, at the same time as the planned China launch, he said.
    Alluding to the studio’s appeal among global audiences, Yu claimed Light Chaser’s “Green Snake” — which is a rendition of a Chinese legend sets it partially in a futuristic city — did well on Netflix after its 2021 launch, remaining in the top 10 non-English content for three weeks.
    Among the other animated features in the works, video-streaming company iQiyi is developing “Master Zhong” that’s expected to be released in China this year. Ya Ning, a senior vice president at the firm, said Chinese animation had started to break its “childish” image and was turning into an industry, expanding into movie merchandise and games as well.

    A recent history

    Chinese animated films have only started to make a splash in the last 10 years.
    “In the history of Chinese animation, there has never been a film like “Big Fish and Begonia.” … as far as the Chinese industry goes, this bold and breathtaking fantasy adventure stands alone,” entertainment industry magazine Variety wrote after the movie’s 2016 release.
    The film was made by Beijing Enlight Media. That’s the same producer behind this year’s “Ne Zha 2” and “Ne Zha 1” that came out in 2019 — it had topped China’s box office that year.
    “Deep Sea,” from Beijing studio OctMedia, won acclaim in early 2023 with its fantastical pastel-colored rendering of a young girl’s journey of healing following her mother’s abandonment.
    While popularity hasn’t always turned into box office sales, “Ne Zha 2” was able to succeed in part because it appealed to all ages, Liu Anxing, manager at a movie theater in Chengdu, told CNBC. While Liu said he was proud of Chinese animation industry’s achievements, he didn’t expect another “Ne Zha 2”-like blockbuster in the near future — at least not until “Ne Zha 3” comes out in 2028.
    “Ne Zha 2” came out in China in late January as one of six movies for the week-long Spring Festival holiday — and took half the box office for the period, according to Maoyan. After its release in North America on Feb. 14, Maoyan data showed the movie beat Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” as the top-grossing animated film worldwide with more than 13 billion yuan ($1.79 billion) in ticket sales.

    Strategy and plans

    In contrast to Light Chaser’s focus on in-house production, the makers of “Ne Zha 2” relied on various studios. The director came from Chengdu-based Coco Cartoon, while Beijing Enlight Media was the primary producer and distributor. Chinese state media said nearly 140 businesses contributed to the production.
    State media also highlighted how government subsidies from Chengdu to Qingdao have helped support domestic animation. Beijing in 2021 laid out a national plan for “building China into a major cinematic player” by 2035 that included a call for producing 50 films a year with box-office sales of at least 100 million yuan each.
    Jonathan Clements, author of “Anime: A History,” cautioned that over-production of films could unpleasantly shock studios and investors. “Animation consumers are themselves a resource that needs to be carefully managed,” he said.
    Clements added that in contrast to how Disney blockbusters made more than $1 billion in box office sales across multiple countries, “Ne Zha 2” has done so primarily due to sales in China. “You don’t have to worry about whether your story, or your characters, or your attitudes will play in other countries.”
    China’s plan also specified that domestic films should account for at least 55% of the country’s annual box office sales.
    Hollywood films, when allowed into China, have seen waning interest from domestic audiences. “Godzilla x Kong” was the only one to crack the top 10 last year, according to Maoyan. “Oppenheimer” failed to enter China’s 20 top-grossing movies in 2023, and “Barbie” was even further behind.
    Back in 2019, “Avengers: Endgame” ranked third by domestic box office, according to Maoyan, just behind Chinese sci-fi sensation “The Wandering Earth” and the first “Ne Zha” film.
    The characters and plots of many Chinese animated television series have come from stories written online by relatively unknown authors. China Literature, the operator of a major app for user-generated content, said 15 of the top 20 most watched online animated series in the first half of last year were based off content on its platform — in the last few years it’s also started putting the adaptations on YouTube as it strives to broaden its audience.
    Chinese creators are also leveraging generative AI for filmmaking. Short-video streaming app Kuaishou is releasing a seven-part mini series, “New World Loading,” that’s largely created using the company’s Kling AI for video generation. Director Chen Xiangyu said the team just fed the AI model simple scripts, instead of having to draw characters. More

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    Register now: Applications open for the world’s top fintech companies of 2025 list

    For the third year in a row, CNBC is working with market research firm Statista to list the world’s top financial technology companies.
    Including startups, scaleups and established tech players, the top global fintech list aims to assess companies using an objective, key performance indicator-based methodology.

    You can find out more information on the research project and methodology by clicking here.

