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    Powell says Fed is awaiting ‘greater clarity’ on Trump policies before making next move on rates

    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday that the central bank can wait to see how President Donald Trump’s aggressive policy actions play out before it moves again on interest rates.
    “We do not need to be in a hurry, and are well positioned to wait for greater clarity,” the central bank chief said at a policy forum in New York.

    Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, speaks during the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business Monetary Policy Forum in New York, US, on Friday, March 7, 2025. 
    Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    NEW YORK — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday that the central bank can wait to see how President Donald Trump’s aggressive policy actions play out before it moves again on interest rates.
    With markets nervous over Trump’s proposals for tariffs and other issues, Powell reiterated statements he and his colleagues have made recently counseling patience on monetary policy amid the high level of uncertainty.

    The White House “is in the process of implementing significant policy changes in four distinct areas: trade, immigration, fiscal policy, and regulation,” he said in a speech for the U.S. Monetary Policy Forum. “It is the net effect of these policy changes that will matter for the economy and for the path of monetary policy.”
    Noting that “uncertainty around the changes and their likely effects remains high” Powell said the Fed is “focused on separating the signal from the noise as the outlook evolves. We do not need to be in a hurry, and are well positioned to wait for greater clarity.”
    The comments seem at least somewhat at odds with growing market expectations for interest rate cuts this year.

    As markets have been roiled by Trump’s shifting positions on his agenda — specifically his tariff plans — traders have priced in the equivalent of three quarter percentage point reductions by the end of the year, starting in June, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch gauge.
    However, Powell’s comments indicate that the Fed will be in a wait-and-see mode before mapping out further policy easing.

    “Policy is not on a preset course,” he said. “Our current policy stance is well positioned to deal with the risks and uncertainties that we face in pursuing both sides of our dual mandate.”
    The policy forum is sponsored by the University of Chicago’s Booth School’s Clark Center for Global Markets and included multiple Fed officials in the audience. Most central bank policymakers lately have said they expect the economy to hold up and inflation to fall back to the Fed’s 2% goal, with the rate climate still unclear as Trump’s policy comes more clearly into view.
    In his assessment, Powell also spoke in mostly positive terms about the macro environment, saying the U.S. is in “a good place” with a “solid labor market” and inflation moving back to target.
    However, he did note that recent sentiment surveys showed misgivings about the path of inflation, largely a product of the Trump tariff talk. The Fed’s preferred gauge showed 12-month inflation running at a 2.5% rate, or 2.6% when excluding food and energy.
    “The path to sustainably returning inflation to our target has been bumpy, and we expect that to continue,” Powell said.
    Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, who was not at the forum, said in a speech delivered Friday in Portugal that she sees “important upside risks for inflation” and said that “it could be appropriate to continue holding the policy rate at its current level for some time.”
    The remarks also came the same day that the Labor Department reported a gain of 151,000 in nonfarm payrolls for February. Though the total was slightly below market expectations, Powell said the report is more evidence that “the labor market is solid and broadly in balance.”
    “Wages are growing faster than inflation, and at a more sustainable pace than earlier in the pandemic recovery,” he said.
    Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% in February and were up 4% on an annual basis. The jobs report also indicated that the unemployment rate edged higher to 4.1% as household employment dipped.

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    Sen. Blumenthal asks Visa for records of its payments deal with Elon Musk’s X

    Sen. Richard Blumenthal this week pressed Visa for detailed plans and documents related to its deal to provide payments services to Elon Musk’s social media site X.
    Blumenthal pointed to Musk’s role in hobbling the CFPB as among the reasons for the request, according to a letter obtained by CNBC.
    “Visa stands to take advantage of the deep conflicts of interest and unscrupulous conduct of its new business partner,” Blumenthal wrote.

    Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the January 6th insurrection, in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 2, 2021.
    Graeme Jennings | Pool via Reuters

    Sen. Richard Blumenthal this week pressed Visa for detailed plans and documents related to its deal to provide payments services to Elon Musk’s social media site, X, as it prepares to launch a digital wallet.
    Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut and the ranking member of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, pointed to Musk’s role in hobbling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the consumer watchdog that would be a key regulator of the X Money service — as among the reasons for the information request, according to a March 6 letter obtained by CNBC.

