As we head into peak election season, you’re going to hear the phrase “middle class” more than your own name for a couple months. And we’re sorry, but we’re about to significantly add to that total.

And for that you can blame Target and TJX, which rode middle-class thriftiness to higher-than-expected earnings and revenue last quarter, according to analysts surveyed by Zacks.

Both Target and TJX—whose empire includes TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, and HomeGoods—have capitalized on the increasing thriftiness of middle and upper-middle-class consumers, Joe Feldman of Telsey Advisory Group said.

“People are very price sensitive today across the income spectrum,” Feldman said, “and you’re seeing wherever they can save some money, they’re trying to do that. I think that’s why you’ve seen the trade down to some of the big box companies.” Relatively high-income shoppers are working for that value as well, he added, pointing to “very strong” sales at Costco.

For more on how consumer spending is impacting growth, click here.—GD

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That didn’t take long.

Within two months of the Supreme Court’s ruling that courts need not defer to the experts at a federal agency when interpreting an ambiguous law, judges have already been using their new power. Federal judges have spared Amazon a fine over allegedly illegal imports and blocked the Federal Trade Commission’s noncompete ban before it could take effect.

Figuring out how courts replace the departed precedent, known as Chevron deference, is going to take some time. In the meantime, you still have to stay on the right side of a regulatory regime that’s wobbling without “one of the most important principles in administrative law for 40 years,” according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute.

For some background on how Loper Bright might shape compliance for financial entities and the companies that serve them, CFO Brew spoke with Hadas Jacobi, a financial regulatory lawyer at Reed Smith and former regulator with the New York State Department of Financial Services.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Now that Chevron deference is gone, what takes its place?

Everybody’s still kind of trying to make sense of how this is going to be applied on a practical level, because the current framework that was disassembled by the Chevron reversal was one that both the industry and the regulatory landscape has been working within for years. So when you have something that is very well established and is essentially a self-running machine, and then you break it, but you don’t put something new in place in order to replace it, then it’s gonna take a while for things to scramble back together in an orderly fashion.

Click here for more of what CFOs need to know about the Chevron decision.—GD

Business leaders may be letting their guard down when it comes to protecting against AI risks.

A new report from PwC found that 58% of 1,000 US executives surveyed have carried out a preliminary accounting of risks around the use of AI in their companies. Only around one in 10 reported fully implementing 11 capabilities the firm identified as key to responsible AI, though 80% have made some progress.

On top of the dangers of unchecked AI itself, the lack of readiness could cause problems for companies, as new regulations like the EU’s AI Act, President Biden’s executive order, and California’s proposed AI safety bill start to mandate more guardrails. The findings also come as reports show businesses are running into other obstacles, from experimentation with AI to rollout.

What’s holding businesses back from investing in responsible AI? The top reason—reported by 29%—was “difficulty quantifying risk mitigation.” “Responsible AI not a budgetary priority” and “leadership unclear on value” tied for second, with 15% each.

Ilana Golbin Blumenfeld, responsible AI lead at PwC, said companies also tend to overestimate their own progress on installing responsible AI guardrails.

To continue reading Tech Brew’s story on AI risks, click here.—PK

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