The daily business briefing: June 29, 2023

1. Costco cracks down on membership sharing

Costco said this week it was cracking down on membership sharing, which has increased since the discount shopping warehouse expanded self-checkout. Costco said it had started asking to see shoppers' membership cards and a photo ID before using self-checkout registers, as they do in traditional checkout lines. "We don't feel it's right that nonmembers receive the same benefits and pricing as our members," Costco said in a statement. The company is one of the world's largest membership clubs, with 66 million paid members and 119 million cardholders last year. Membership fees — $60 for a regular membership and $120 for an executive card — brought in $4.2 billion for Costco in 2022, up 9% from the year before.

CNN

2. Powell: 2 or more rate hikes needed to drop inflation to 2% target

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday in a conference at the Bank of Spain that it will probably take at least two more interest-rate hikes to bring inflation down to the central bank's 2% target. He said raising rates at two straight Fed policy meetings wasn't "off the table" as inflation remained high despite aggressive rate hikes in the last year. "Policy hasn't been restrictive for very long ... so we believe there's more restriction coming," Powell said Wednesday in a panel discussion at the European Central Bank's annual symposium in Portugal. Powell said he didn't expect core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, to drop to 2% until 2025.

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Bloomberg The Wall Street Journal

3. Biden says Bidenomics beats Reaganomics

President Biden on Wednesday delivered what aides described as a cornerstone speech of his presidency, saying his break from Republican policies that "failed America's middle class for decades" helped fuel an economic revival. Biden said his tactic of providing government support for key industries, such as computer chips, has boosted manufacturing and helped average Americans in a way that the Reagan-era approach of lowering taxes on the wealthy didn't. "The trickle-down approach failed the middle class," Biden said on a Chicago stage, flanked by signs reading "Bidenomics." Republicans have blamed Biden for a rising cost of living. Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, called Biden's Chicago speech part of a "Bankrupting America Tour."

The New York Times

4. Thunderstorms cause flight delays ahead of holiday weekend

Bad weather continued to cause extensive flight delays at U.S. airports on Wednesday, creating bottlenecks ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend. Nearly 3,000 flights were delayed on the East Coast, which has been hit with thunderstorms this week. More than 800 were canceled, according to FlightAware. The Federal Aviation Administration had to temporarily ground flights headed to all three major New York City area airports, Reagan Washington National, and Baltimore-Washington airports earlier in the week. Numerous other factors, including huge crowds and a Delta jet that had to make a belly landing in Charlotte, North Carolina, have contributed to the mess, adding up to one of the biggest post-pandemic tests for airports yet.

The Associated Press Gothamist

5. Stock futures rise slightly as strong 1st half of 2023 ends

U.S. stock futures made modest gains early Thursday as a strong first half of 2023 winds down. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were up 0.3% at 6:45 a.m. ET. Nasdaq futures were up 0.4%. Travel stocks have risen as demand for leisure travel surges and the industry recovers from COVID-19 restrictions. Bank stocks gained on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said major U.S. lenders were healthy. So far this year, the S&P 500 is up 14% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up nearly 30 percent, its best first-half performance since 1983. Optimism about artificial intelligence has boosted the big technology companies and makers of advanced AI microchips.

CNBC The Wall Street Journal