Honda is recalling about 106,000 CR-V hybrid sport-utility vehicles for model years 2020 through 2022.

At issue is a 12-volt battery cable that may be missing a fuse, potentially causing the cable to short-circuit or overheat during a crash.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a notice on its website that dealers have been instructed to replace the battery cable free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed out Jan. 29.

Owners can contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda’s code for the recall is FGB.

The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that Rite Aid secretly used facial recognition on customers for nearly a decade and wrongfully accused many of shoplifting.

The FTC said Black and Asian customers were more likely than white customers to be misidentified as people who had shoplifted or tried to. Women were more likely to be misidentified than men.

According to the complaint, Rite Aid contracted with two companies to help create a database of images of people — considered to be “persons of interest” because Rite Aid believed they engaged in or tried to engage in criminal activity at one of its retail locations — along with their names and other information, such as any criminal background data.

In a statement, Rite Aid said the program was used at only a few stores and discontinued in 2020.

Under the settlement, the agency barred Rite Aid from using facial recognition technology in stores or online for five years. The FTC confirmed to NBC News that it’s the first time it has ordered any entity to stop using facial recognition.

“Rite Aid’s reckless use of facial surveillance systems left its customers facing humiliation and other harms, and its order violations put consumers’ sensitive information at risk,” Samuel Levine, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a news release.

A bankruptcy court must approve the order, because Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy protection in October.

In its statement, the FTC said Rite Aid started using ‘artificial intelligence-based facial recognition technology’ in 2012 to identify customers who may have been shoplifting or engaging in other undesirable behavior. It contracted with two companies to develop a database of people who had shoplifted or been accused of shoplifting in the past.

People walk past a Rite Aid in Queens, N.Y., on Oct. 16.Anthony Behar / Sipa USA via AP file

The database was often filled with low-quality images from store security cameras, employees’ phones or news stories, along with names and other information, including any criminal background data.

Then the system sometimes identified shoppers as people who had been accused of shoplifting at other stores thousands of miles away or flagged one person at dozens of stores around the country.

The FTC said the system generated thousands of false positives, more commonly in stores in neighborhoods with large Black and Asian populations than with white ones.

‘Employees, acting on false positive alerts, followed consumers around its stores, searched them, ordered them to leave, called the police to confront or remove consumers, and publicly accused them, sometimes in front of friends or family, of shoplifting or other wrongdoing,’ the FTC said.

Customers weren’t informed that Rite Aid was using the technology, and employees were ‘discouraged’ from revealing it, the agency said.

It also said Rite Aid didn’t take steps to mitigate the harm that would have been caused by falsely accusing customers of shoplifting and didn’t regularly monitor or test its system, nor did it tell employees that the system could make mistakes. When the company switched to a technology that enabled employees to report bad matches and required them to use it, it didn’t follow through to make sure employees followed that policy.

Notably, the FTC didn’t fine Rite Aid. Justin Brookman, the director of technology policy for Consumer Reports, said the agency seemed to have prioritized establishing a precedent regarding companies’ responsibilities when they use facial recognition technology in stores.

“I get the impression that it’s growing in practice, so the FTC wanted to get ahead of this to some extent,’ Brookman said.

The FTC said in May that companies that use biometric technologies such as facial recognition have to implement them fairly and mitigate the harm they could cause. It also said companies that offer biometric technology can’t make false promises about its accuracy or effectiveness.

In 2010, just two years before Rite Aid started using the facial recognition technology, it settled an FTC charge saying it failed to protect the medical and financial records of customers and employees. That resulted in a $1 million penalty, and the FTC said that in implementing the facial recognition system and failing to oversee its vendors, Rite Aid violated that settlement.

The agency said Rite Aid will be required to implement ‘a robust information security program, which must be overseen by the company’s top executives.’

Americans are heading into 2024 more optimistic about the health of the economy than they have been in months.

The Conference Board reported Wednesday that its Consumer Confidence Index, a measure of how Americans feel about business conditions and the United States’ job market, rose to 110.7 in December, up from 101.0 in November. A component gauge of consumers’ expectations for the next six months saw the largest one-month jump since July.

The upticks are especially noteworthy since consumer spending comprises about two-thirds of the nation’s economy — and has remained solid despite months of shoppers voicing unusual levels of gloom.

“This is the pivot, the beginning of the end of the ‘vibecession,’” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, referring to the concept popularized this year that consumers’ attitudes are out of step with an otherwise strong economy.

The Conference Board found the optimism was broad-based, rising this month across all age groups and income levels. But the steepest gains were among people ages 35 to 54 and households earning at least $125,000 a year.

Millions of lower-income families are still under intense pressures that top-line survey figures may not fully reflect. High housing costs have driven homelessness to record levels, and grocery prices are exacerbating food insecurity that federal relief programs and food pantries across the country are struggling to address.

Still, the surprise overall surge in consumer confidence comes during a holiday shopping period that has also defied expectations. Retail sales rose 0.3% in November, even though Wall Street economists had forecast a pullback in spending despite robust seasonal discounts.

Consumers have been helped by relief at the pump, where the average cost of a gallon of regular is $3.10, down from $3.31 a month ago (“Gas prices sleighing it,” AAA declared last week). In addition, the job market has cooled steadily but remained strong, with employers trimming hiring while largely avoiding mass layoffs. The unemployment rate has hovered between 3.4% and 3.7% all year — right in range of its historic lows before the pandemic.

