Adidas said Wednesday it has "re-engineered" its sports bras.
Why it matters: Fashion houses and apparel makers have been trying to push inclusive design and sizing to the top of their priority lists as they confront their own set of systemic challenges.
American beer drinkers have plentiful options, with the variety of pilsners, ales, and lagers available in a typical grocery store or sports bar greater than ever before.
Yet paradoxically, the beer industry has also become highly concentrated, with two massive companies accounting for an estimated 65% market share. Some regulators want to make the industry more competitive.
Disney's stock was up nearly 8% in after-hours trading Wednesday, after the entertainment giant reported strong revenue and earnings gains attributed to recovery at its parks and resorts segment. It also reported better than expected subscriber growth across its streaming products.
Why it matters: Investors were bracing for the worst following Netflix's earnings report last month, which showed disappointing subscriber growth forecasts.
Susan Collins, an economist and university administrator, will be the new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, part of a wave of new leadership at the central bank.
The big picture: Collins adds to diversity in the Fed's leadership. She will be only the second Black president and first Black woman to head one of the 12 Fed banks in the century-plus history of the institution.
Dotdash Meredith, the digital media company owned by Barry Diller's publicly traded internet holding company IAC, is cutting the print editions to six Meredith titles, including EatingWell, Entertainment Weekly, Health, InStyle, Parents and People en Español, according to a staff memo obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: IAC acquired roughly two dozen Meredith titles last year as a part of a $2.7 billion acquisition of Meredith's national media group. At the time, Dotdash execs said they aimed to digitize the magazines and make them more lucrative by introducing new growth areas, like e-commerce.
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is in talks to buy Mandiant (Nasdaq: MNDT), a Reston, Va.-based cybersecurity firm with a $4.4 billion market cap, per Bloomberg.
Why it matters: Not only isn't Big Tech pumping the brakes on multi-billion dollar acquisitions in the Biden era, it's ramping up. This would be Microsoft's second major play of the year, following its agreement to buy Activision Blizzard, and comes amidst reports that Amazon is kicking Peloton's tires (after already signing papers on MGM).
All private equity eyes today are on Washington, D.C., where the SEC will propose new transparency rules that would cover much of what the industry considers to be trade secret.
The big picture: The SEC is in charge of investor protection, no matter the type of investor, and believes that pension funds and other limited partners in private equity funds aren't always given adequate visibility.
The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday approved AT&T's plan to merge its WarnerMedia unit, including CNN and HBO, with Discovery.
Why it matters: Dozens of Democratic congresspeople, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) had raised antitrust concerns about the deal.
The SEC is considering a proposal, partly a response to the meme stock craze, to reduce the amount of time it takes to clear trades, the agency said in a release this morning.
Driving the news: In his remarks today, SEC chair Gary Gensler specifically pointed to last January's meme stock trading mania as a reason for the change. Back then, some traders weren't able to buy stocks at critical times because of issues with clearing trades, he said.
New and extended clean energy tax subsidies in the stalled Build Back Better legislation would slash power sector emissions and provide big net benefits, a new analysis argues.
Driving the news: The University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute and the Rhodium Group modeled the House-approved version under two tech cost scenarios and three estimates of the social cost of carbon.
Watershed, a startup that helps companies analyze their emissions and find projects to cut them, raised $70 million in Series B funding from VC heavyweights.
Driving the news: Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins led the funding round for San Francisco-based Watershed, which claims a valuation of $1 billion. Clients include Sweetgreen, Twitter, Airbnb and DoorDash.
The trade deficit hit a record last year, as Americans attempted to ease pandemic-era sorrows by acquiring a mountain of consumer goods.
Driving the news: The trade deficit for the full year of 2021 hit a record $859 billion, 27% more than the previous year, as Americans bought cellphones, toys, games and household goods, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported.
The next round of inflation chatter will kick 0ff on Thursday, when the Consumer Price Index for January is released at 8:30 a.m. ET.
State of play: Economists think it will show prices in January were up 7.3% compared to last year. If they're right, it'll be the fastest price rise since early 1982.
Decarbonizing crypto is getting some big cash. Compute North raised $385 million in a Series C equity and debt financing that will fund its interruptible digital infrastructure.
Why it matters: The Minnesota-based company counts Bitcoin miners as a sizable chunk of its client base. But it addresses climate concerns around mining by halting its operations when electricity demand soars on the grid.
An autonomous truck startup called Waabi has developed what it calls "the ultimate school for self-driving vehicles" — one that requires humans to spend less time tutoring them on actual roads.
Why it matters: The more that autonomous vehicles learn to drive in the virtual world, the less time they need to practice on physical streets, which could be a safer, faster way to bring them to market.
Want to bring down inflation? The great dilemma is this: The only real options are to be patient, or cause a recession.
Why it matters: It is a pick-your-poison environment for the Biden administration and the Federal Reserve, who face public discontent over economic conditions — and the risk that discontent would only get worse if the alternative was a new recession.
Hyundai and Kia are advising owners of close to 485,000 vehicles in the U.S. to park outside and away from buildings due to a risk of fire.
Driving the news: The South Korean automakers issued separate recalls after identifying "an increasing risk of an engine compartment fire" that could happen "even if the vehicle is turned off," per a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statement Tuesday.
Get ready for new Beyoncé memes. The 28-time Grammy winner just snagged her first Oscar nomination for “Be Alive,” a song in the film “King Richard,” which has also earned star Will Smith a Best Actor nomination.
Driving the news: Nominations for next month’s Academy Awards were announced Tuesday morning by Tracee Ellis Ross and Leslie Jordan.
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