Elizabeth Warren warns Fed chair Powell could be fired by Trump

CRYPTO

Fidelity Investments is testing a stablecoin, as large financial firms continue to dive into one of crypto’s fastest growing sectors. Fidelity’s stablecoin project is being carried out from its digital assets division, which offers execution and custody services to institutional investors for Bitcoin, Ether and Litecoin. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that aim to maintain a one-to-one value with a less volatile asset, typically the US dollar, and are most often used by cryptocurrency traders to move in and out of positions. They’ve also become more useful for firms looking to move money across borders, facilitate faster and cheaper digital payments, and for investors looking to trade and settle traditional assets such as bonds using blockchain technology. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

RETAIL

Dollar Tree is selling the Family Dollar brand to two private capital firms for just more than $1 billion, the company announced Wednesday after years of struggling with Family Dollar’s operation. Private equity firms Brigade Capital Management and Macellum Capital Management are buying Family Dollar together, according to the statement. In the announcement, Dollar Tree CEO Michael Creedon called the sale a “major milestone in our multiyear transformation journey.” Dollar Tree purchased Family Dollar in 2015 for about $9 billion, hoping the merger would help both stores reach more customers. But it struggled to effectively manage the Family Dollar brand. About a year ago, Dollar Tree said it would close nearly 1,000 of Family Dollar’s roughly 8,000 stores. In June, Dollar Tree announced it was exploring plans to sell Family Dollar, citing inflation, theft, and the end of pandemic-era benefits from the federal government. Investors seemed to respond favorably to the announcement, as Dollar Tree’s stock jumped more than 3 percent in Wednesday trading. Family Dollar’s stores are predominantly in urban areas and serve mostly low-income shoppers, who have been squeezed the hardest by inflation. Dollar Tree has more stores in suburban areas and caters to consumers with relatively higher incomes. — NEW YORK TIMES

GOVERNMENT

The federal government could hit its borrowing limit as soon as May if tax revenue falls short of expectations, or as late as September if debt stays on its current course, Congress’s nonpartisan bookkeeper reported Wednesday — potentially requiring Republicans to dramatically accelerate their timeline on legislation that would prevent a catastrophic default. Lawmakers are attempting to pass a massive package to extend expiring tax cuts and authorize new spending on immigration enforcement and national security — what President Trump has taken to calling his “big, beautiful bill” — before Memorial Day. That legislation is also slated to include a $4 trillion increase to the debt limit, which caps how much the federal government can borrow to pay for spending it has already approved. The government technically eclipsed the debt ceiling in January, but the Treasury Department has been taking what are known as “extraordinary measures” to delay certain payments to stretch out the government’s available cash. — WASHINGTON POST

WEALTH

The richest half of American families owned about 97.5 percent of national wealth as of the end of 2024, while the bottom half held 2.5 percent, according to the latest numbers from the Federal Reserve. The lower 50 percent of the distribution saw their wealth share improve marginally during former president Joe Biden’s term in office, climbing from 2.2 percent. The 66.6 million households in that group collectively owned about $4 trillion in net wealth at the end of last year, an increase of $1.25 trillion from four years earlier. Over the same period, America’s richest households — the 133,000 that make up the top 0.1 percent — gained more than $6 trillion in net wealth, mainly thanks to a surge in the value of corporate equities and mutual fund shares. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

TRADE

United Parcel Service Inc. is launching a new tool for online shoppers to automatically see the added cost of tariffs that are increasingly flummoxing international shippers. The new service will calculate and guarantee the cost of any levies on products in a shopper’s online cart at checkout, UPS said on Wednesday. The product aims to address a longstanding problem of buyers being handed surprise charges from international duties when their parcel arrives, an issue that risks becoming more prevalent as President Trump’s trade war escalates. E-commerce retailers who ship with UPS can integrate the tool, dubbed Global Checkout, into their websites, which will calculate the cost of tariffs and ultimately show online shoppers their final price, inclusive of duties. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

FINANCE

The Education Department on Wednesday reopened applications for some of its most affordable student loan repayment plans but offered no timeline for processing them, a move that could create a massive backlog. The department had shut down an application for all income-driven repayment plans in February after the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit expanded an injunction blocking former president Joe Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education program, commonly known as Save. That left millions of borrowers unable to access plans that cap monthly payments at a percentage of earnings with the promise of loan forgiveness after 20 to 25 years. — WASHINGTON POST

TECH

The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed likely to preserve the $8 billion a year the government spends to subsidize phone and internet services in schools, libraries, and rural areas. The justices heard nearly three hours of arguments in a new test of federal regulatory power, reviewing an appellate ruling that struck down as unconstitutional the Universal Service Fund, the tax that has been added to phone bills for nearly 30 years. Liberal and conservative justices alike said they were concerned about the potentially devastating consequences of eliminating the fund that has benefited tens of millions of Americans. The Federal Communications Commission collects the money from telecommunications providers, which pass the cost on to their customers. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

ENTERTAINMENT

It’s another blow to late-night television. CBS said Wednesday that it was canceling “After Midnight,” the network’s 12:30 a.m. comedy show, after the host, Taylor Tomlinson, decided to return full time to stand-up comedy. The late-night comedy genre confronts significant financial challenges as the entertainment world transitions away from traditional television to streaming. The number of late-night shows is dwindling, and many of the survivors are facing pressure to cut their budgets. Audiences and advertising revenue for late-night TV are getting smaller by the year. Further, the genre, which depends on a large number of episodes and topical humor, has not worked in streaming. Outlets such as Netflix and Hulu have introduced original talk shows with a late-night-like format only to cancel nearly every one. Without “After Midnight,” the 2025-26 season will be the first in three decades that CBS will not have original programming in the 12:30 slot. — NEW YORK TIMES