Walmart agreed to pay a small fine and promised to ensure its third-party resellers are unable to sell realistic looking toy guns to buyers in New York, after state Attorney General Letitia James said Tuesday that the retail giant's online store shipped them to the state. The settlement comes nearly a decade after Walmart, Amazon, Sears and other retailers entered into a consent order and judgment with New York's previous attorney general, in which they agreed to keep toy guns that resemble actual deadly weapons off their shelves statewide and they paid civil penalties that topped $300,000. The 2015 order was part of a nationwide reckoning over realistic looking toy guns in the wake of the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice, a 12 year-old Cleveland boy who was killed by police in November 2014 while holding a pellet gun. The New York law bans retailers from selling or shipping toy guns of certain colors — black, dark blue, silver, or aluminum — that look like real weapons. Toy guns sold in the state must be "made in bright colors or made entirely of transparent or translucent materials," with businesses subject to a fine of $1,000 per violation, according to James' office. James said on Tuesday that an investigation by her office found that Walmart's online store had shipped at least nine realistic looking toy guns sold by third-party sellers to New York City, Westchester County and Western New York. "Walmart failed to prevent its third-party sellers from selling realistic-looking toy guns to New York addresses, violating our laws and putting people at risk," she said. "The ban on realistic-looking toy guns is meant to keep New Yorkers safe and my office will not hesitate to hold any business that violates that law accountable." Walmart must pay $14,000 in penalties and $2,000 in fees under the settlement, the AG's office said. CNBC has requested comment from Walmart, which neither admitted nor denied the findings by James' office in its investigation. As part of the settlement, Walmart is required to prohibit third parties from offering for sale or selling any of the imitation guns covered by the state law to buyers in New York. "Walmart shall terminate the ability of a third party from being able to list and sell toy guns and imitation weapons on Walmart.com when it has determined that a third party has engaged in conduct" that violates that restriction on three separate occasions, the settlement said. And "Walmart shall implement and maintain policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent such third parties from offering for sale, exposing for sale, or selling Prohibited Items on Walmart.com for importation, holding for sale, or distribution to New York," the settlement says. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world Americas+1 212 318 2000 EMEA+44 20 7330 7500 Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000 Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world Americas+1 212 318 2000 EMEA+44 20 7330 7500 Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000 The Blackstone headquarters in New York. Blackstone Inc. agreed to buy $5 billion of private equity holdings from the New York City pension system, one of the largest sales of its kind. The transaction, which represented 450 individual commitments in 125 funds from 75 different managers, is for “portfolio strategic realignment” purposes, according to a statement from the New York City Comptroller's office, not liquidity needs.

Circle, the issuer of the popular USDC stablecoin, has begun its long-awaited initial public offering process, looking to raise about $624 million at a valuation around $6 billion. The company, led by CEO Jeremy Allaire, said Thursday in a filing that it plans to sell 24 million shares of Class A common stock in total – 9.6 million to be sold by the company and another another 14.4 million by existing shareholders – at an expected price range of $24 to $26 apiece, which values the company at around $5.65 billion. Circle also said it will grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 3.6 million additional shares. Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management has indicated interest in purchasing up to $150 million of the shares, per the filing. Circle's USD Coin (USDC) has roughly $62 billion in circulation and makes up about 27% of the total market cap for stablecoins, behind Tether's 67% dominance, according to CryptoQuant. Its market cap has grown 40% this year, however, compared with Tether's 10% growth. The stablecoin sector specifically has been ramping up as the industry gains confidence that the crypto market will get its first piece of U.S. legislation passed and implemented this year, focusing on stablecoins. Last week, the Senate voted to advance the first crypto legislation, which would create a regulatory framework for stablecoins. Trump has said he wants to see crypto regulation on his desk and ready to sign by August before Congress goes into recess. Circle's IPO could have investment implications for Coinbase, a cofounder of USDC and major distribution vehicle for the stablecoin. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said Coinbase has a "stretch goal" to make USDC the number 1 stablecoin in the world. Historically, stablecoins have been used primarily for trading and as collateral in decentralized finance (DeFi), and crypto investors watch them closely for evidence of demand, liquidity and activity in the market. More recently, their ability to move dollars quickly and cheaply across borders has become more popular with banks and fintech companies. Additionally, rhetoric around their ability to help preserve U.S. dollar dominance – by exporting dollar utility internationally and ensuring demand for U.S. government debt, which backs nearly all dollar-denominated stablecoins – has grown louder. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

