The bottom line

▪ The median pay package for chief executives of the biggest U.S. companies reached $14.7 million in 2021, setting a sixth-straight annual record. For the 25 top-paid CEOs—each of whose packages exceeded $35 million—equity accounted for 78 percent of their total compensation.

The Wall Street Journal

▪ Not a single car was sold in Shanghai in April, when the majority of the city’s 25 million residents were locked down due to a Covid outbreak. Dealerships in the city sold 26,311 vehicles in April last year.

Bloomberg

▪ An average of just 35 percent of U.S. office workers went to work on the typical Monday in March, said Kastle Systems, a security firm that monitors access-card swipes. Wednesdays topped the week, with 46 percent of workers in the office.

The Wall Street Journal

▪ California anticipates a budget surplus of $97.5 billion, a record for California or any other state.The surplus was driven by taxes on capital gains, which reached their highest share of tax collections since 1999, before the dot-com crash.

Los AngelesTimes

▪ The average price at the pump in California hit a record $6.021 per gallon this week, according to AAA.The national average of $4.523 is also a record, with every state now averaging more than $4.

CNBC.com

▪ Softbank’s Vision Fund posted a historic $27 billion loss for its fiscal year ending in March.The biggest losers in its portfolio of about 450 companies included ridehailing group Didi, whose shares have lost about half their value in recent months.

Financial Times