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The week in business: moderating inflation

    There was good news and bad news in last week’s inflation report. First, the good: the consumer price index rose by 5 percent in March compared to a year earlier, a full percentage point lower than in February. That’s the slowest pace of price increases in nearly two years. However, details in the report showed that inflation remained firm below the surface. A measure known as core inflation, which removes volatile food and fuel prices, rose 5.6 percent from a year earlier. Analysts say the new data is likely to help argue for another rate hike by the Federal Reserve at its next meeting in early May. But economic data is not the only consideration: Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chairman, has said the central bank is also closely monitoring credit conditions, following the recent bank failures.

    Last Wednesday, the Biden administration proposed sweeping plans to get more electric vehicles on the road. The plans outlined that two-thirds of new passenger cars and a quarter of new heavy-duty trucks should be fully electric by 2032. That’s an ambitious goal, given that last year about 6 percent of new cars and less than 2 percent of trucks sold meet that standard. Reducing tailpipe emissions is key to meeting the government’s goal of cutting the country’s emissions in half by 2030. While most automakers have already poured billions into electric vehicle development, they could struggle to scale production due to difficulties sourcing materials and having to build factories to produce millions of EVs. increasingly hesitant to buy electric: Although the federal government offers buyers tax credits for electric vehicles, less than half of the cars currently on the market qualify. Plans to build charging stations are also lagging behind.

    Which banking crisis? In their quarterly results on Friday, some of the country’s largest banks defied analysts’ vague expectations that last month’s bank collapses could weigh on earnings. Not so. Sales at JPMorgan Chase increased across the board, pulling in $12.6 billion in profit, up 52 percent from a year earlier. Wells Fargo reported a profit of $5 billion, up 32 percent from a year ago. Those increases are due in part to the fallout from the failure of two medium-sized banks, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which may have led many customers to turn to larger banks for confidence. Higher interest rates have also bolstered the balance sheets of major banks. But their smaller counterparts, some of whom will report their first-quarter results this week, may be feeling more of a sting.

    Fox News is in court this week to defend itself against a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, the maker of voting machines that accuses the network of broadcasting lies about the 2020 election. A series of revelations led to this moment, including text messages from Fox host Tucker Carlson suggesting there was a discrepancy between his private views and those he had espoused on his show. One of Fox’s main defenses would hinge on the idea that these election truths were newsworthy. But a judge said last week that Fox’s lawyers couldn’t make that argument in court. The judge also ruled that Dominion could not refer to the January 6 attack on the Capitol except in very limited circumstances. Over the course of several weeks, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, presidents of the conservative media empire, and other high-profile Fox employees will testify.

    TikTok, the video app that was at the center of a tense congressional hearing last month, is still in the spotlight and likely will continue to be. Last week in Montana, lawmakers in the Republican-controlled legislature introduced a bill to ban TikTok. The fight there could be a preview for the rest of the country. The legislation targets app stores and the app itself, rather than users, who try to cut off access at source. Conservative lawmakers in the state feared that TikTok was a potential means for its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to access and share US users’ data with Beijing. (TikTok has denied providing user data to the Chinese government.) The efforts in Montana come as lawmakers in Washington advanced legislation that would allow President Biden to ban TikTok from all devices nationwide.

    If you’re reading this, it’s not too late. This Tuesday is tax day, and while the average federal tax refund is smaller this year, it’s still close to $3,000. And that lump sum — while it may be tempting to take a vacation right away — is best saved for emergencies or to pay off debt, financial advisors say. That is almost always the case, but the advice may be worth heeding especially this year as inflation remains high and the possibility of a recession looms. Some advisors recommend the “30-40-30” approach, where 30 percent of the repayment goes toward past debts, 40 percent toward current needs (including potential emergencies), and the remaining 30 percent toward future expenses, such as college tuition, retirement or, yes, even a vacation.

    NPR said last week it would leave Twitter after the social network labeled the broadcaster as “U.S. state media.” The streaming service HBO Max is being replaced by a new app, Max, to increase its appeal. An online meme group has gained international attention after a 21-year-old man posted images of leaked Pentagon documents.