that s for a few reasons. one, temperatures have actually been warmer than usual, so that means there s less demand for home heating and for naetural gas. we ve seen a tick up in natural gas production. there are a lot of concerns about a european-style kind of shortage of natural gas in the united states. those concerns, they were really overdone. that was never going to happen because the u.s. is the biggest producer of natural gas in the world. kate, i think big picture, inflation is still here. there are still reasons to be concerned about inflation. but for the moment there are some glimmers of hope on the energy front. good to hear. matt, thank you so much for that. returning to the pandemic, new york city s new covid-19 mandate for private-sector worker will affect nearly 200,000 businesses across the city. the move did catch some businesses by surprise, saying that they re now concerned about the strain that this mandate requirement could put on them. katherine wild is the