    “Given the unique position of X Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Elon Musk as leader of the Department of Government Efficiency and his recent role in gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau … Visa stands to take advantage of the deep conflicts of interest and unscrupulous conduct of its new business partner,” Blumenthal wrote.
    The Senate request is one of the first signs of scrutiny on Visa, which runs the world’s largest credit card network, after a late January announcement that it had agreed to power peer-to-peer payments on X. Days after the deal was disclosed, operatives from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency gained access to CFPB data systems, leading to accusations that Musk wanted to kneecap a future regulator and that he could steal trade secrets of competitors to his nascent X Money service.
    The letter, addressed to Visa CEO Ryan McInerney, also cast doubts about whether a social media network known for “bots, scams and hate speech” would be able to prevent scams and fraud from proliferating on the site. Musk purchased the site in 2022, when it was known as Twitter.
    “These concerns raise questions about X’s ability to protect consumers from fraud and scams as it ventures into the financial sector,” Blumenthal wrote.
    “As the largest payment processor in the world, Visa has a legal responsibility to ensure its network is free of financial crime such as scams and fraud, money-laundering, terrorist financing, and more,” he said.

    Blumenthal asked for a detailed description of Visa’s plans to enable payments on X, including the business model of the service and Visa’s role in compliance with regulatory requirements around money laundering and illicit remittances.
    He also pressed Visa for “all records” related to the deal and communications between X, Visa, DOGE and CFPB personnel.
    “We are currently reviewing the letter and will respond appropriately,” a Visa spokesman said in a statement.
    A representative for X didn’t immediately have comment. More

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    Passive investing movement gets its Hollywood moment

    A new documentary titled “Tune Out The Noise” brings together some of the academic heavyweights whose work reshaped the financial industry and helped lower costs for all investors.
    The film, made by Academy Award-winning documentarian Errol Morris, chronicles the rise of academic finance in the middle of the twentieth century and how it led to a boom in passive investing and to the creation of Dimensional Fund Advisors, which now has more than $700 billion in assets under management.

    Morris and David Booth, Dimensional chairman and the namesake of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, spoke to CNBC’s Bob Pisani on Thursday ahead of the film’s New York premier.
    “It’s really about how markets work and how different that is from people’s intuition or perception,” Booth told Pisani.
    In addition to Booth and some Dimensional executives, the film features interviews with many of the biggest names in financial academia, including Myron Scholes, Robert Merton, Eugene Fama and Kenneth French.
    The work of those academics, who have all had roles at Dimensional over the years, helped push the investment world away from traditional stock picking and toward passive, low-cost strategies. That trend extends beyond Dimensional, with firms like Vanguard using those insights to build their own businesses.
    “People are getting a much better deal now than when I started in 1971,” Booth said.

    Morris’ previous work includes “The Fog of War,” which won the Academy Award for best documentary feature in 2004, as well as “The Thin Blue Line.”
    “One of the reasons I became a filmmaker, or a documentary filmmaker, whatever you want to call it, is I like to hear people telling stories. And this is filled with it,” Morris said of his new film. More

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    FAA briefly halts flights to several Florida airports after SpaceX rocket testing failure

    The Federal Aviation Administration briefly halted flights to several Florida airports after SpaceX’s Starship exploded in space.
    The incident marks the second time this year that SpaceX experienced a mishap during a flight test of Starship resulting in debris raining down and commercial flights disrupted.
    SpaceX was working on a mishap investigation into what caused the earlier incident but was allowed by the FAA to proceed with the new test flight before completing the inquiry.

    The Federal Aviation Administration briefly halted flights to several Florida airports on Thursday night after a SpaceX Starship testing failure.
    The incident marks the second time this year that SpaceX experienced a mishap during a flight test of Starship resulting in debris raining down and commercial flights disrupted.

