Calls are increasing inside Congress for investigations into the prediction market platform Polymarket. This comes after The Associated Press reported that at least 50 new Polymarket accounts placed substantial bets on a U.S.-Iran ceasefire hours before President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire on social media.

These accounts had never bet on Polymarket before and this isn’t the first time such well-timed bets have occurred. Researchers at Harvard University estimate that $143 million in profits on Polymarket may have been made by individuals with insider information. Rep. Ritchie Torres has demanded that regulators review such trades, raising concerns about potential market abuse.

US filings for jobless aid jump to 219,000 last week

U.S. applications for unemployment benefits rose last week before Iran, Israel and the U.S. announced a two-week ceasefire deal that injected a degree of optimism into a still-clouded global economic picture.

The number of Americans applying for jobless aid for the week ending April 4 jumped by 16,000 to 219,000 from the previous week’s 203,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market. The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending March 28 fell by 38,000 to 1.79 million, the fewest in nearly two years.

US economy grew 0.5% in fourth quarter

The American economy, slowed by last fall’s 43-day government shutdown, grew at a sluggish 0.5% annual pace from October through December, the Commerce Department reported Thursday in downgrade of its previous estimate.

U.S. gross domestic product– the nation’s output of goods and services — decelerated in the fourth quarter after registering impressive growth of 4.4% from July through September. The latest number was marked down from the Commerce Department’s previous estimate of 0.7% fourth-quarter growth. Federal government spending and investment fell at a 16.6% annual pace because of the shutdown, lopping 1.16 percentage points off fourth-quarter GDP growth.

US stocks rise and oil prices trim their gains

U.S. stocks rose, even though oil prices did too, as financial markets moved more modestly a day after surging on optimism about a ceasefire in the war with Iran.

After beginning Thursday with moderate losses following drops for Asian and European stocks, the S&P 500 erased its dip and rose 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.8% after Israel’s prime minister authorized direct negotiations with Lebanon. That eased worries that the two-week ceasefire announced late Tuesday may already be in trouble.

Judge finds Pentagon is violating court order

A federal judge has ruled that the Defense Department is violating his earlier order to restore access to the Pentagon for reporters. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman sided with The New York Times earlier this month in deciding that the Pentagon’s new credential policy violated journalists’ constitutional rights to free speech and due process.

He sided again with the Times in saying that the Pentagon had tried to evade his ruling by putting in new rules that expel all reporters from the building unless guided by escorts. Friedman had ordered Pentagon officials to reinstate the press credentials of seven Times reporters and stressed that his decision applies to “all regulated parties.”