Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Monday signaled the central bank will not wait until inflation eases to 2% to begin cutting interest rates. "If you wait until inflation gets all the way down to 2%, you've probably waited too long, because the tightening that you're doing, or the level of tightness that you have, is still having effects which will probably drive inflation below 2%," Powell said, speaking at the Economic Club of Washington D.C. on Monday, adding that "greater confidence" that inflation will return to that level is what policymakers are looking for "and lately here we have been getting some of that." Moreover, Powell noted that he believes a potential "hard landing" for the U.S. economy is not "a likely scenario," given current conditions. The federal funds current target rate is between 5.25% to 5.50%, up from a range of 1.50% to 1.75% before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

AT&T (NYSE: T) disclosed Friday that hackers stole six months' worth of call and text message records from most of its cellular network customers in a breach that impacts the sensitive data of millions of Americans. The data contains records of calls and messages between approximately May 1 and Oct. 31, 2022 and on Jan. 2, 2023, AT&T said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company said it had learned from an internal investigation back in April that hackers had "unlawfully accessed and copied" call logs that were then saved on a third-party cloud platform, according to the filing. "While the data does not include customers names, there are often ways, using publicly available online tools, to find the name associated with a specific telephone number," the company said.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) Chief Executive Ed Bastian told CNBC in an interview following the carrier's second quarter earnings report that he expects the Paris Olympics to impact $100 million in potential bookings this summer season as travelers seek destinations away from the popular city for tourists. "Unless you're going to the Olympics, people aren't going to Paris," Bastin told CNBC. "Business travel, you know, other type of tourism is potentially going elsewhere." Delta has the most service of another U.S. airline to Paris, where it holds a joint venture with Air France. Earlier this month, Air France issued a similar revenue impact forecast of as much as 180 million euros ($195.5 million) this summer due to the Olympics, CNBC reports. “Travel between the city and other destinations is also below the usual June-August average as residents in France seem to be postponing their holidays until after the Olympic Games or considering alternative travel plans," the company said.

Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) is expanding the way listeners can interact with podcast hosts on Tuesday, launching podcast comments to episode pages. Content creators will also be able to like and respond to posts from listeners, making interactions similar to those experienced between fans and creators on platforms like YouTube (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Instagram (NASDAQ: META). Spotify said in a blogpost that its platform hosts more than 250,000 video podcasts, with listeners already showing engagement with interactive features on episode posts like polls and questions-and-answers launched in 2021. According to the company's internal data, listeners who engage in interactive features on the platfrom are about four times more likely to return to a podcast within 30 days and listen to two times more podcasts on average when compared to users that don't engage. Spotify said the feature will have a slow rollout, with podcast hosts having the option to opt in.

Athletic Brewing Company, one of the leaders in the non-alcoholic beverage market, announced Tuesday it has raised an additional $50 million in equity in a funding round led by General Atlantic. "We are passionate about transforming the way modern adults drink and converting critics into believers. We're at the start of a long-term trend, and we couldn't be more excited to have General Atlantic by our side as Athletic begins its next phase of growth," the company said in a release. Launched in 2018, Athletic has become the 10th largest U.S. craft brewery and 20th largest overall brewing company in the United States, according to the Brewers Association. Brands like Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ), Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) and Heineken (OTC: HEINY) have recently joined the non-alcoholic beer trend as more Americans choose to drink less.

Tropical Storm Beryl crossed the Texas coast, impacting cities like Galveston and Houston, on Monday, bringing with it damaging winds, heavy rainfall and storm surge flooding, as well as power outages across the Houston metro area. "We're in an emergency. We're in rescue mode," said Houston Mayor John Whitmire during a press conference Monday. "We're literally getting calls across Houston right now asking for first responders to come rescue individuals in desperate life safety conditions." Beryl, which was a Category 1 hurricane when it made landfall, is expected to bring 5 to 10 inches of rain, with 15 inches possible in localized areas, the Hurricane Center warned Monday. Studies show warmer air and increasing ocean temperatures from emission-caused climate change result in greater amounts of water vapor in the atmosphere, which in turn leads to storms with heavier rainfalls.

