Axios

Elon Musk's pay package, which was struck down last night by a Delaware judge, was larger than the market value of both Ford ($46.9 billion) and GM ($53.1 billion), Hope writes.

Context: It's another way to understand just how unusual Musk's leadership of and influence over Tesla has been.

• But it's also a reminder of how laughably impossible those compensation targets — which were tied to Tesla's value — appeared when they were first set in 2018.

One by one, Musk cleared them: Growing Tesla from less than $60 billion at the time to more than $650 billion and hitting revenue and profitability goals.

H&M's Helena Helmersson abruptly quit as CEO today after four years, Hope writes.

Why it matters: She said the role of leading the world's second-largest listed fashion retailer had been "very demanding" and that she did not have the energy to continue, per Reuters.

• "I am very proud of what we together have achieved during the last years when we have navigated through [the] pandemic, and several geopolitical and macro-economic challenges," she also said in a statement.

The big picture: Challenges have weighed heavily on those at the top of an industry whose leadership pipeline has dried up.

• E-commerce has changed the required skill set, executive development programs have shrunk and direct-to-consumer brands have swept talent away.

"The existing body of scientific work has not shown any causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health."

Students waiting to hear back on how much financial aid they'll receive before enrolling at a college may have to wait longer than usual this year.

The big picture: The delay comes after the Department of Education announced changes earlier this month to fix how it calculates federal student aid due to a math error in this year's FAFSA application.

The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it would hold interest rates steady and that the central bank would not pivot to slashing borrowing costs until it is more confident that inflation has been defeated.

Why it matters: The Fed is considering when to begin reversing its aggressive hiking campaign in recent years, but even after a dramatic slowdown in inflation, officials appear to want more evidence of cooling price pressures.

Pay growth kept slowing in the final months of 2023, according to the Employment Cost Index released Wednesday morning.

Why it matters: It's more evidence the labor market is cooling down — this time, from a key measure of compensation watched closely by the Fed.

Bitcoin bulls want to know: If you can easily buy a commodity on the stock market, in ETF form, does that drive demand for the commodity itself? The answer, judging by the past three years in the world of gold ETFs, is a clear no.

Why it matters: The run-up in the price of gold over the past few years has not been driven by individual or corporate investors buying up ETFs. In fact, ETFs have been selling gold. The world's central banks, by contrast, have been buying at a record pace, according to a World Gold Council report released Wednesday morning.

A good retail space is getting harder to find with the vacancy rate for shopping centers nationwide at a 15-year low.

Why it matters: The COVID-era doomsday predictions were wrong.

The United States economy grew faster than any other large advanced economy last year — by a wide margin — and is on track to do so again in 2024.

Why it matters: America's outperformance is rooted in its distinctive structural strengths, policy choices, and some luck. It reflects a fundamental resilience in the world's largest economy that is easy to overlook amid the nation's problems.

Lamborghini will get there, but it sees no reason to speed along to EVs just yet.

Why it matters: The auto industry's transition from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric cars has been a choppy one lately, as automakers deal with less-than-anticipated enthusiasm from car buyers.

Here are key insights Nathan is taking away from earnings reports today:

🚙 General Motors CEO Mary Barra said the company will reintroduce plug-in hybrid vehicles in North America as an interim step between hybrids and full EVs. GM's stock also surged on a better-than-expected outlook for 2024 despite higher labor costs.

💊 Pfizer exceeded investor expectations with its fourth-quarter results after the federal government returned fewer doses of COVID treatment Paxlovid than previously anticipated.

🏡 Homebuilder PulteGroup is already noticing signs of a pickup in buying activity as interest rates fall: "We are optimistic that improved affordability dynamics will continue attracting buyers into the market," CEO Ryan Marshall said in a statement.

Employers were still looking to hire as 2023 came to a close. That's the takeaway from a steady-as-she-goes Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, out Tuesday morning.

Driving the news: The number of job openings rose to 9.03 million in December, the Labor Department said, up from 8.93 million in November. That's a small move, but it contrasts with a decline that forecasters had expected.

Gone are the gloomy warnings of an imminent global recession. Economists at the International Monetary Fund see improving results, on both inflation and growth, compared with just a few months ago.

Why it matters: The world survived the great inflation shock better than many had anticipated. Price pressures have receded, and high interest rates didn't crush global activity.

UPS plans to cut 12,000 jobs as the shipping giant grapples with a significant drop in package volume and higher labor costs.

The big picture: The company's revenue declined by 7.8% in the fourth quarter, to $24.9 billion, compared with a year earlier. During that same period, it saw a 7.4% decrease in average daily package volume in the U.S.

The share of workers represented by a labor union ticked up in the private sector in 2023, even though overall union membership fell to a new low.

Why it matters: Public sector unions — representing workers in federal, state and local government — drove the decline in the overall rate.

A Hong Kong court has ordered the failed Chinese property developer, China Evergrande, to liquidate.

Why it matters: The process by which the company is sold for parts — and how the money is returned to creditors — will be closely watched at a time when global investors have quickly been losing confidence in China.