Axios

Airport lounge privileges are becoming more exclusive.

Inside the room: Swanky airport lounges have become so overcrowded that managers are increasing restrictions to reduce attendance.

• Delta Air Lines will limit holders of premium American Express cards to 10 or 15 visits annually to Delta Sky Club, the WSJ reported today. Visits were previously unlimited.
• Capital One recently upped the entry fee to its lounges from $65 to $90 a visit and ended free access for lower-tier cardholders.

💭 Nathan's thought bubble: These rates are encroaching on cheap motel territory.

Profits are soaring at the nation's biggest banks, the result of a surging optimism in corporate America that's driving dealmaking and capital raising.

Why it matters: When business is humming at the nation's largest financial institutions, it generally reflects an economy that's in good shape.

Hyundai's new global CEO is touting the Korean carmaker's expanding U.S. footprint as the best insulation against potential tariffs under a second Trump administration.

Why it matters: Automakers are bracing for what could be a tumultuous four years under President-elect Trump, and many are trying to build goodwill by highlighting their contributions to the U.S. economy.

The latest Consumer Price Index offers some hope that inflation might be back on a cooling trend. It also shows why that might not translate into immediate relief for consumers.

Why it matters: Underlying inflation finally ticked down after it looked stuck for much of late 2024, but that measure excludes the soaring food and energy prices that were especially brutal on household budgets last month.

The Internal Revenue Service is sending out $2.4 billion in stimulus payments to approximately 1 million eligible taxpayers who didn't receive 2021 COVID recovery relief payments.

The big picture: The special payments are as high as $1,400 per individual and should arrive by late January in most cases, the IRS said in a news release.

Colossal Biosciences, the "de-extinction" company known for its work on the woolly mammoth and dodo, raised $200 million in Series C funding from Mark Walters' TWG Global at a $10.2 billion post-money valuation.

Why it matters: This gives the pre-revenue company more runway to sign contracts with governments that are seeking to protect or replenish their biodiversity, while also letting it expand its de-extinction efforts into more species.

Inflation showed cooling signs at the end of 2024: The Consumer Price Index ticked up by 0.4% in December, but a measure that excludes food and energy prices slowed for the first time in four months, the Labor Department said on Wednesday.

Why it matters: Core inflation resumed a cooling trend, offering some optimism for policymakers ahead of an uncertain year.

The world's CEOs are much more worried about global trade wars now that Donald Trump has been elected president than they were a year ago, according to a new survey from the Conference Board.

Why it matters: While no one knows exactly what tariffs the upcoming Trump administration is going to impose on which countries, the one certainty is that substantially all such tariffs will be met with retaliatory counter-tariffs. Or more simply: a trade war.

Eli Lilly's GLP-1 drug sales growth trailed expectations in the fourth quarter.

Why it matters: Weight-loss medication Zepbound and its sibling, diabetes treatment Mounjaro, are part of the blockbuster category of GLP-1 drugs, whose sales are — by most normal measures —soaring.

What they're saying: The U.S. market for incretin-based medications — which includes Zepbound and Mounjaro — rose 45% in the fourth quarter, compared to a year earlier, Lilly reported.

The owner of Zales, Kay Jewelers and Jared needs a little love.

💍 The big picture: Signet Jewelers today reported a disappointing holiday season, saying that gift shoppers gravitated toward cheaper items — and that the company had little to offer in that space.

• The retailer's same-store sales fell 2% in the holiday period despite engagement-related sales meeting expectations.

What they're saying: The company needs to improve "marketing, product design and assortment innovation," CEO J.K. Symancyk said in a statement.

The impact: Signet's stock plunged nearly 22% today.

Talk of a possible sale of TikTok's U.S. assets to Elon Musk reflects his increasingly powerful stance as a power broker at the nexus of U.S.-China relations.

Why it matters: Beijing-based TikTok owner ByteDance faces a Jan. 19 deadline to sell the video platform's U.S. business or stop updating the app, which would eventually make it obsolete.

Intel Capital, one of the oldest and most active corporate venture funds in Silicon Valley, will spin off into an independent firm in the second half of 2025.

• It was founded in 1991, and has invested more than $20 billion into over 1,800 companies.

Nurse practitioner landed the No. 1 spot as the best job in the U.S. for the second year in a row, according to U.S. News & World Report.

The big picture: The company released the 100 Best Jobs of 2025 rankings Tuesday, based on hiring demand, future prospects, wage potential, employment, job safety, stability and work-life balance.

Stablecoins collectively have broken past the market cap they had back just before terra usd (USD), the algorithmic stablecoin, fell apart.

Why it matters: Stablecoins are a lot of things, but the main thing they are is the liquidity lifeblood of the crypto industry, so more stablecoins mean more trading.

Flashback: A year ago they started ticking up again, once more.

What we're watching: The new crypto native stablecoin of interest: USDe, from Ethena Labs.

Here in the closing days of the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a proposed rule, open for comment through March, which would treat virtual currency wallets as "accounts" — among other things.

Why it matters: One of the long-simmering topics in this space is whether or not banking regulations extend to digital assets completely in the control of individuals.

• That was Satoshi's big idea, to give people a way to hold digital cash without leaning on a third party.

Friction point: Coin Center, which focuses on protecting people's rights to build decentralized financial applications, pointed out that the rule doesn't draw a distinction between wallets controlled by the owner and those that rely on a company.

At one American bank, dollar-backed stablecoin use looks likely to overtake dollars sent over traditional payment rails this year.

Why it matters: Stablecoins are the first killer app of cryptocurrency.

President-elect Trump on Tuesday promised to create an "External Revenue Service" to oversee tariffs and other potential foreign revenue.

Why it matters: It's yet another sign Trump is serious about his promised widespread tariff program, despite recent reports it might be pulled back.

President-elect Trump's administration will be intently focused on making the U.S. border more secure and deporting people who are in the country illegally, but may prove more open to legal immigration of highly skilled workers.

• Done right, that would be an economic boon, a new paper argues.

Why it matters: The report, out Tuesday morning from the centrist Economic Innovation Group, finds that when some of the world's most talented and entrepreneurial people are allowed into the United States, the results are faster growth, higher wages for native-born citizens, and lower fiscal deficits.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and flattery is one of the quickest ways to Donald Trump's heart.

Why it matters: That's the easiest way to understand what we saw yesterday from Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves, who for nearly two hours spoke and took questions during a rambling press conference that veered from bravado to xenophobia to attacks on the press.

President-elect Trump will remotely address heads of state and CEOs at the World Economic Forum next week, days after he officially takes office.

Why it matters: Top government officials and business executives flock to Davos, Switzerland annually to discuss the globe's economic issues. This year, Trump's agenda and how such policies will ripple around the world will consume attendees' attention.

There's plenty to chew on in Venture Global's IPO filing beyond just the topline numbers.

Why it matters: The U.S. LNG exporter hopes to raise up to $2.3 billion in what would be the largest energy IPO in over a decade.

Employee engagement — the involvement and enthusiasm employees feel toward their work and workplace — is at a 10-year low, per a Gallup survey out Tuesday.

Why it matters: Workers had a rough 2024. Many of them felt stuck in jobs as hiring slowed, while others were forced back to the office full-time or felt a spun out by a lot of internal restructuring.