Looking ahead to 2024, consumers in the Conference Board survey said they were moderately more interested in buying vehicles, homes and big-ticket appliances.

“The consumer is feeling pretty well as rates move lower, employers add to their payroll, and income expectations improve,” Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial, said in a note Wednesday.

Inflation, now at an annual rate of 3.1%, has slowed sharply over the course of the year, but the Conference Board survey found price increases remain the top concern for consumers. Compared to the 6.3% rate at the beginning of 2023, though, the worst of post-pandemic inflation appears to be in the rearview mirror.

Another boost could be coming from the Federal Reserve, which has signaled that it might start cutting interest rates next year after hiking them to 22-year highs. Although the central bank says its decision-making on rates depends on how inflation develops, cuts could alleviate credit card and auto loan rates that have squeezed consumers. Mortgage rates, reflecting longer-term interest rates, have already started to decline.

The stronger consumer confidence is the latest sign of an economy apparently riding into 2024 clear of a recession, commonly defined as two back-to-back quarters of negative change in gross domestic product. And while plenty of headwinds remain, GDP forecasts have been rising, too, with the Atlanta Fed recently revising up its projection for the economy to grow at an annualized pace of 2.7% in the fourth quarter this year.

It’s a stark contrast to the chorus of warnings in late 2022 that the Fed’s rapid rate hikes would drive up unemployment, snuff out demand across the economy or both.

“Not only did that not happen,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on Dec. 13, but “we actually had a very strong year.”

Ikea warned of delays on some products due to the mass diversion of shipping containers from the Red Sea over safety concerns.

“The situation in the Suez Canal will result in delays and may cause availability constraints for certain IKEA products,” a spokesperson said by email Thursday.

They added that the safety of staff working in its supply chain was its priority, and it was evaluating other options to secure the availability of products. Ikea does not have its own container vessels but uses external operators.

At least $80 billion worth of cargo has already been diverted from the waterway which provides access to Egypt’s Suez Canal, the quickest passage between Europe and Asia, due to a wave of drone and missile attacks by Yemen-based Houthi militants.

Sweden’s Electrolux, the world’s largest appliance company, has set up a task force to find alternative routes and identify priority deliveries, Reuters reported.

Shipping giants Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM are among those to have confirmed this week they will begin diverting ships already in transit around the longer Cape of Good Hope route along the south of Africa as the attacks continue.

Clerc added that it was unclear how quickly firms would see the impact from a new U.S.-led task force, which is seeing advanced air-defense military ships from countries including the U.K. and Italy head to the area.

Europe is set to have the biggest impact from the delays due to its strong trade ties with Asia, and because cargo bound for the Americas can travel via the Pacific.

Less than one-sixth of homes listed in the U.S. between January and November were affordable for a typical household, according to Redfin.

The real estate brokerage says 352,500 homes, or 15.5% of the total that were listed in the first 11 months of the year, were affordable for a typical U.S. household.

Redfin considered listings affordable if the estimated monthly mortgage payment on that home was no more than 30% of the median income of the local county. It assumes a 5% down payment as well, which is close to the minimum many lenders will accept.

There are some limitations to the estimates: Some buyers are able to put down more than 5%, which reduces their mortgage payments, while many are willing to pay more than 30% of their income toward housing. And many buyers aren’t local.

Still, it’s become harder than ever to afford a home. Other metrics show affordability hit all-time lows in late 2023, while the average monthly mortgage payment in the U.S. doubled in the last three years.

That’s been especially bad for Black and Latino buyers, because on average they have lower income and less wealth than white buyers. Redfin says 21.6% of homes listed for sale were affordable for the typical white household, compared to 10.4% for Hispanic/Latino households and 6.9% for Black buyers.

There are two connected reasons for the drop in affordability. One is that home prices soared after the pandemic began as some people moved out of cities quickly, remote work increased and home construction slowed. The other is that mortgage rates have spiked since March 2022 as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates.

Federal Reserve data shows that 30-year mortgage rates rose from less than 4% in early 2022 to a peak of 8% in October. As rates jumped, fewer people could afford to borrow the money they needed to buy a home. Even if they could get a loan, their dollars did not go as far as before.

At the same time, people who already owned a home were less willing to put theirs up for sale, as that would have likely required them to take out a new mortgage at a much higher rate. That created a spiral of price increases that took several years to ease.

Redfin’s own calculation is that 50% of listed homes were affordable in 2013, the earliest year for which it has data. As recently as 2020, that number was 45% before plunging over the last few years.

Homes have become slightly more affordable in recent months as mortgage rates have decreased. Lender Freddie Mac says the average rate on a 30-year fixed is now 6.67%. That’s much higher than what buyers were able to get from 2010 to 2022, but it’s a notable decline from the peak in October.

It’s been enough of a change to get a few more buyers to put their homes up for sale, and that increase in supply has in turn put downward pressure on sale prices for older homes. Redfin says that should continue in 2024.

Construction of new homes is also on the rise, which should boost affordability to an extent. Interest rates and mortgage rates are expected to decrease further in the years ahead, even if overall home prices are unlikely to return to their pre-pandemic levels.