WSJ What’s News - DOJ Releases First Batch of Jeffrey Epstein Files

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

P.M. Edition for Dec. 19. The Justice Department releases the first batch of files tied to its investigation of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. home sales rise to their highest level since February. And WSJ’s Kelly Crow explains how the art market is adapting younger buyers. Sabrina Siddiqui hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

U.S. home sales hit their highest level in months, and how the art market is adapting to a new demographic of bidders. You do get the feeling that they're still just sort of testing the field of what do the younger buyers want and how kooky do they want to be. Plus, a media deal that went for peanuts. It's Friday, December 19th. I'm Sabrina Siddiqui for the Wall Street Journal, sitting in for Alex Oslo. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. Kicking things off with some breaking news? The Justice Department has released a batch of files related to the government's investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, marking a milestone in a long-running fight over the sex offenders case.

The move comes after Congress voted overwhelmingly last month to mandate the disclosure of records into Epstein and his associate. Gailene Maxwell. The first badge came today and additional releases are expected in the coming weeks. For more details, visit WSJ.com. New data shows that U.S. home sales rose last month to their highest level since February. Sales of existing homes increase half a percent from October to a seasonly adjusted annual rate of 4.13 million. That's according to the National Association of realtors. Nicole Friedman covers the U.S. housing market for us, and she says lower borrowing costs have injected some momentum into what's otherwise been a slow market. So existing home sales have risen for three straight months, which is the longest streak of gains since late

2024. And so that shows a little bit of momentum here at the end of the year, driven by slightly lower mortgage rates. So mortgage rates in recent months have been lower than they were earlier in the year, and that is bringing some buyers into the market. It's a slightly more affordable time to buy a home. And so there is some optimism that if rates continue to decline, that that could lead to an increase in home buying activity in 2026. But overall, home sales are still really low. This year is still likely to be at or near the lowest level since the mid-90s for existing home sales. So even with this slight uptick in momentum, it's from a really low base, and we're not seeing any huge increase in home buying activity just yet.

In other economic data out today, consumer sentiment improved a bit in December, but people remain largely pessimistic as households continue to grapple with high prices and a challenging job market. That's according to the University of Michigan's monthly survey, which found that inflation is still weighing on consumers, and more than 60% expect joblessness to keep rising over the next year. Many economists project a stronger U.S. economic outlook in 2006 as uncertainty over U.S. trade policy fades and business-friendly tax changes kick in. U.S. stocks rallied today to close out the week near fresh records. Tech shares continued their rebound with the NASDAQ posting a 1.3% jump.

S&P 500 rose 0.9% and the Dow climbed 0.4%. Both are now about 1% away from their all-time highs. Nine pharmaceutical companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, GSC, and Merck, have agreed to lower drug prices for certain federal programs and patients in exchange for reprieves on tariffs. President Trump announced the deals at the White House today. They've agreed to offer many of their flagship drugs. really all of their flagship drugs, at heavily discounted most favored nations' prices.

In other words, whatever the drug sells were over the world, in the world, whatever the lowest number is, if it's Germany, if it's in UK, anywhere, we will match that price. The announcement follows similar drug pricing agreements between the

administration and other drug makers. Tesla has won its fight over a record-breaking 2018 pay package for CEO Elon Musk. The Delaware Supreme Court issued an opinion today, reversing an earlier decision that rescinded Musk's pay package. The decision ends a year's long legal battle over compensation that grew in value to total more than $126 billion. Coming up, what's driving a $13.2 billion comeback for the art market, plus a new home for Snoopy. That's after the break.

After a two-year slump, buyers are once again paying eye-watering prices at the world's leading auction houses. At Sotheby's and Christie's sales top $13.2 billion in 2025, up from $11.7 billion the year before. Kelly Crow, a Wall Street Journal reporter covering the art market, joins us now with more. Kelly, let's break down these numbers. Sotheby's sales grew 17% to $7 billion in 2025, and Christie's sales grew 6% to $6.2 billion. What's driving the comeback? It's just been interesting to see how when broader economic issues pop up, like fears about tariffs or changes in political situations or even war, it's just distracting for the wealthy people who sort of enjoy collecting art on the side. And so I think it's really been an issue. of both just being distracted by other fears and worries and also just now sort of feeling like things have studied that they're just no longer as worried. And so they can sort of go back