    Affected airports included Miami International Airport, which is an American Airlines hub, and airports serving Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando, Florida.
    The regulator said, in a statement on Thursday, it is now requiring SpaceX to “perform a mishap investigation into the loss of the Starship vehicle during launch operations on March 6.”
    During the event, the FAA said, it “activated a Debris Response Area and briefly slowed aircraft outside the area where space vehicle debris was falling or stopped aircraft at their departure location. Normal operations have resumed.”
    SpaceX said, in a post on X on Thursday night: “During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses.”

    SpaceX’s next-generation Starship spacecraft atop its Super Heavy booster is launched on its eighth test at the company’s Boca Chica launch pad in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., March 6, 2025. 
    Joe Skipper | Reuters

    The Elon Musk-led aerospace and defense contractor also said it plans to “review the data from today’s flight test to better understand” the root cause of the mishap.

    Starship took off from the company’s spaceport near Brownsville, Texas, at 6:30 p.m. ET for its eighth test flight.
    In a livestream showing the test flight, several engines appeared to cut out as the upper-stage Starship vehicle was still climbing. The company then lost communication with the spacecraft but was able to successfully use the arms of its launch tower to catch the rocket’s Super Heavy Booster.
    On Jan. 16, dozens of flights were diverted after SpaceX’s Starship rocket broke up, and the FAA warned of “space vehicle debris” falling. The regulator had warned pilots of “dangerous area for falling debris of rocket Starship.”

    The Super Heavy booster returns to its launch pad after the SpaceX Starship continued to space after it was launched on its eighth test at the company’s Boca Chica launch pad in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., March 6, 2025. 
    Joe Skipper | Reuters

    Commercial airlines, private planes and the space industry compete for airspace, particularly in the congested area off of Florida.
    SpaceX was working on a mishap investigation into what caused the earlier incident but was allowed by the FAA to proceed with the eighth test flight before completing the inquiry.
    SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for further information.
    The tallest and most powerful rocket ever launched, Starship is critical to SpaceX’s ambitions. When it is stacked on the Super Heavy booster, Starship stands 403 feet tall and is about 30 feet in diameter.
    SpaceX founder Musk is also a senior Trump advisor, tasked by the president with making sweeping cuts to government agencies. His reach into regulatory agencies, including the FAA, has drawn criticism and concern from Democratic lawmakers worried about conflicts of interest, security risks and more. More

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    China calls for ‘peaceful coexistence’ with the U.S. despite differences

    China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi struck a more conciliatory tone on U.S. relations during a high-profile press conference on Friday.
    While Wang said the U.S. should not impose “arbitrary tariffs” or return goodwill with hostility, he emphasized that the two countries would both be part of the world for a long time, requiring “peaceful coexistence.”
    His comments came shortly after China hit back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s mounting trade tariffs.

    Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi speaks during the 2023 Munich Security Conference in Germany on February 18, 2023.
    Johannes Simon | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    BEIJING — China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi struck a more conciliatory tone on U.S. relations during a high-profile press conference on Friday, in contrast to the ministry’s more aggressive language earlier in the week.
    While Wang said the U.S. should not impose “arbitrary tariffs” or return goodwill with hostility, he emphasized that the two countries would both be part of the world for a long time, requiring “peaceful coexistence.”

    “Given the extensive common interests and broad space for cooperation, it is fully possible for China and the U.S. to become partners helping each other succeed,” Wang said in Mandarin, via an official translation.
    He spent much of the roughly 90-minute press conference talking about China’s efforts to improve relations with other countries and supporting the interests of non-Western nations.
    Wang is also director of the office for foreign affairs within the Communist Party of China’s central commission, making him the country’s most senior diplomat. He was speaking to reporters during China’s annual parliamentary meeting, known as the “Two Sessions.”
    His comments came shortly after China hit back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s mounting trade tariffs.
    “If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. said in a post Wednesday on X.

    Tensions between the U.S. and China have escalated in the last several days. Trump earlier this week imposed yet another 10% of tariffs on Chinese goods, to which Beijing retaliated with targeted duties on U.S. agricultural products and restrictions on several U.S. companies.
    Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao indicated to reporters Thursday that Beijing was willing to meet with the U.S. for talks on trade.

