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Walt Disney Co.’s “Black Panther” is outpacing the advanced ticket sales of all other superhero films, according to online ticket retailer Fandango, owned by Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal. “Black Panther” tops 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” from Time Warner Inc.-owned Warner Bros., which opened with $166.0 million in box office receipts and went on to gross $873.6 million worldwide. “The buzz on ‘Black Panther’ is electric,” Fandango managing editor Erik Davis said in a statement. “Early screening audiences say it is one of Marvel’s best movies ever, and the positive word-of-mouth is helping drive the movie’s spectacular advance ticket sales.” Opening Feb. 16, “Black Panther” is expected to pull in $133.0 million in its opening weekend, according to forecasts from analysts at Box Office Pro. Shares of Disney are down 1.5% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 24% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average [s; DJIA] is up more than 31%.

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South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, who leads the House Oversight Committee, said Wednesday he won’t run for re-election. He becomes the latest in a wave of Republicans who have said they’re leaving Congress ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Gowdy said in a statement he will be “returning to the justice system” and won’t seek any other political or elected office.

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Square Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted Wednesday that “most” users of the company’s Square Cash platform now have the ability to buy and sell Bitcoin through it. “We support Bitcoin because we see it as a long-term path towards greater financial access for all,” Dorsey wrote. “This is a small step.” Square confirmed back in November that it had started letting some of the Square Cash service purchase bitcoin via the platform. Rival Stripe said earlier in January that it would be no longer supporting Bitcoin payments via its service, and trading app Robinhood generated attention last week after it announced that it would start letting users trade Bitcoin and Ethereum on the platform. Square shares are up 2.1% Wednesday and 218% over the past 12 months, whereas the S&P 500 Index is up 24% in that time.

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The Justice Department won’t pursue its corruption case against Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, and has filed a motion seeking the dismissal of the indictment against him. The decision came a week after a judge acquitted Menendez and co-defendant Salomon Melgen on counts on which they were tried last year, Politico reported. The government had announced its intent to retry the two men after a jury deadlocked last year.

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An Amtrak train carrying some Republicans to an annual party retreat in West Virginia was hit by a truck on Wednesday, but early reports indicate no one on the train was injured. It was unclear in the immediate aftermath whether anyone in the truck had been harmed. The truck reportedly careered into the train near Charlottesville, Va., and photos show extensive damage to the vehicle.

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While the broad market was selling off, Amazon.com Inc. stock continued to rise. Shares closed at record highs during the last four trading sessions, and they’re on track for another record close Wednesday. The stock rocketed to a new intraday high of $1,464.65 earlier in the session before settling down a bit. Shares are currently up 1.8%, outpacing gains for the Nasdaq Composite Index , up 0.8%. The Nasdaq is still 1.1% below Friday’s record close. Amazon is due to report holiday-quarter earnings Thursday after the close, with analysts expecting that the company drew revenue by 37% during the period. Fellow e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. also hit a new intraday high of $206.20 in Wednesday trading, though it’s now trading below last Friday’s record close of $205.22. Alibaba’s stock is currently up 2.3%. The firm reports December-quarter earnings Thursday morning. Alibaba shares have gained 101% over the past 12 months, while Amazon shares are up 77%. The S&P 500 Index is up 24% in that time.

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The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can only be replaced for cause, a U.S. appeals court said Wednesday. An earlier ruling in a case brought by mortgage company PHH Inc. had called the agency’s structure unconstitutional, and found that the director had too much control. But the DC Circuit Court of Appeals found that Congress had created the agency and established the director position with such political considerations in mind. The CFPB became a political football late last year when then-head Richard Cordray resigned to run for governor of Ohio and the Trump administration installed White House budget director Mick Mulvaney as acting head.

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Losses for oil prices intensified Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude supplies rose 6.8 million barrels for the week ended Jan. 26. That was the first weekly rise reported by the government agency in 11 weeks. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts had forecast a climb of 325,000 barrels, while Price Futures Group expected a rise of 2 million barrels. The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday reported an increase of 3.2 million barrels. Gasoline stockpiles, however, fell by 2 million barrels for the week, while distillate stockpiles declined by 1.9 million barrels, according to the EIA. The S&P Global Platts survey forecast a supply rise of 1.1 million barrels for gasoline and a fall of 1.5 million barrels for distillates. March crude fell 56 cents, or 0.9%, to $63.94 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down from $64.26 before the supply data.

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