Good morning,

Former Star Entertainment CEO Robbie Cooke was reluctant to share the extent of the company's deteriorating debt position with his executive team because it might scare them and impact morale, the second Bell inquiry into the troubled casino inquiry has heard.

Meanwhile, the country's two biggest supermarket giants were accused of price gouging and misusing market power at a fiery Greens-led Senate inquiry hearing, with Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci even threatened with jail time for contempt.

And global private equity heavyweight Blackstone is betting big on explosive demand for data centres to fuel the AI boom but co-founder Steve Schwarzman warns there will be power blackouts unless electricity supply can keep pace.

And for those in the legal field, The Australian is launching a new, free newsletter Ipso Facto with scoops, analysis and comment each week. Sign up here.

Five things to know this morning

1. ASX to waver after Wall Street flatlines. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell dials back rate cut expectations. Star inquiry continues.
2. The construction industry continues to dominate tax payment defaults as the number of Australian companies going into external administration hit a record high, with more than 1200 firms collapsing in March.
3. Fugitive developer Jean Nassif has not co-operated with the administrators of his collapsed Toplace building empire, a Sydney meeting has heard as creditors backed plans to keep chasing missing funds.
4. The consulting arm of EY Oceania will bear the brunt of 148 job cuts after CEO David Larocca told staff on Tuesday that the “difficult decision” was due to a downturn in demand.
5. Another civil construction company is set to disappear from the Australian market, after Decmil agreed to a friendly $127m takeover by fellow West Australian mining contractor Macmahon.