    Russia-Ukraine war

    Wang maintained on Friday that Beijing wants to play a constructive role in achieving “lasting peace” in the Russia-Ukraine war, while stating that China’s friendship with Moscow would not change.
    Wang advocated for a two-state solution around Gaza and said the current situation only marked halfway progress toward such a resolution.
    China’s foreign minister also said “unjustified external suppression” has not stopped Chinese technological development, and cast Beijing as willing to share its tech with other countries rather than keep it to itself.
    In a proposed budget released this week for government spending this year, China plans to increase spending on diplomatic endeavors by 8.4% versus a 6.6% increase last year. More

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    Costco reports mixed second-quarter earnings, comparable sales growth

    Costco’s fiscal second-quarter results missed on earnings but beat on revenue.
    Net sales for the quarter totaled $62.53 billion.
    Comparable sales for the quarter rose 6.8% year over year.

    Customers shop at a Costco Wholesale store on January 31, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. 
    Scott Olson | Getty Images

    Costco on Thursday reported an earnings miss, but beat expectations for revenue for the second quarter as quarterly comparable sales rose.
    Shares ticked down over 1% in extended trading on Thursday evening.

    Here’s how the wholesale company did compared with what Wall Street was expecting for the quarter ended Feb. 16, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

    Earnings per share: $4.02 vs. $4.11 expected
    Revenue: $63.72 billion vs. $63.13 billion expected

    Costco CEO Ron Vachris said although it’s difficult to forecast the impact of tariffs, the company aims to minimize cost increases for members. A third of its U.S. sales are from imports, he said, and less than half of those come from China, Mexico and Canada.
    “In uncertain times, our members have historically placed even greater importance on the value of high-quality items at great prices, and our teams will continue to rise to this challenge by leveraging our global buying power, strong supplier relationships and innovation,” Vachris said.
    Citing tariff implications for groceries specifically, Vachris said margins are “much tighter” in that area, but that Costco will work with suppliers to mitigate the fallout for consumers.
    President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada and doubled his tariff on China to 20% this week, though the White House said Thursday that the U.S. will exempt goods that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade until April 2. Retailers like Target and Best Buy have warned that tariffs would likely lead to price increases.

    Costco’s second-quarter revenue increased 9% to $63.72 billion, from $58.44 billion during the same quarter in fiscal 2024. Net sales for the quarter rose 9.1% to $62.53 billion, compared to $57.33 billion in the year-ago period.
    Membership fees for the quarter totaled $1.19 billion, up from $1.11 billion in the second quarter of 2024, with the company reporting 78.4 million paid memberships and 140.6 million total cardholders. Worldwide, Costco’s membership renewal rate came in at 90.5%, an increase of 0.1% from last quarter.
    The retailer raised its annual membership fees for the U.S. and Canada in September for the first time since 2017, though CFO Gary Millerchip said the impact of the increase on this quarter’s fee total was only 3%.
    Costco reported a net income for the second quarter of $1.79 billion, or $4.02 per share, compared with a net income of $1.74 billion, or $3.92 per share, during the second quarter of fiscal 2024.
    Quarterly comparable sales, which Costco defines as sales from warehouses and e-commerce sites open for more than a year, rose 6.8% year over year, compared with the StreetAccount estimate of 6.4%, and were up 8.3% in the U.S. Comparable sales for e-commerce rose 20.9% year over year.
    On a monthly basis, comparable sales growth did fall from 7.5% in January to 6.5% in February. Extreme weather last month caused “some hits here and there,” Vachris said, but the company recovered most of that lost business.
    Shopping traffic grew 5.7% year over year, with an increase of 5.6% in the U.S. The company’s top sales categories included gold and jewelry, furniture, hardware and toys, all of which grew double digits year over year, according to Millerchip.
    Consumer behavior, Millerchip said, hasn’t changed much over the past few quarters. Costco members are selective with the products they purchase, he said, and would become even more so if tariffs and inflation grow more significant.
    “We believe that the member is probably as much focused now on quality, value and newness as they have been for quite some time, but they are still showing that willingness to spend,” Millerchip said.
    Costco’s fresh foods category experienced growth in the high single digits, Millerchip said. Continuing a trend from last quarter, sales of meat increased by double digits, Millerchip said, as consumers shifted toward lower-cost proteins like ground beef. Customers continued to spend more on food at home, he added.
    The meat and bakery sections drove the fresh foods category to lead Costco’s categories in inflation, though overall inflation was in the low single digits, he added. More

