Good morning. Federal Reserve officials suggested that they might need to pull back their support for the economy sooner than they had anticipated because of stronger-than-expected growth this year.

Fed officials discussing the matter at their June 15-16 policy meeting weren’t ready to reduce their $120 billion in monthly purchases of Treasury and mortgage securities, according to minutes of the gathering released Wednesday. The minutes offer a strong sign officials will ramp up more formal deliberations at their next meeting, July 27-28, over when and how to reduce the bond buying.

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Officials generally judged that, “as a matter of prudent planning, it was important to be well positioned to reduce the pace of asset purchases, if appropriate, in response to unexpected economic developments, including faster-than-anticipated progress” toward the Fed’s inflation and employment goals or risks of too much inflation.

The minutes showed officials still expect recent inflation surges to be temporary, driven primarily by bottlenecks and shortages stemming from the pandemic. But some officials raised concern that consumers’ and businesses’ expectations of future inflation “might rise to inappropriate levels if elevated inflation readings persisted,” the minutes said. Central bankers believe inflation expectations can be self-fulfilling.

Duck Creek Technologies Inc., Levi Strauss & Co. and PriceSmart Inc. are among the companies scheduled to release earnings today.

The Labor Department is set to report the latest unemployment-claims figures at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists estimate that first-time applications declined to a seasonally adjusted 350,000 for the week ended July 3, from 364,000 during the prior week.

U.S. consumer credit rose $18.6 billion in April. Economists see it dipping slightly to $18.5 billion in May.

The number of U.K. companies using the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s reporting framework is on the rise, according to the country’s audit regulator.

Fifty-four U.K. companies use SASB benchmarks for their environmental, social and governance reporting, the Financial Reporting Council said in a report Wednesday. That is up by roughly threefold from a year earlier. About 70% of companies that adopted the SASB standards are in the FTSE 100, which includes the largest U.K. companies by market capitalization, according to the FRC. By comparison, 521 U.S. companies and 89 Canadian companies use SASB standards, the FRC said.

SASB consulted investor groups when creating its framework. Many institutional investors prefer the board’s framework to others because it is straightforward. SASB standards are maintained by the Value Reporting Foundation, a global nonprofit organization.
In a separate report published Wednesday, the FRC said it would consider future changes to its guidance, standards and regulations to address reporting issues stemming from environmental and social challenges facing companies. It did not provide details about the potential changes under consideration.

—Kristin Broughton

Passengers have flocked back to airports more quickly than airlines anticipated, and so have travel headaches like delayed and canceled flights.

Bad weather has caused some of the problems, but union officials and industry observers also cite staff shortages after too many pilots, mechanics and other workers were let go to cut costs during the pandemic. The troubles illustrate the complexity of resurrecting the industry after more than a year of near-hibernation.

China’s regulatory action against Didi Global Inc. threatens to impinge on the Chinese ride-hailing behemoth’s growth as it faces increasing competition at home and struggles to expand into new countries and new lines of business.

While the Beijing-based company’s U.S. initial public offering valued it recently at more than $67 billion, Didi faces a raft of challenges even as economies around the world bounce back from the pandemic.

The owner of downtrodden retail brands including JCPenney and Forever 21 plans to sell shares to the public, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Authentic Brands Group Inc. holds the license to more than 30 brands, including Sports Illustrated and Marilyn Monroe, as well as other well known retail names such as Brooks Brothers, Nine West and Eddie Bauer.

Mr. Kladiev has been CFO of Ferrexpo Poltava Mining since 2007.

RxSense, a Boston-based healthcare technology company, said it appointed TG Ganeshan chief financial officer. Mr. Ganeshan previously served as CFO of the payment services division of pharmacy benefit manager Optum.

Follow the CFO Journal team on Twitter: @CFOJournal, @kcbroughton, @markgmaurer and @Nina_Trentmann.
CFO Journal's bureau chief, Nina Trentmann, can be reached at [email protected].