Consumers Pull Back Spending, From Luxury Goods to Convenience Stores

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

P.M. Edition for Mar. 13. Low- and high-income consumers alike are spending less, and that’s having an effect on lots of retailers. WSJ food and agriculture reporter Jesse Newman tells us how fewer convenience store purchases of chips and candy bars could impact snack companies’ bottom line. Plus, a federal judge orders the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of fired workers at six federal agencies. And potential cuts to Medicaid put venture-backed startups at a crossroads. WSJ reporter Brian Gormley joins to discuss who could benefit. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs.
0:04.8	Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand.
0:12.5	Marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time.
0:17.5	From startups to scaleups, online-person, and on the go.
0:22.0	Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com
0:27.8	slash setup.
0:33.5	Vladimir Putin rejects a proposal for immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
0:38.4	Plus, a federal judge says the Trump administration must reinstate thousands of federal workers.
0:44.1	And possible cuts to Medicaid put startups and their backers at a crossroads.
0:48.7	Investors will continue to show interest, but will be a little bit more circumspect about making new investments in this area.
0:55.0	It's Thursday, March 13th. I'm Alex Oslo for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition
1:00.1	of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.
1:09.8	Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that Russia wouldn't agree to an immediate end to the fighting in Ukraine, as Moscow's army made rapid gains towards expelling Ukraine's forces from its Kursk region.
1:21.0	He said that any pause in fighting at this point would be in Ukraine's interest and added that Russia wanted a truce that led, quote, to a lasting peace
1:28.3	and the elimination of the root causes of the war, which he described as a crisis.
1:33.3	Putin's comments were Moscow's first official response to a U.S.-backed proposal, which Ukraine
1:38.1	agreed to this week, that would pause the war for 30 days.
1:41.4	The comments came as, according to U.S. officials, President Trump's special
1:45.0	envoy, Steve Whitkoff, was headed to Moscow to discuss the ceasefire proposal.
1:54.3	President Trump announced another salvo in a fast-escalating trade war with the European Union,
1:59.5	saying he would impose a 200% tariff on U.S. imports of wine, champagne, and other alcoholic beverages from the 27-Nation bloc.
2:07.8	In a post on his truth social platform today, Trump said the tariff threat came in response to the EU's decision to impose a 50% levy on American whiskey, itself a response to 25% steel and aluminum tariffs
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Wall Street Journal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Wall Street Journal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.