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Robinhood Markets Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev offered an apology for the company’s decision to temporarily curb trading in some stocks, including GameStop Corp., on Jan. 28 amid extraordinary volatility, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Despite the unprecedented market conditions in January, at the end of the day, what happened is unacceptable to us,” Tenev said after being questioned at a congressional hearing Thursday. His apology came after House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D- Calif.) interrupted the Robinhood CEO during his opening remarks. Her request was unusual as witnesses are allowed to make opening statements before taking questions from lawmakers. The GameStop episode, in which a group of online traders helped send shares of the videogame retailer on a wild rally earlier this year that ultimately crashed, has raised concerns about the integrity of the U.S. stock market and the rules that govern it. The Securities and Exchange Commission and other authorities are investigating whether the saga calls for policy changes or was fueled by criminal misconduct such as market manipulation. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

For a hearing replay and prepared witness testimony, please click here. 

AMC Entertainment Inc., whose shares are a favorite of Reddit-inspired day traders, jumped on Thursday after the publication of a French translation of a months-old report speculating Amazon.com Inc. would buy the world’s biggest chain of movie theaters, Bloomberg News reported. The article in Forbes France is dated today, but notes at the bottom it’s a translation of a Forbes US piece. The American version was published last May. Both versions note the Amazon acquisition idea is “pure speculation,” but cite reasons it would make sense, including the financial struggles of AMC and Amazon’s successful content arm Prime Video. Amazon and AMC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. AMC shares jumped as much as 19% in premarket trading and were up 9% to $6.05 at 9:33 a.m. in New York. The stock had gained 162% this year through Wednesday’s close after getting swept up in the Reddit-board mania that sent stocks such as GameStop Corp. soaring. It also got a boost after it said it raised $917 million in new funds, which will allow it to get through the next six months of the pandemic and avoid filing for bankruptcy.

Discount department store Century 21 is plotting a comeback. The New York City-based retailer, known for its designer deals on Chanel, Prada and Valentino, is relaunching this year after going bankrupt in 2020 and liquidating its stores, in part as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, FoxBusiness.com reported. The first store to reopen, meanwhile, will be overseas. The Gindi family, owners of the store for 60 years, bought back the intellectual property of the Century 21 brand, which had 13 store locations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. The store will continue operate as a family-run business, Century 21 said. The first store to reopen, meanwhile, will be located in South Korea, a move the company says was in place before the pandemic. The retailer will launch in the city of Busan this summer, whileeying a relaunch in the U.S., starting with New York. Details are slated to be announced in the coming weeks.

Retail sales surged 5.3 percent in January as federal stimulus and economic relief measures fueled a sharp rebound in consumer spending, according to data released yesterday by the Commerce Department, The Hill reported. Spending on retail goods and food services rose last month after a December decrease of 1 percent, thanks in large part to the second round of direct payments and the renewal of expanded unemployment benefits. The January increase came after retail sales fell by 1 percent in December, according to revised figures released Wednesday. “The January data suggest that the picture is improving,” said Cailin Birch, global economist at The Economist Intelligence Unit, in a Wednesday analysis. “The stopgap aid bill that was passed by Congress in the final days of 2020, together with the likelihood of a sizeable economic relief package from the Biden administration before end-March, are likely to be feeding into household confidence, supporting spending.” Electronics and appliance stores, furniture shops and online retailers saw sales increase by more than 10 percent each from December, and department stores posted a whopping 23.5 percent gain last month. Restaurants and bar sales also increased 6.9 percent in January, but remain 16.6 percent below January 2020 levels.

Country Fresh Holding Co., a supplier of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables and ready-to-go meals, has filed for bankruptcy and is planning to sell all or most of its assets in the U.S. and Canada after pressures arising from the coronavirus pandemic, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Woodlands, Texas-based Country Fresh, part of the Fresh Food Group, has named private-equity firm Stellex Capital Management LLC as the lead bidder for most of its assets after filing for chapter 11 protection on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. Three other affiliates in Canada are expected to also file proceedings under Canada’s equivalent of chapter 11, according to court papers. The proposed sale, subject to higher offers, would put Stellex in control of the company’s U.S. and Canadian assets out of bankruptcy, with the exception of a facility in Vancouver and its associated operations, in exchange for $30 million in cash and $25 million in secured debt. Stellex will roll those assets into a to-be-formed company while assuming certain liabilities, court papers said. The Fresh Food Group began in 1999 with the inception of Country Fresh LLC. Initially, the company focused on providing fresh-cut fruit and vegetables in a variety of blends, sizes, and packaging options, according to court papers.

Hertz has secured bankruptcy court approval of its 2021 incentive plan, which offers executives up to $12 million in bonuses if they meet certain financial goals and bankruptcy-related deadlines, Reuters reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath in Wilmington, Delaware signed off on the plan at the conclusion of a remote hearing on Tuesday. The car rental company, represented by White & Case, filed for bankruptcy protection last May with $19 billion in debt as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the travel industry.

A federal judge denied Citigroup Inc.’s request to claw back roughly $500 million it mistakenly paid out of its own pocket to investment firms that made loans to cosmetics giant Revlon Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported. Brigade Capital Management LP and other Revlon lenders can keep the money they collected from Citi when the bank wired them the full amount they were owed instead of the small interest payment that was due, according to a written ruling Tuesday by Judge Jesse Furman of U.S. District Court in New York. The August blunder by Citi, Revlon’s loan agent, satisfied a nearly $900 million debt that Revlon wasn’t due to pay until 2023 and delivered an unexpected windfall to lenders on what had become an increasingly risky investment. While some lenders that were mistakenly paid returned roughly $385 million to Citi, others refused the bank’s request for repayment, touching off a legal dispute that strained relationships with big investors like Brigade, a longtime Citi client, and raised questions with analysts about the bank’s internal controls. Judge Furman issued the decision after holding a trial in December that focused on the pivotal question of what Brigade and other recipients knew or suspected soon after they were paid. Citi, which has blamed the snafu on human error, argued that recipients knew right away they had been paid in error. They said they didn’t think the transactions were erroneous until Citi claimed as much and demanded repayment.

A group of technology and financial industry executives will face a bipartisan firestorm Thursday during the first congressional hearing on the GameStop stock controversy, The Hill reported. The leaders of major companies at the center of last month’s wild stock market volatility will find few allies on the House Financial Services Committee as members in both parties plan to hold their feet to fire. Executives from Robinhood, hedge fund Citadel, Melvin Capital and Reddit will seek to defend the heavily scrutinized ways they dealt with a surge in purchases of shares of GameStop and other struggling companies organized by an online community of traders. The GameStop frenzy raised serious questions about stock market regulation, the rise of retail trading websites and Wall Street transparency. The hearing may also lay the groundwork for further congressional investigations or attempts to impose tougher rules on hedge funds and trading platforms. But financial policy experts say those concerns are likely to take a backseat to big tech backlash, mistrust of Wall Street and other politically potent grievances when lawmakers get their crack at the executives.