Cloudflare (NYSE: NET) has launched a new tool to prevent bots from scraping information from websites hosted on its platfrom to train artificial intelligence models. The "one click" tool is available to all subscribers, including the network and cybersecurity platform's free tier. "Customers don't want AI bots visiting their websites, and especially those that do so dishonestly," the company wrote in a blog post. "We fear that some AI companies intent on circumventing rules to access content will persistently adapt to evade bot detection." Cloudflare added that bots "generally use tools and frameworks that we can fingerprint," the new feature will be automatically updated as "new fingerprints of offending bots" are identified as the firm continuously surveys traffic across its network.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) announced Wednesday it has adopted a shareholders rights plan, commonly known as a "poison pill," in response to activist Elliott Management's investment in the airline and efforts to oust CEO Bob Jordan and Chairman Gary Kelly. The plan will only activate if another investor (in this case Elliott) acquires at least 12.5% of the company, allowing other shareholders to purchase one new Southwest share for every share they own at a 50% discount if reached. Southwest said the poison pill was adopt in response to filings Elliott made with antitrust authorities, known as HSR filings, that would allow it to acquire a larger stake by next week. “Southwest Airlines has made a good faith effort to engage constructively with Elliott Investment Management since its initial investment and remains open to any ideas for lasting value creation,” Kelly said in a statement.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday approved Eli Lilly's (NYSE: LLY) drug donanemab for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, allowing the drugmaker to secure a spot in the limited treatment market for the progressive mind-wasting disease. The intravenous drug, which will be marketed under the name Kisunla, slowed the progression of Alzheimer's by 25% over 18 months when compared with a placebo in a late-stage trial and was approved for adults with early symptomatic disease. Eli Lilly's treatment competes with Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB) and Eisai's (OTC: ESAIY) drug Leqembi, which gained FDA approval last year. Alzheimer's is the fifth leading cause of death for adults over 65, according to the Alzheimer's Association, and impacts nearly 7 million Americans.

Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) announce Monday that it will acquire artificial intelligence research platform Pluto Capital to allow the retail trader investment app to add AI-powered tools such as real-time portfolio optimization and create investment guides for market strategies, trends and opportunities. Moreover, Pluto founder Jacob Sansbury will join Robinhood at deal close, where he will help the company accelerate its AI adoption. “Robinhood is the ideal destination to build products that democratize access to financial services like wealth management and financial planning through state of the art AI,” said Sansbury in a statement. "I look forward to innovating at the company which has inspired me and so many others." The terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on his broadcast channel on Thursday that the social media giant will begin testing AI chatbots made by creators through Meta AI studio on Instagram in the United States. "Rolling out an early test in the U.S. of our AI studio so you might start seeing AIs from your favorite creators and interest-based AIs in the coming weeks on Instagram," Zuckerberg said. "These will primarily show up in messaging for now, and will be clearly labeled as AI." The company will initially test the feature with about 50 creators and a small percentage of users, with the goal of a more broad launch in August. Zuckerberg noted that these will be the first beta version of these AIs, "so we'll keep working on improving them and make then available to more people soon."

Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) on Wednesday cut its second-quarter revenue outlook, citing changes in consumer booking patterns in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The carrier now expects revenue per available seat mile, a key metric for airlines, will decline between 4% and 4.5% over last year, compare to its previous estimate for a 1.5% to 3.5% decline. “The reduction in the Company’s RASM [revenue per available seat mile] expectations was driven primarily by complexities in adapting its revenue management to current booking patterns in this dynamic environment,” Southwest said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Southwest also increased its projected unit expenses, excluding fuel, to be as high as 7.5% year-over-year during the quarter, after previously forecasting for no change.

General Motors' (NYSE: GM) autonomous vehicle business Cruise has named former Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) executive Marc Whitten as its new Chief Executive Officer, the company announced Tuesday. "Marc is a proven technology and business leader with extensive experience in scaling products and building ecosystems around them," said GM CEO Mary Barra in a release, noting that he has "sparked innovation and driven growth in complex, fasted paced environment," which will "prove crucial to Cruise's vision of creating technology that provides real, tangible benefits to society." His appointment comes as Cruise is testing and relaunching its robotaxis on public roadways after it halted operations in October following an accident with a pedestrian in San Francisco.

Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Pixar's "Inside Out 2" is expected to be the first billion-dollar movie of 2024, as the animated feature has amassed $724.4 million worldwide ticket sales as of Sunday. Moreover, the film has yet to open in Japan, which contributed about $33 million to the roughly $850 million global box office total generated by the film's predecessor "Inside Out" in 2015, CNBC reports. "As a global phenomenon attracting moviegoers well beyond families and kids and a message that resonates and is relatable across all cultures and languages, 'Inside Out 2' is the rare film that is both a box-office sprinter and a marathon runner," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, quoted by CNBC. "It is the perfect candidate for admission to the billion-dollar club."

Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) introduced a new subscription tier to its family of streaming plans in the United States on Friday, offering a "Basic" plan that allows users to only have access to music and podcasts for $10.99. The new tier comes a few weeks after the audio streaming platform increased the price of its Premium plan from $10.99 to $11.99; the premium tier adds 15 hours of audiobook streaming to Spotify's broad range of content. Spotify also hosts the subscription plans Premium Duo, for two users that live together to access Premium tier offerings for $16.99 per month; Premium Family, which adds up to 6 family members under one Premium account for $19.99 per month, and Audiobooks Access, which allows for just 15 hours of ad-free audiobook streaming with ad-supported music listening for $9.99. Spotify is also reportedly developing a "Supremium" plan that would include high-fidelity audio streaming.