A federal judge's recent order may foil President Donald Trump's plans to transfer the country's more than $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio from the U.S. Department of Education to the Small Business Administration. Judge Myong J. Joun of U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts wrote in his May 22 preliminary injunction that the Trump administration was required to reinstate more than 1,300 Education Department employees and was blocked from carrying out Trump's directive "to transfer management of federal student loans and special education functions out of the Department." In other words, federal student loans will stay with the Department of Education, for now. Trump had announced on March 21 a plan to transfer more than 40 million student loan accounts to the SBA. More from Personal Finance:House Republican bill calls for bigger child tax creditStudent loan borrowers in default may see 15% of Social Security benefit garnishedHow college savers can manage 529 plans in a turbulent market Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Education Department, slammed the judge's decision. "Once again, a far-left Judge has dramatically overstepped his authority, based on a complaint from biased plaintiffs, and issued an injunction against the obviously lawful efforts to make the Department of Education more efficient and functional for the American people," Biedermann wrote in a statement to CNBC on Thursday. for now is good news for borrowers, said Sarah Sattelmeyer, a project director at New America and senior advisor under the Biden administration. "Instead of increasing efficiency, the movement of the Department's core functions would have increased confusion and decreased the effectiveness of programs that students depend on to access education," Sattelmeyer said. Consumer advocates are worried that a mass transfer of accounts between federal agencies could trigger errors, or compromise federal student loan borrowers' privacy. Those problems have occurred during much smaller transfers between loan servicers. Advocates also raise concerns about how a change in agency might affect borrower protections and programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The Small Business Administration has no experience relevant to the management of federal student loans, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. It would ultimately require an act of Congress to move the loan portfolio to the SBA, Kantrowitz said. Adding to advocates' criticism over Trump's proposed transfer was his administration's announcement in March that the SBA's workforce would be reduced by 43% — leaving fewer people to manage this new responsibility. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world Americas+1 212 318 2000 EMEA+44 20 7330 7500 Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000 Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world Americas+1 212 318 2000 EMEA+44 20 7330 7500 Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000 US Supreme Court: The US Supreme Court in Washington, DC. The US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from a public middle school student who said his free speech rights were violated when his principal barred him from wearing a T-shirt saying “there are only two genders.” Over the dissents of two conservative justices, the court left intact a federal appeals court decision that said the Massachusetts principal and school district were on solid ground in concluding the shirt carried a demeaning message that could disrupt the learning environment.

Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world Americas+1 212 318 2000 EMEA+44 20 7330 7500 Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000 Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world Americas+1 212 318 2000 EMEA+44 20 7330 7500 Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000 A WEG electric-motor factory in Jaragua do Sul, Brazil. Brazilian firm WEG has created $21.1 billion in wealth for the descendants of its founders. Now it's facing what may be its biggest challenge yet. It's said that “dividend days” are the best days of the year in the remote Brazilian town of Jaragua do Sul, population 180,000. That payment, together with a profit-sharing program from electric-motor maker WEG SA, helps to support some 20% of the city's residents, spanning current workers to family members and retirees. The 64-year-old company, founded by an electrician, an accountant and a mechanic, says its own health clinics treat nearly as many patients a year as the city's health system.

Elon Musk's brand catastrophe in Europe is only getting worse. Tesla's sales collapsed 49% in Europe last month, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), as the automaker continues to battle a brand crisis in its third-largest market. The slump came even as sales of battery electric vehicles in Europe rose by nearly 28%, per ACEA data. It also suggests that the refreshed version of Tesla's best-selling Model Y, which began rolling off production lines earlier this year, has so far failed to turn things around. The resulting brand crisis has been exacerbated in Europe by Musk's support of the German far-right party AfD, which has seen the billionaire draw criticism from German politicians and other industry figures. In an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum last week, Musk rebuffed suggestions that Tesla was struggling to shift its EVs, saying that other companies were also struggling in Europe and that Tesla was seeing no issues with demand. While some of Tesla's rivals have struggled, none have seen as great a drop in sales. What's more, BMW, Renault, and VW — which overtook Tesla to become the biggest EV seller in Europe in March — have all seen their sales grow so far this year, per ACEA data. To make matters worse for Tesla, several of the company's Chinese rivals have recorded surging sales in Europe so far this year. State-owned auto conglomerate SAIC Motor saw its sales jump nearly 25% in April, while Tesla nemesis BYD sold more electric vehicles than Tesla in Europe for the first time last month, as it puts the automaker under pressure across the globe.

Waymo recently demonstrated why the company believes it's necessary to have lidar and other sensors beyond cameras in order to deliver a safer robotaxi service. During a presentation at Google I/O on Wednesday, co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov showed a few situations in which Waymo's proprietary lidar and imaging radar system can detect pedestrians before cameras pick them up. Waymo's current fifth-generation autonomous car is equipped with five lidars, six radar sensors, and 29 cameras. One scenario involved a Waymo driving through a dust storm in Phoenix, which can occur during Arizona's monsoon season. In one slide, Dolgov showed two frames of the same image — one of which was taken by Waymo's "high-resolution, high dynamic range camera," and the other from Waymo's lidar. Dolgov called it the Waymo Driver's "superhuman sensing ability." "So imagine they were to step onto our path. Another scenario Waymo showed took place in San Francisco, one of the first cities in which the company made their robotaxis publicly available. The video shown above demonstrated how Waymo's imaging radar can detect a crossing pedestrian whose view from the robotaxi's camera feed was blocked by a bus. Waymo's sensors are an identifiable feature on its white Jaguar robotaxis that now hum through the thoroughfares of several major US cities. The company, including its cofounder Sebastian Thrun, as well as many industry experts, says lidar is essential for a safe self-driving experience. Tesla is one of the leading voices going against this conventional wisdom. The company has used lidar for limited purposes, including data collection, but for scaling robotaxis, CEO Elon Musk has characterized lidar as an expensive "crutch." "The issue with Waymo's cars is it costs Waymo money," Musk said during Tesla's Q1 earnings call in April. Dolgov said at the Google I/O conference that sensors merely provide "raw, sometimes noisy measurements of the world around you." "It all comes down to our AI to interpret all of that data and make good driving decisions," he said.