Young adults are tightening their year-end spending budgets and shelling out less for gifts, survey data show. The WSJ’s Jennifer Williams writes that this is a problem for retailers and brands looking to Generation Z to drive shopping trends and boost spending steadily as they earn bigger paychecks.

Gen Z shoppers say they expect to cut holiday spending by an average of 34%, sharply more than other age groups, according to a Deloitte survey of over 4,200 U.S. adults. A separate, PricewaterhouseCoopers survey found that Gen Zers also are pulling back on travel, dining out and clothes shopping.

Overall, U.S. sales on Black Friday hit $18 billion, up 3% compared with a year earlier, Salesforce data show. But U.S. shoppers purchased 2% fewer items at checkout, and with average prices up 7%, shoppers made 1% fewer online orders.

Gen Zers aren’t the only ones balking at spending: Increasingly stretched consumers are also starting to draw the line on what they will pay for a new car, according to dealers, analysts and industry data. The Journal’s Sharon Terlep writes that auto tariffs, inflation and a tighter job market have more Americans rethinking big-ticket purchases, and the collapse of the EV market hastened by the scrapping of a federal tax credit cost the industry hundreds of thousands of potential sales.

• American Eagle raised its same-store sales guidance for the current quarter and full year as it sees a strong start to the holiday shopping season. (WSJ)
• Ford Motor’s EV sales continued to sink in November, as the company weighs scrapping the electric version of its F-150 truck. (WSJ)

A Rio Tinto venture is using sulfuric acid and bacteria to bring online the first new U.S. output of copper in more than a decade. The metal is coming from Gunnison Copper’s Johnson Camp mine, which is being restarted in partnership with Rio Tinto’s Nuton venture, which uses microbes to strip copper from ore.

The Journal’s Ryan Dezember writes that the first batch of copper extracted from its sulfide ores using the Nuton technology is expected in the coming days. Consumption of copper over the next 25 years could exceed all of the metal humanity has used until now, as demand surges for EVs, renewable energy and AI data centers.

That demand, as well as technological advances and President Trump’s push to boost raw-material output are driving miners to find ways to extract copper from ores that have been uneconomical to process using conventional methods.

• The U.S. and global economies are set to slow next year as higher tariffs take full effect, but could grow more strongly than expected if the AI investment boom broadens, the OECD said. (WSJ)
• Eurozone inflation rose to 2.2% in November from 2.1% in October, exceeding the European Central Bank’s 2% target. (WSJ)
• The U.S. Commerce Department confirmed that tariffs on South Korean vehicles would be cut to 15% from 25%, retroactive to early November. (WSJ)
• Amazon will test an "ultra-fast" delivery service in Seattle and Philadelphia that promises to bring household essentials to customers in about 30 minutes or less. (Investor’s Business Daily)
• Boeing’s CFO said the plane maker expects to generate cash in the "low positive single digits" in 2026, and spelled out plans to deliver more wide-body 787 and narrow-body 737 MAX jets. (WSJ)
• The Texas attorney general’s office is investigating whether Chinese-founded fast-fashion retailer Shein misled consumers about product safety and ethical sourcing. (Dow Jones Risk Journal)
• The Transportation Department might withhold up to $30.4 million in highway funding from Minnesota over commercial driver licenses it alleges were issued improperly to non-U.S. residents. (Reuters)
• The Transportation Department plans to revoke the certification of nearly 3,000 truck-driving schools unless they comply with training requirements in the next 30 days. (Associated Press)
• United Parcel Service and FedEx are raising fuel surcharges for domestic, ground deliveries by 1% and 1.5%, respectively. (SupplyChainDive)
• Uber Technologies and Starship Technologies plan to launch autonomous urban robot deliveries in the U.K. this month, elsewhere in Europe next year, and in the U.S. by 2027. (DC Velocity)
• Air-cargo tonnage from China to the U.S. in the week ended Nov. 23 averaged only a few percentage points below a year earlier, following double-digit percentage declines this summer, WorldACD data show. (Sourcing Journal)
• Acting U.S. Maritime Administrator Sang Yi said the maritime industry and potential financial backers should move fast to take advantage of an opportunity to revive the sector. (TradeWinds)
• Alabama’s Master Boat Builders said it plans to construct a new, $60 million manufacturing facility for government and defense shipbuilding. (WorkBoat)

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.