WSJ What’s News - What’s News in Markets: Walmart Affirms Klarna, Tesla Politics, Consumer Angst

Episode Date: March 22, 2025

What happened when Walmart replaced Affirm with Klarna? And how are Elon Musk’s politics intersecting with Tesla’s stock? Plus, how are companies from General Mills to Nike feeling a tightening in consumer spending? 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

To support sustainable food production, BHP is building one of the world's largest hot ash mines in Canada. Essential resources responsibly produced. It's happening now at BHP, a future resources company. Hey listeners, it's Saturday, March 22nd. I'm Francesca Fontana for the Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it.

Well, it looks like we made it through the week without any big trade drama coming from the White House compared to recent weeks. But even with things relatively quiet on the terror front, traders certainly had their fair share of news to digest. There was Tuesday's tech sell-off, turmoil in the Middle East and developments around the war in Ukraine, the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday with most officials at the central bank still penciling in two rate cuts for the year, and plenty of earnings reports along the way.

All in all, the major indexes matched to notch gains for the week, with the S&P 500 rising half a percent, the Dow gaining 1.2 percent, and the NASDAQ ending about.2 percent higher. First up, let's talk about Affirm and Klarna, two of the fintech players in the buy now, pay later space. You've probably seen those options in your online shopping cart. They do what it says on the 10. You buy now and then you pay later in installments. Well since 2019, Walmart, the US retail giant, had partnered with Affirm to offer its customers

those installment plans. But on Monday, we learned that Walmart is rolling back its relationship with the firm and replacing it with Swedish rival Klarna. Now Klarna has recently filed for an IPO listing on the New York Stock Exchange. So be on the watch for that. But a firm began trading on the Nasdaq back in 2021. So let's see how did the stock react to this news? Well, a firm shares fell 4.2% on Monday and extended

their declines Tuesday, losing about 9%. But the stock gained background in the following days and ended the week just 0.4% lower. Now let's check back in on Tesla, the EV maker led by Elon Musk. I know, I know, we keep talking about this stock, but hey, there's just no shortage of moves lately. Long story short, a swirl of consumer backlash, investor scrutiny, and vandalism continues to surround Tesla. And as we've seen, all of this has taken a sizable toll on the stock

so far this year. So this week, on Tuesday, analysts warn of lower overseas demand and, said consumer backlash, as the brand becomes quote, increasingly politicized. I mean, it was just last week, right? We saw President Trump posing with Teslas on the White House lawn. And as chief executive Elon Musk has become a powerful senior advisor to Trump, we've also seen Tesla's vehicles becoming targets of vandalism. That same day, Tuesday, several vehicles were set on fire

outside a Tesla service center in Las Vegas. And the stock ended up losing 5.3% that day. Then on Wednesday, Tesla recalled most cyber trucks. This is its eighth recall issued on the truck, due to a flaw that can cause an exterior panel to fall off. But there was also good news for the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald raised its rating on Tesla, saying the recent sell-off created an attractive entry point.

And later that day, in an unusual move that certainly raised some eyebrows and some concerns re federal ethics rules, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox viewers to buy Tesla stock, saying quote, it'll never be this cheap again. And just yesterday, Musk told Tesla workers not to sell their shares. So how did the stock do this week? Well, Tesla shares lost 5.3% on Tuesday, then they rebounded 4.7% Wednesday. On a weekly basis, though, the stock ended up extending its 8-week losing streak, well, 9-week losing streak now, with a loss of 0.5%. Last, but not least, consumer spending and economic concerns were front and center in

earnings this week. For instance, General Mills, the food maker, known for Lucky Charms, Yo Play, etc., reported lower than expected fiscal third quarter sales and cut its outlook for the year. It's said that in the latest quarter, North American retailers reduced inventory and consumers spent less on snacks. And we saw General Mills shares fall roughly 2% on Wednesday. Although the stock did end up notching a weekly gain of about 0.6%. We saw similar concerns coming from Nike later in the week. The sportswear company late Thursday posted lower third-quarter profit and revenue. And Nike said its sales in the current fourth quarter

are expected to drop at a rate in the mid-teens. And Nike shares ended up losing 5.5% on Friday. 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 Zoe Culkin and Anthony Bansi, with supervising producer Michael Cosmitis.

I'm Francesca Fontana. Have a great weekend!