Axios

Consumers might be wobbling if apparel, groceries and restaurant sales are any indication.

Why it matters: Consumer spending is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy.

Thursday's record-setting day for stocks had eyes trained on the Dow Jones Industrial Average today, which had a chance to hit 40,000 for the first time in its 128 years, Nathan writes.

• It didn't make it.

Between the lines: The Dow remains a significant investor gauge for stock market performance, although many still love to cite its flaws.

Nestlé USA is recalling about 440,500 ceramic Starbucks-branded mugs sold in holiday gift sets because they pose burn and laceration hazards, according to a recall notice.

Why it matters: There have been 12 incidents of the mugs overheating or breaking and 10 reported injuries, per the recall posted on U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission website.

Amid this week's rush of central banking news, it would be easy to miss one small piece — an oh-so-slight upward move in what the median Federal Reserve policymaker believes the central bank's target interest rate will be in the longer run.

Why it matters: This kind of incremental move is exactly what we'd expect to see more of if the economy will feature persistently higher rates than it has for most of the last 15 years.

Passengers aboard the Alaska Airlines flight that experienced a mid-air door plug blowout may have been victims of a crime, according to the FBI.

Why it matters: The Justice Department investigation adds to the legal peril Boeing is facing. The company also is the subject of ongoing probes by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The Labor Department might soon start tracking an often overlooked part of the economy: "women's work."

Why it matters: Unpaid household labor like child care, laundry or home repairs is critical to the economy but isn't officially measured.

Artworks are like stock options: They become more valuable when they're backdated. That's what makes The Guardian's investigation into the dates on Damien Hirst sculptures so juicy.

Why it matters: As the Guardian's Jonathan Jones writes, the revelations of backdating "threaten to poison Hirst's whole artistic biography."

The S&P 500 hit yet another record high on Thursday, closing at 5,241. That's a stunning rise of 27% in less than five months.

The big picture: The rise in the stock market coincides with a significant rise in expectations for GDP growth in 2024.

The Federal Trade Commission is accusing certain grocers of taking advantage of customers during the pandemic by raising prices unfairly, Nathan writes.

The big picture: The FTC acknowledged that supply chain issues caused "sustained stress" but said the price hikes stemming from those challenges exceeded the related cost increases.

• "Some firms seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further hike prices to increase their profits, and profits remain elevated even as supply chain pressures have eased," the FTC said today in the report.
• It also noted that supply chain disruptions during the pandemic showed how "powerful retailers" can "distort product allocations ... to entrench their market power."

Go Stetson, Nathan writes!

State of play: The men's NCAA Tournament kicks into high gear today — and my goal is to get zero picks right in my bracket.

• That's because I entered DraftKings' free Zero Right Bracket Challenge, where the goal is to get every pick wrong for a chance at $100,000.

I thought this would be easy. After all, I get so many picks wrong in a regular year, how hard could it be to do it on purpose?

• It's actually pretty tough. Those 8-9 seed matchups are just as hard when you're trying to pick who WON'T win.

The bottom line: If No. 16 seed Stetson wins the title, I'm in big trouble.

Department of Motor Vehicle facilities nationwide experienced a disruptive network outage on Thursday.

The big picture: DMVs could not conduct driver's license or motor vehicle title transactions during an hours-long loss in cloud connectivity, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators told Axios.

Here's what's new on Netflix, BET+, Hulu, Disney+, Apple TV+ and Prime Video.

What we're watching: A new biopic about a political trailblazer, a documentary about the legend of Freaknik and a refresh of a popular '90s superhero cartoon.

Full employment has arrived, and it is marvelous. That, in a sentence, is the Biden White House's view of the labor market in 2024, according to a major report from its in-house economists out Thursday morning.

Why it matters: Biden's re-election hopes hinge on the job market remaining robust — creating wide-ranging benefits for workers — while inflation continues to fall. His economic team argues that is indeed plausible, contrary to inflation-fighting economic orthodoxy.

FTX CEO John Ray III eviscerated founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for bad math ahead of his criminal sentencing next week.

Why it matters: The rule of thumb for criminal sentencing is that "the larger the loss, the longer the potential sentence," Ray said, pushing back against SBF's recent claim that there weren't actually any losses to begin with when his crypto exchange collapsed.

The Biden administration on Thursday announced it is canceling about $6 billion in student loan debt for 78,000 public service workers.

Why it matters: The latest round of debt forgiveness means President Biden has offered relief to close to four million borrowers, despite the Supreme Court blocking his signature student loan cancellation plan.

For decades, the Department of Justice pushed for more competition in the real estate market — now the agency might be getting its way.

Why it matters: Pressure from the DOJ's antitrust division likely played a role in getting to the game-changing class action settlement announced by the National Association of Realtors last Friday.

You wait five years (since Pinterest) for a new social network to be listed, and then two — Reddit and Truth Social — come along.

Why it matters: In a curious coincidence, the two share prices — and the implied valuations — are similar. What's more, both could start trading in earnest within a few days of each other.