The chair of Tesla’s board of directors denied a report that the company had begun to look for a replacement for Elon Musk, the CEO who has been spending much of his time working for President Donald Trump while the automaker’s sales and profits have plummeted.

Robyn Denholm, who has led the board for more than six years, said on the social platform X that the report in The Wall Street Journal was “absolutely false.”

“The CEO of Tesla is Elon Musk and the board is highly confident in his ability to continue executing on the exciting growth plan ahead,” Denholm said on Tesla’s account on X, the social media firm Musk owns.

The Journal reported late Wednesday that, about a month ago, the Tesla board had contacted executive search firms to help look for Musk’s replacement, citing “people familiar with the matter.”

A spokesperson for the Journal said the newspaper stood by its reporting.

After the company reported a 71% drop in quarterly profit last week, Musk promised to spend more time at Tesla and less time in Washington. He said that he would spend one or two days a week on government work.

Musk’s absence from Tesla while he oversaw Trump’s efforts to slash government spending and cut federal jobs has become a sore point with investors. Musk’s involvement with the administration and with right-wing causes in Europe has prompted protests at Tesla dealerships and is partly responsible for a steep drop in sales. Electric vehicle buyers tend to be liberals or centrists.

Tesla’s revenue fell 9% in the first quarter of the year, to $19.3 billion, the company reported last week.

The automaker has lost market share in the United States, China and Europe as competitors such as BYD, General Motors and Volkswagen introduce dozens of electric models. Analysts have faulted Tesla for failing to expand its lineup beyond two main cars.

— New York Times

GM says tariffs hit will be up to $5B this year

General Motors cut its profit forecast for 2025 on Thursday by more than 20% and said the Trump administration’s tariffs would increase its costs by $4 billion to $5 billion this year.

In a conference call with analysts, GM executives said the company now expected to make $8.2 billion to $10.1 billion this year, down from a previous forecast of $11.2 billion to $12.5 billion.

“GM’s business is fundamentally strong as we adapt to the new trade policy environment,” the company’s CEO Mary Barra said.

In April, President Donald Trump imposed tariffs of 25% on imported vehicles and will begin imposing the same duty on imported auto parts on Saturday. On Tuesday, the president modified how the tariffs are applied to give automakers some relief, including partial reimbursement for tariffs on imported parts for two years.

Barra said GM hoped to offset about 30% of the impact of the tariffs by increasing production in U.S. plants, cutting costs and working with suppliers to raise their domestic production of parts and components.

Kohl’s CEO ousted over vendor flap

Kohl’s said it has terminated its new CEO Ashley Buchanan after an investigation determined that he directed the retailer to engage in vendor transactions that involved undisclosed conflicts of interest.

The Wisconsin-based retailer named Chairman Michael Bender as interim CEO, effective immediately.

The news comes less than four months after Buchanan, who had been previously the CEO of arts and crafts chain Michaels, took over the job on Jan. 15.

Kohl’s said Thursday that Buchanan’s firing is unrelated to its performance, financial reporting, results of operations and did not involve any of its other employees.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Buchanan’s termination follows a probe conducted by outside counsel and overseen by the board’s audit committee. It found Buchanan had directed Kohl’s to conduct business with a vendor founded by an individual with whom Buchanan has a personal relationship on “highly unusual terms favorable to the vendor” and that he also caused Kohl’s to enter into a multimillion-dollar consulting agreement with the same individual who was a part of the consulting team.

It also found that in neither case did Buchanan disclose this relationship as required under Kohl’s code of ethics.

Buchanan didn’t return a message sent to his Linkedin account.

Average mortgage rate eases again

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. eased again this week, modest relief for prospective home shoppers during what’s traditionally the busiest time of the year for the housing market.

The rate fell to 6.76% from 6.81% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 7.22%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell. The average rate dropped to 5.92% from 5.94% last week. It’s down from 6.47% a year ago, Freddie Mac said.

Weekly jobless apps hit two-month high

U.S. applications for jobless benefits jumped to their highest level in two months, but layoffs remain in a historically healthy range.

Jobless claim applications jumped by 18,000 to 241,000 for the week ending April 26, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs, and have mostly stayed in a healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years.

The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of April 19 climbed to 1.92 million.

— From news services