The typical compensation package for chief executives who run companies in the S&P 500 jumped nearly 10% in 2024 as the stock market enjoyed another banner year and corporate profits rose sharply. The increase for those who occupy the corner office again outpaced the wage gains for the median worker at their company. At half the companies in AP's annual pay survey, it would take the worker at the middle of the company's pay scale 192 years to make what the CEO did in one. Rick Smith, the founder and CEO of Axon Enterprises, the maker of Tasers, topped the survey with a pay package valued at $164 million.

Tesla's global annual sales fell for the first time in more than a dozen years, a blow to a stock that has soared since Donald Trump's election and its CEO billionaire became a top policy adviser to the president elect. Sales rose 2.3% in the final quarter but that was not enough to overcome a sluggish start to 2024. The annual decline for the Austin, Texas, company came despite offers of discounts such as 0% financing, free charging and low-priced leases. Tesla's 1.79 million sales for 2024 was 1.1% below 2023 sales as demand for electric vehicles in the U.S. and elsewhere slowed.

U.S. stocks are bouncing back after the market experienced its worst day in two years on Monday, but the average investor may still be understandably spooked. Over a three day losing streak, the S&P 500 dipped more than 6% before rallying again Tuesday, up 1.6% in midday trading. For everyday people, what are the best ways to handle market volatility? The top advice is to do nothing, but ultimately your response depends in part on your circumstances and financial goals.

Tesla shareholders have voted to restore CEO Elon Musk's record $44.9 billion pay package that was thrown out by a Delaware judge earlier this year. Vote totals were not immediately announced. The favorable vote doesn't mean CEO Musk will get the all-stock compensation anytime soon. The package is likely to remain tied up in the Delaware Chancery Court for months as Tesla appeals the rejection. The court ruled in January that Musk essentially controlled the Tesla board when it approved the package in 2018, and that it failed to fully inform shareholders who approved it the same year. Tesla has said it would appeal, but asked shareholders to reapprove the package at Thursday's annual meeting.

They are called zombies, companies so laden with debt that they are just stumbling by on the brink of survival, barely able to pay even the interest on their loans and often just a bad business hit away from dying off for good. An Associated Press analysis found their numbers have soared to 7,000 publicly traded companies around the world, including 2,000 in the United States alone, whiplashed by years of piling up cheap debt followed by stubborn inflation that has pushed borrowing costs to decade highs. And now many could be facing their day of reckoning, with due dates on hundreds of billions of dollars of loans.