    Woman using digital tablet and credit card to do shopping.
    John Lamb | Digital Vision | Getty Images

    Applications are now open for companies to register their information for consideration by Statista’s researchers. To qualify, a company must focus primarily on developing innovative, technology-based financial products and services.
    This year, we’re also digging deeper into the research to name the standout companies operating in the U.K. — the largest fintech market in Europe, as measured by the amount of funding raised.
    Applications from companies headquartered in the U.K. will — in addition to being considered for the global fintech list — also be considered for a separate list of the U.K.’s top fintech companies. Firms do not need to fill in a separate application to be considered for the U.K. ranking.
    Last year, fintech startups in the U.K. raised $3.6 billion in venture capital, ranking second worldwide and first in Europe for funding, according to industry trade body Innovate Finance. The country is also home to Revolut, Europe’s biggest fintech unicorn with a $45 billion valuation.

    How to apply

    Companies can submit their information for consideration by clicking here. The form, hosted by Statista, includes questions about a company’s business model and certain key performance indicators, including revenue growth and employee headcount.
    The deadline for submissions is April 25, 2025.
    If you have any questions about the lists or need assistance filling out the form, please reach out to Statista: [email protected].
    Successful companies will be listed in the category that most closely reflects their business model. This year, insurance technology will be included as a category in the global fintech list. The other categories are payments, neobanking, digital assets, alternative financing, wealth technology, and enterprise fintech.
    You can check out last year’s list here, which included well-known brands such as Mastercard and China’s Ant Group, global unicorns such as Brazilian digital lender Nubank and buy now, pay later firm Klarna, as well as smaller disruptors including payments platform Primer and investing app Stash. More

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    Lucid CEO steps down; EV maker plans to more than double production in 2025

    Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group on Tuesday said CEO Peter Rawlinson has stepped down.
    The company expects to more than double vehicle production this year to 20,000 units.
    For the period ended Dec. 31, the company reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $636.9 million, or a loss of 22 cents per share.

    Brand new Lucid electric cars sit parked in front of a Lucid Studio showroom in San Francisco on May 24, 2024.
    Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

    Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group on Tuesday said CEO Peter Rawlinson has stepped down as the company expects to more than double vehicle production this year to 20,000 units.
    Lucid said Marc Winterhoff, the company’s chief operating officer, has taken over as interim CEO. Rawlinson will serve as a “strategic technical advisor to the chairman of the board, stepping aside from his prior roles,” the company said.

    Winterhoff told CNBC on Tuesday that it was Rawlinson’s decision to resign as of Friday, however he declined to elaborate on any additional details.
    “It was Peter’s decision after 12 years of, let’s say, daily grind or daily activities and bringing the company where it is today … that it is time to step aside and pass the baton,” said Winterhoff, who joined Lucid from Roland Berger in December 2023.
    In a statement posted Tuesday on LinkedIn, Rawlinson said he decided it was “finally the right time” to step down after “successfully” launching the company’s second product, a three-row SUV called the Gravity. He did not elaborate further on the decision in the lengthy post.
    Rawlinson’s departure is unexpected. As one of the company’s largest shareholders, Rawlinson, who also served as chief technology officer, has routinely touted his passion and stake in the automaker. He took Lucid public through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in July 2021.

    CEO Peter Rawlinson poses at the Lucid Motors plant in Casa Grande, Arizona, U.S. September 28, 2021.
    Caitlin O’Hara | Reuters

    “My mission and my dedication is steadfast. I’ve not sold a single damn share of this stock, except what was necessary for tax purposes,” Rawlinson said during the company’s third-quarter call in November. “So, my promise is to continue to work tirelessly day and night to drive that long-term shareholder value.”

    Lucid’s board has initiated a search to identify a new CEO, the company said.
    The CEO change and production target were announced in conjunction with the automaker’s fourth-quarter financial results. For the period ended Dec. 31, the company reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $636.9 million, or a loss of 22 cents per share, on revenue of $234.5 million.
    Analysts surveyed by LSEG expected a loss of 25 cents per share on revenue of $214 million.
    During the same period last year, Lucid reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $653.8 million, or a loss of 29 cents per share, on revenue of $157.2 million.
    The production target for 2025 announced Tuesday is compared with production of 9,029 vehicles and deliveries of 10,241 reported for 2024.

