Well, that’s one interpretation of hands-off leadership.

Amid a shift in Securities and Exchange Commission leadership, the agency took 56 enforcement actions against public companies in fiscal 2025, a 30% drop from fiscal 2024, according to an analysis of SEC enforcement activity from Cornerstone Research and the NYU Pollack Center for Law & Business.

The report covered SEC data up to November 14, 2025.

Declines in enforcement activity are “consistent with the general pattern for other fiscal years when the SEC administration changed,” the report’s authors noted. What’s more notable, however, is when these enforcement actions occurred, given the leadership turnover.

More than nine in 10 (93%) of the enforcement actions taken in fiscal 2025 occurred before former SEC Chair Gary Gensler stepped down on January 20. Once acting Chair Mark Uyeda and Chair Paul Atkins took over later in the year, only four enforcement actions were taken, marking “the lowest number of actions initiated by a new SEC administration during its first fiscal year since at least FY 2013,” the report said.

Keep reading.—NP

Some warning signals of slumping demand are flashing right now: Consumer sentiment dropped to a three-year low this month. Restaurant executives warn of weak demand from customers, particularly those with lower incomes.

The latest signal? Home improvement giants Home Depot and Lowe’s both recently decreased their full-year financial outlooks.

“We are seeing a cautious consumer amid ongoing uncertainty in the macro environment and the timing of an inflection in the home improvement in housing markets remains unclear,” Brandon Sink, CFO of Lowe’s, said during a Q3 earnings call on Wednesday. The company, which reported a 0.4% uptick in comparable sales for the quarter, now expects flat comparable sales in fiscal 2025 versus last year, down from a previous estimate of flat to 1% growth, according to its Q3 earnings release.

Let’s see what Lowe’s expects for the rest of the year, shall we?—AZ

Business executives are still prioritizing and pushing forward sustainability initiatives, according to a recent Deloitte survey, despite reduced pressure from shareholders on, and increased hostility from the Trump administration to, ESG initiatives.

In a survey of more than 2,100 C-suite executives, Deloitte found that for the fourth consecutive year, sustainability remained a top business priority. For 45% of respondents, sustainability and climate change ranked among the top three challenges, along with technology adoption and AI. And 83% of respondents told Deloitte that their organizations increased sustainability investments in the last year.

Implementing new technology solutions to support sustainability goals was executives’ top priority. This focus on technology may reflect a dual strategy: Companies appear to be pursuing sustainability improvements while simultaneously integrating AI into their operations, according to Deloitte.

The convergence of these priorities is already widespread—using AI to tackle sustainability issues is “already ubiquitous.” Four out of five respondents indicated that they’ve deployed AI for sustainability efforts. The most common application is operational efficiency; two-thirds said they’re using AI to reduce operating emissions. The report found that revenue generation was the primary driver of sustainability initiatives, followed by compliance.

Keep reading.—JK