to having fun and buying art. Who are these buyers? How old are they? Where are they from? I think it's fascinating. So you do see some interesting generational shifts happening. Baby boomers and to a greater extent, Gen X are kind of setting the tone and the taste at the upper reaches of the market. But collectors under 40 now represent like a quarter. of Sotheby's bidders across art and luxury. And a third of Christie's buyers are like Gen Z or millennials. So you do get this sense that, you know, younger collectors are coming in and they don't always tend to buy what their parents and their friends, older friends bought. They kind of are determining their own taste. So many of them come in through watches or handbags, luxury items,

wine. And then they sort of double down. I mean, some of the younger ones at Christie's this last year spent twice as much as they initially did, that they didn't necessarily buy the same thing. So they're having fun and sort of exploring across all these different categories. Do those changing demographics among buyers mean a different approach? I think the houses are still trying to figure out what the kids want, right? Like they're noticing that they really are going after some novelty items. They really like collectible cars, but they don't necessarily want Rothko and Bacon and some of the artists who were really setting the tone.

I think you're going to see more efforts for the houses to expand into, like, the Middle East, beyond just the sovereign wealth funds that have sort of dominated that bidding. But they really want the everyday person in Abu Dhabi, who's wealthy, like, what are they buying? Do they want jewelry? Do they want art? What kind? And then the same with the Indian diaspora. We're seeing them branch out and buying other things.

Walk us through some of the record prices for novelty objects like purses and dinosaur bones this year. Are there high sales prices a new development? Well, the prices are always going up, and certainly for paintings like the Gustav Klimt that sold for $236.4 million. But it's interesting when you see collectors start to pay what I call like trophy art prices for things that are kind of novelty items, like Jane Birken's original Hermes Birkenbag sold for $10.1 million this year. Christy sold a Fabrizier egg for $30.2 million. That's a record for a Faberjay egg. Smaller houses like Phillips adding more natural history things.

So you see dinosaur bones. They sold a $5.4 million triceratops this year and a bunch of other amulets. And they tried to sell a huge gold nugget. And they're just like, you do get the feeling that they're still just sort of testing the field of what do the younger buyers want and how kooky do they want to be. You're going to see more sports memorabilia coming into. to these big auctions. I feel like there's sort of a corkiness that comes with the younger group, which honestly, I'm fine. Let's mix it up. It doesn't all have to be Rothko all the time. That was the Wall Street Journal's Kelly Crow. Kelly, thank you.

Thank you. The U.S. Navy says he'll commission a new class of frigates, the first in a series of warships under President Trump's planned golden fleet that's meant to counter China and other adversaries. The Navy says it plans to complete construction of additional vessels at other shipyards so they can get into the fleet faster and that the goal is to launch the first ship in the water by 2028. The new frigate will play a key role in the fleet, protecting larger ships and sea lanes from threats such as enemy aircraft and ships. The e-commerce giant Sheehan scored a win today after a Paris court rejected

the French government's request to suspend the platform. President Emmanuel Macron's government had asked judges to halt Sheean's operations in France for at least three months after authorities discovered illicit products on the platform, including childlike sex dolls, weapons, and medications. In response, Sheehan temporarily paused sales from third-party vendors on its French marketplace and said it removed the listings and strengthened controls. Today, a Paris court found that completely shutting down the platform in France would be excessive and an unjustified violation of the company's right to conduct business. And let's wrap things up with a couple of deals that were announced today.

Biomeran Pharmaceutical will acquire fellow biotech amicus therapeutics for about $4.8 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of next year, and Biomerin says it'll expand its portfolio in rare disease treatments. It's also the latest multi-billion dollar deal in the biotech and pharmaceutical space this year. The flurry of activity has helped lift investor enthusiasm and boosted many long-struggling stocks. And Snoopy and Charlie Brown have a new majority owner. Sony will pay more than $450 million to double its stake in Peanuts holdings and take control of the popular characters. The deal will see the Japanese conglomerate increase its ownership to 80%, while the family of Peanuts creator Charles Zem Schultz will hold on to the other 20%. Sony has spent billions on acquisitions to capitalize on demand for games and entertainment.

This latest deal values the Peanuts business at more than $1 billion. And that's What's News for this week. Tomorrow you can look out for our weekly markets wrap-up, What's News and Markets? Then on What's News Sunday, we have the latest installment of our USA 250 series, this time looking at the generations-long push and pull over workers' safety in America. And we'll be back with our regular show on Monday morning. Today's show was produced by Anthony Bansy with supervising producer Tali Arbell and deputy editor Chris Lindley.

Michael LaValle wrote our theme music. Jessica Fenton is our technical manager. Ishaal and the Sleam is our development producer. Janet Heron is our deputy production editor. Chris Lindsay is our deputy editor. And Philana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of news audio. I'm Sabrina Siddiqui. Thanks for listening.

Thank you.