Winter is coming to the checkout aisle: Americans of all income levels are cutting back on pretty much every type of purchase, including necessities, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, following a litany of downbeat earnings reports from major US businesses.

Strapped for cash and short on positive economic vibes, shoppers are shifting into we-have-that-at-home mode, and retailers are raising the alarm:

• Many Dollar General customers “only have enough money for basic essentials,” CEO Todd Vasos told investors yesterday after a disappointing Q4 earnings report. In a sign of the bargain-hunting times, sales picked up among higher-income shoppers.
• Demand is slowing at Target, Lowe’s, and Foot Locker, according to the WSJ.
• Apparel spending is down 12% this quarter from the same time last year, according to Citi. Kohl’s CEO Ashley Buchanan said last week that customers making less than $100,000 have joined lower-earning shoppers in feeling squeezed, following similar comments from Macy’s executives.
• Delta, JetBlue, American Airlines, and Southwest lowered their first-quarter sales forecasts this week, citing weather (i.e., California wildfires), less government spending due to the shrunken federal workforce, and heightened plane crash fears.

Other companies sounding the alarm include…Walmart, McDonald’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Costco, where consumers have been buying more lower-cost protein, like ground beef rather than steak.

High-earners are also cutting back. Luxury in-store and online spending dropped 9.3% last month from a year earlier, following a 5.9% dip in January, per Citi.

This isn’t just uncertainty: Though stubborn inflation and the potential impact of President Trump’s tariffs hang heavy on consumers’ wallets, they’re not the only explanations. Across all income groups over the past year, wage growth has plunged, and checking and savings account balances have declined, according to the Bank of America Institute.—ML

Trump threatened a 200% tariff on European alcohol. In an early morning social media post, President Trump said he would place the massive tariff on all wines, Champagne, and alcohol products from France and other European countries if the EU did not rescind its 50% levy on American whiskey...which itself was a response to Trump slapping a tariff on steel and aluminum from EU countries. French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin vowed that France—the top exporter of wine to the US—will “fight back.” Experts say that if the 200% tariff were to go into effect, US liquor stores could stop selling French wine entirely. Stocks for European alcohol-makers fell following Trump’s threat.

Putin waffled on the Ukraine ceasefire deal. Depending on which headline you read, Russian leader Vladimir Putin either did or did not accept the terms of a US-backed ceasefire in Ukraine—his position was fuzzy. Putin claimed he supports “the idea” of a ceasefire, but said there are still “questions” to be answered, appearing to reject an immediate end to the fighting. The proposal, which Russian officials allege would give Ukraine time to regroup, would see all military activities cease for at least 30 days while prisoners were exchanged and civilian detainees released. Analysts remain skeptical that Russia will agree to or comply with a deal that Ukraine has agreed to.

Judge ordered US government to rehire thousands of fired workers. A federal judge, William J. Alsup, ruled that six federal agencies—the Departments of Treasury, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, and Interior—must reinstate the probationary employees who were fired as part of the Trump administration’s downsizing of the government. Alsup called the firings a “gimmick,” arguing they were carried out under the pretense that the workers were poor performers. He said his ruling applied only to the firings that the Office of Personnel and Management recommended last month and does not prevent agencies from lawfully making their own staff reductions.—AE

The Trump family is reportedly negotiating a stake in the US arm of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, while former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who recently spent four months in prison for allowing terror groups to launder money on the platform, lobbies the White House for a presidential pardon, per the Wall Street Journal.

How would this work? According to the WSJ, the stake would either go directly to the Trump family or be routed through World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture run by the Trumps. The president is exempt from conflict-of-interest rules that apply to other government officials, the WSJ noted.

As for the pardon, it could be the first hurdle Binance will face in resuming full operations in the US (Binance US has fewer features and more regulations than Binance). Zhao, who says he has not asked for a pardon, is Binance’s largest shareholder. The EU bars companies with shareholders convicted of money laundering from applying for a crypto regulatory license, something that could change with a few strokes of Trump’s pen.

Big picture: The Trump administration has created a strategic crypto reserve and is currently rewriting regulations that could benefit Binance and its peers, per Bloomberg. The SEC, meanwhile, has mostly put crypto enforcement—including a lawsuit against Binance and Zhao—on hold.—DL

Sometimes, even no press is good press. Less than 24 hours after Facebook whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams’s memoir, Careless People, was published, Meta secured a legal ruling that Wynn-Williams could not promote her new book because an arbitrator found it potentially broke a nondisparagement agreement she signed when she worked for the company.

The book, which recounts Wynn-Williams’s six years at the company formerly known as Facebook as the director of global public policy, contains accusations of everything from power-hungry execs to rampant sexual harassment, including that:

• Former COO Sheryl Sandberg made an assistant buy $13,000 worth of lingerie.
• Current President of Global Affairs Joel Kaplan asked Wynn-Williams invasive questions like where she was “bleeding from” after complications while giving birth.
• The company pitched the Chinese government on implementing data collection and censorship tools so the platform could expand to the country.

Meta has denied the allegations, calling the book a “mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives.” The company also discredited the author by saying she was fired for poor performance and toxic behavior. Wynn-Williams says she was fired after she raised concerns about Kaplan’s alleged sexual harassment.

You can still buy it…as of yesterday, the book was available and featured on sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org.—MM

Wake up, babe—a new sandworm just dropped. Atlas Energy Solutions, a Texas-based oil company, has built a $400 million conveyor belt that stretches for 42 miles across state lines into New Mexico, transporting millions of tons of sand for fracking. The snaking behemoth, which the company named the “Dune Express,” delivers sand more safely and efficiently than hauling it in trucks.

But not everyone is wowed by the Texas oil Shai-Hulud. Environmentalists are concerned the Dune Express disrupts natural habitats (including some with endangered species) and encourages more drilling. Worst of all, it doesn’t even come with its own Timothée Chalamet.—AE

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