WSJ What’s News - What’s News in Markets: Kraft Heinz Split, Macy’s Turnaround, Musk’s Pay

Episode Date: September 6, 2025

What do investors think of Kraft Heinz’s plan to split its business in two? And how is Macy’s turnaround affecting its stock? Plus, Tesla shareholders will be voting on CEO Elon Musk’s potential $1 trillion pay package, so how are they viewing it right now? Host Francesca Fontana discusses the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Francesca Fontana for the Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News and Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it. I hope you all had a good Labor Day weekend, which, as we know, shortened this past trading week to four days to kick off the new month. And stocks started September on a gloomy note on Tuesday, with the three major indexes all ending lower. Remember, all three ended August with gains.

Traders were feeling skittish for a few reasons, a big one being President Trump's campaign to reshape the Federal Reserve, and uncertainty whether his bid to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook was legitimate. Thursday was the Senate hearing to confirm Trump's ally, Stephen Myron, as a Fed governor, and Friday's weak jobs report cemented the case for an interest rate cut at the Central Bank's policy meeting this month. All in all, the major indexes ended the week mixed. The Dow lost 0.3%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.3%, and the NASDAQ rose 1.1%.

We have another big corporate breakup on our hands. Craft Hines is planning to split its business in two, in a move that would unwind the 2015 mega merger that brought the two iconic food companies together. As in all breakups, we want to know who. who's getting what, right? Who gets Kraft mac and cheese? Who gets Kraft singles? Well, the way this will work if it goes through is that one company will focus on sauces, seasonings, and spreads, including Heinz ketchup, Philadelphia cream cheese, and Kraft mac and cheese, which is neither a sauce nor a seasoning nor a spread, but okay. The other, the company said, would focus

on selling grocery staples in North America. So brands like Oscar Meyer, Kraft Singles, and luncheables. Now, other food and beverage industry giants have been making similar moves. For instance, Curig Dr. Pepper is unwinding the 2018 transaction that united the coffee maker and beverage company. And a couple of years ago, Kellogg split into two companies, one focused on snacks and the other on cereal. So how'd Kraft Heinz shares react? Well, the stock dropped 7% on Tuesday, and for the week, it ended 2.4% lower. Next up, let's look at some earnings. One that really stood out was Macy's, whose turnaround is starting to show results. Same store sales at the department store chain grew for the

first time since 2022, and the company also lifted its annual outlook. This effort to reverse the company, has been led by Chief Executive Tony Spring, who took the helm in 2024. It's involved making changes large and small, such as closing a chunk of Macy's stores, adding more staff to fitting rooms, and adding new brands. And apparently, it's paying off. To be sure, of course, there are still challenges ahead. The traditional foot traffic and demand of department stores have been suffering death by 1,000 cuts over the years, as online shopping has replaced them all. And there are new problems to tackle, like tariff-related price increases. And CEO Springs said that despite the resilient demand that Macy's saw in the second quarter,

he still remains cautious about the rest of the year. Macy's shares surged a whopping 21% on Wednesday, and on a weekly basis, the stock gained roughly 31%. Last but not least, one of the richest men on the planet might be given. getting even richer. That man is Elon Musk, the CEO of electric car maker Tesla, and Tesla's board is asking investors to approve a pay package for Musk worth as much as $1 trillion over the next decade. If, and only if, the company, hits certain milestones.

Musk would receive more and more Tesla's shares as the company hits those goals, according to a financial filing published on Friday. One of those goals is an $8.5 trillion market value for, Tesla, which is worth just over $1 trillion right now. The maximum payout must-can-get is an additional 12% stake in the company, which, with that target market value, would be worth slightly more than a trillion dollars. Hot dog. Now, this plan is still just a proposal, and shareholders will be voting on it on November

6th, so we'll see how it all shakes out in a couple of months. This week, however, Tesla shares rose 3.6% on front. and notched a weekly gain of 5.1%. And now you know what's news in markets this week. You can read about more stocks that moved on the week's news in The Score, my column in the Wall Street Journal's Exchange section. Today's show was produced by Michael Lovell with Deputy Editor Chris Sinsley. I'm Francesca Fontana.

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