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

WSJ Your Money Briefing

The Wall Street Journal

News, Business News

3.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 22 March 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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

Transcript

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0:33.3	Hey listeners, it's Saturday, March 22nd. I'm Francesca Fontana for the Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in Markets,
0:41.0	our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them.
0:45.0	Let's get to it.
0:46.4	Well, it looks like we made it through the week without any big trade drama coming from
0:50.4	the White House compared to recent weeks, but even with things relatively quiet
0:54.6	on the tariff front, traders certainly had their fair share of news to digest. There was Tuesday's
1:00.5	tech sell-off, turmoil in the Middle East in developments around the war in Ukraine, the Federal
1:05.8	Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, with most officials of the central bank
1:10.2	still penciling
1:11.2	in two rate cuts for the year, and plenty of earnings reports along the way. All in all,
1:17.0	the major index is matched to notch gains for the week, with the S&P 500 rising half a percent,
1:22.4	the Dow gaining 1.2 percent, and the NASDAQ ending about 0.2% higher.
1:34.8	First up, let's talk about Affirm and Klarna, two of the FinTech players in the buy now, pay later space.
1:42.0	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 space. You've probably seen those options in your online shopping cart.
1:45.0	They do what it says on the 10. You buy now and then you pay later in installments.
1:49.7	Well, since 2019, Walmart, the U.S. retail giant, had partnered with a firm to offer its
1:54.8	customers those installment plans. But on Monday, we learned that Walmart is rolling back
1:59.7	its relationship with the firm and replacing
2:01.9	it with Swedish rival Klarna. Now, Klarna has recently filed for an IPO listing on the New York Stock
	...

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