The Supreme Court said a man struck by a truck coordinated by C.H. Robinson can sue the broker for negligent hiring, a ruling that leaves brokerages more exposed to lawsuits in state courts and facing greater costs and verification responsibilities.

The unanimous opinion could direct customers to larger companies that have more resources for safety programs compared with smaller or newer carriers, The Wall Street Journal’s Esther Fung writes. It could also give the biggest players leeway to raise rates. Shares of trucking companies Old Dominion Freight Line, J.B. Hunt Transport Services and Saia rose Thursday, while shares of brokers including C.H. Robinson, RXO and Landstar fell.

In the 2017 incident, a truck driver working for Caribe Transport struck Shawn Montgomery, who sustained permanent and severe injuries, according to court documents. Montgomery then sued C.H. Robinson, which arranged the shipment, arguing that it should have known the carrier was unsafe.

C.H. Robinson argued it was immune to the lawsuit because of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act. However, the Supreme Court declared that the federal law didn’t protect the broker from being sued for choosing an unsafe trucking company. C.H. Robinson said it was disappointed but respected the high court’s ruling.

Gas prices didn't climb as fast in April, so the dollars spent at the pump didn't rise as fast either. Sales growth at bars and restaurants picked up, showing that shoppers haven't lost their appetite for going out.

Online sales growth accelerated, too. On the whole, economists studying the numbers estimated that Americans' shopping continued to outpace inflation last month, suggesting that consumers were still contributing to economic growth.

President Trump left Beijing, concluding a summit in which he worked to gloss over his differences with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but which yielded few concrete changes to the two superpowers’ shaky relationship.

Trump told reporters that the two leaders had made “fantastic trade deals,” without providing details. He said he and Xi want the conflict in Iran to end and for Iran to not have a nuclear weapon. China's government said it had reached “a series of new common understandings” with the U.S., but didn’t say what those entailed.

• U.S. jobless claims rose by 12,000 to 211,000 in the week through May 9. (WSJ)
• The U.K. economy grew 0.6% in the first quarter, outpacing the U.S. and most European peers. (WSJ)
• Canada’s prime minister said the country needs to double its electricity-grid capacity by 2050, a project forecast to cost over 1 trillion Canadian dollars. (WSJ)
• Boeing and Toyota donated $1 million each to help fund a new road-trip show starring Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and his family. (WSJ)
• Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, posted strong earnings as it ramped up output of server racks and other advanced equipment for the AI build-out. (WSJ)
• Semiconductor Manufacturing International, China’s biggest chip foundry, reported weaker-than-expected profit as it expanded capacity amid Beijing’s push for chip localization. (WSJ)
• Honda reported its first annual loss as a listed company, $2.7 billion, citing about $10 billion in EV losses. (WSJ)
• U.K. food-and-beverage ingredient company Tate & Lyle said it received a $3.71 billion takeover proposal from U.S. peer Ingredion. (WSJ)
• Satellite operator Iridium Communications agreed to take full control of Aireon, a company that tracks airplane movements. (WSJ)
• About half of the cargo-theft incidents in the first quarter involved carriers with previously clean operating histories, according to carrier verifying company Highway. (SupplyChain24/7)
• German auto-parts maker Schaeffler reached a deal to deploy thousands of robots from the U.K.’s Humanoid in its factories. (DC Velocity)

Mark R. Long is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at mark.long@wsj.com. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team on LinkedIn: Mark R. Long, Liz Young and Paul Berger.