The core personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, rose in May by 2.6% compared with a year earlier and 0.1% compared with April, aligning with Dow Jones estimates and marking the lowest annual gain in over three years. With food and energy prices included, PCE held steady month over month and increased 2.6% year over year.

The US Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 against Chevron deference, the doctrine under which courts deferred to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous laws. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that courts "must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority" per the Administrative Procedure Act. Dissenting, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that "the majority today gives itself exclusive power over every open issue ... involving the meaning of regulatory law."

Amazon is reportedly planning to roll out a low-priced fashion and lifestyle storefront to Chinese sellers seeking access to US shoppers in a bid to take back some market share from rivals Temu and Shein. Under the new storefront, Amazon will deliver the products directly from China within nine to 11 days, and merchants can use small-batch production to test new items.

FedEx is reportedly considering spinning off its FedEx Freight business so it can concentrate on its logistics and parcel business, although a sale is a remote possibility. The company's president and CEO, Raj Subramaniam, said on a shareholders' call on Tuesday that the company is "conducting an assessment of the role of FedEx Freight in our portfolio structure and potential steps to further unlock sustainable shareholder value."

Automation can help distributors significantly boost profitability and efficiency by replacing manual processes to free up resources, allowing staff to focus on more critical tasks, reduce errors and improve customer satisfaction, say Graham Smith, a business development manager with Esker, and Frank Heenan, group vice president of distribution and LBM for Epicor. Organizations must understand their business needs, invest in the right technology and ensure team buy-in and proper training.

December has historically been a banner month for ecommerce, but consumer patterns are shifting with a summer surge likely to be one of several smaller spikes this year as Amazon promotes Prime Day in mid-July and Walmart follows up on Walmart+ Week in June with a deals sale that starts July 8. Online sales for Chinese retailer JD.com in June led to at least a 50% sales increase for more than 150,000 small- and medium-sized merchants.

Sales presentations should appeal to the rational and emotional aspects of buyer decision-making and offer comprehensive solutions that encourage them to think beyond price and make more informed decisions, writes Paul Reilly. Other key features that Reilly details include using analogies to simplify decision-making, demonstrating common ground to build rapport and positioning oneself as a value-added partner.

Business-to-business content marketing for the consideration stage of the buying journey should be direct, honest, educational and spotlight your brand's key value proposition while remaining customer-centric, Victor Blasco writes. The most engaging content formats to use to persuade B2B buyers at this stage include demo and whiteboard animation videos, podcasts, blogs and whitepapers, Blasco advises.

American consumers have been driving the strength of the US economy. While a strong labor market has helped, Americans also had around $2 trillion in excess savings they accumulated throughout the pandemic. However, those savings were fully depleted in March, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has said.

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