    Lucid Gravity Grand Touring SUV (left) and Lucid Air sedan EVs

    Winterhoff said production of the Gravity SUV will gradually build during the year. He declined to speculate on what percentage of the 20,000-unit production target the vehicle would represent.
    Shares of Lucid were about 8% higher during afterhours trading Tuesday.
    As of market close, shares of the company were down about 13% this year amid slower-than-expected adoption of all-electric vehicles and uncertainty about federal support for EVs under the Trump administration. The stock declined by roughly 28% last year.
    Lucid is largely backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Its first product was the Air sedan, which it began delivering in late 2021. More

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    Democrat senators question what Elon Musk plans to do with sensitive CFPB data

    Democrat lawmakers led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday held a forum pushing back against the moves that the Trump administration and Elon Musk have taken to neutralize the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
    The lawmakers questioned whether Musk was conflicted in his efforts to dismantle the CFPB, highlighting his recent plan to launch a digital payments service within X, the social media network he owns.
    While Musk was invited to the Washington, D.C, event, according to Warren, he didn’t make an appearance.

    Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., center, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., conduct a news conference after the Senate Policy luncheons in the Capitol, March 14, 2017.
    Tom Williams | CQ Roll Call | Getty Images

    Democrat lawmakers led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday held a forum pushing back against the moves that the Trump administration and Elon Musk have taken to neutralize the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
    Guests at the event included a retired military veteran helped by the agency, a mortgage broker who said the CFPB has helped curb industry abuses, and the bureau’s former head for supervision.

    But the focus of the senators’ attention was Elon Musk, the driving force behind the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. While Musk was invited to the Washington, D.C, event, according to Warren, he didn’t make an appearance.
    The lawmakers questioned whether Musk was conflicted in his efforts to dismantle the CFPB, highlighting his recent plan to launch a digital payments service within X, the social media network he owns.
    “By seizing control of the agency, Musk can now root through all of the CFPB’s confidential data that DOGE has accessed on these potential competitors,” Warren said. “As Musk launches his new app, he faces oversight from the CFPB. His plan seems to be to eliminate the watchdog.”
    A representative for Musk and X didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.
    Earlier this month, operatives from DOGE gained access to CFPB systems, shortly before the bureau’s new leadership shuttered the agency’s headquarters, froze nearly all activities and laid off roughly 200 employees. A CFPB union has alleged in a lawsuit that acting CFPB Director Russell Vought intends to fire more than 95% of the agency’s staff.

    “Elon, how do you justify shutting down the agency that’s going to be looking at your peer-to-peer payment plan?” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D.-Minn., asked rhetorically during the hearing Tuesday. “How do you justify shutting down the agency that has jurisdiction and oversight over many of the other financial issues that you are going to make money from doing?”

    ‘Secret sauce’

    Responding to a question from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D.-Md., about what Musk could do with CFPB data, Lorelei Salas, the former CFPB supervision director, said the regulator kept “very sensitive trade secret information,” including from payments services PayPal, CashApp and Zelle, as well as online lenders.
    “We’ve been looking at a number of digital wallet companies, payments companies, and we have information… on the technologies that they’re using,” Salas said. “We have information on the secret sauce of the credit models that people used with artificial intelligence to make decisions about whether you get a loan or not.”
    Late last year, the CFPB took steps to supervise tech giants and payments firms that dominate the market, including Apple and PayPal, and sued the operator of the Zelle payments network and the three biggest U.S. banks using it for allegedly failing to properly investigate fraud complaints.
    Besides confidential data on companies examined by the CFPB, the agency has “very sensitive data” from consumers filing complaints, Salas added. Consumers often leave account numbers and other personal data in their complaints, agency sources have said.
    Now, with the CFPB and its employees in a state of limbo, the question is how far Musk and Vought can take their campaign to minimize the watchdog. A federal judge has halted their efforts, saying that they cannot fire employees or purge bureau data for the time being.
    “The CFPB has been sidelined, but it is not dead,” Warren said, asserting that only Congress can shut down the bureau. “Advocates are in court right now asking judges to enforce the law, and I am confident they are going to win.” More

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    Meet Trump’s fiercest opponent: the bond market

    One of the biggest fears about Donald Trump’s approach to the economy was that he might try to undermine the Federal Reserve’s independence and press it to cut interest rates. So far that has not come to pass. Instead, he has set himself an even tougher challenge: persuading investors that market-determined rates should come down. Specifically, Mr Trump and senior members of his administration want to bring down the yield on ten-year Treasury bonds. On February 25th it fell to its lowest level since mid-December (see chart). All going to plan? Not quite. More