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    Gap shares spike 17% as retailer blows away expectations again, showing turnaround has staying power

    Gap beat Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines for its all-important holiday quarter.
    The apparel giant behind Old Navy, Athleta, Banana Republic and its namesake chain has been in the midst of a turnaround plan under CEO Richard Dickson.
    In fiscal 2024, Gap posted its highest gross margin in more than 20 years.

    A shopper carries her early Black Friday purchases on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2024, at the Citadel Outlets shopping center in Los Angeles. 
    Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty Images

    Gap on Thursday posted another quarter that blew away expectations, indicating its turnaround under CEO Richard Dickson is working better – and faster – than Wall Street anticipated. 
    Shares jumped 17% in extended trading Thursday.

    The apparel retailer behind Old Navy, Banana Republic, Athleta and its namesake banner beat expectations on the top and bottom lines during the all-important holiday quarter and saw comparable sales grow 3%, ahead of expectations of up 1%, according to StreetAccount.  
    Here’s how Gap did in its fiscal fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

    Earnings per share: 54 cents vs. 37 cents expected
    Revenue: $4.15 billion vs. $4.07 billion expected

    The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Feb. 1 was $206 million, or 54 cents per share, compared with $185 million, or 49 cents per share, a year earlier. 
    Sales dropped to $4.15 billion, down about 3% from $4.30 billion a year earlier. Like other retailers, Gap benefited from an extra selling week in the year-ago period, which negatively skewed comparisons.
    In the year ahead, Gap is expecting sales to grow between 1% and 2%, in line with expectations of up 1.7%, according to LSEG. For the current quarter, its guidance was slightly weaker than anticipated. It’s expecting sales to be “flat to up slightly,” compared to Wall Street estimates of up 1.5%, according to LSEG. 

    “We’ve been operating in a highly dynamic backdrop for the last few years, and we’re expecting the same for fiscal 2025,” said Gap’s finance chief Katrina O’Connell on a call with analysts. “As a result, we’ve taken a balanced view with our guidance and remain focused on controlling the controllables.”
    Like other retailers caught in the midst of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, Canada and Mexico, Gap has been working to figure out the impact new duties will have on the company. In an interview with CNBC, Dickson said less than 1% of its product comes from Canada and Mexico, combined, and less than 10% comes from China.
    When asked if the company will raise prices, Dickson said the “goal is to minimize the impact to the consumer.”
    “We’re going to be working with our suppliers. We’re looking at our cost base, and we’ll need to balance that with always protecting the structural economics of the business,” said Dickson.
    O’Connell added tariffs, as they stood on Thursday, were embedded into the company’s guidance and said any impact to margin is expected to be “relatively minimal.”
    It’s been about a year and a half since Dickson took over as Gap’s CEO. Under his direction, the company has gotten back to growth and repaired its brand image — and in fiscal 2024, delivered its highest gross margin in more than 20 years at 41.3%. 
    The former Mattel executive, credited with reviving the Barbie empire, has brought that same prowess to revitalizing Gap’s brands. After a fourth straight quarter of strong results, it appears the strategy has staying power. 
    Apparel from Zac Posen, Gap’s creative designer, has been worn recently by celebrities like Timothee Chalamet, and even the company’s underperforming Banana Republic brand has returned to growth. Its athleisure brand Athleta is still strugging, but the company has stabilized the bleed and it’s no longer shrinking. 
    Here’s a closer look at how each brand performed during the quarter. 

    Old Navy

    Gap’s largest brand by revenue saw sales of $2.2 billion, with comparable sales up 3%, topping of expectations of up 0.7%, according to StreetAccount. The brand saw strength in denim and activewear. 

    Gap

    The namesake banner’s comparable sales grew 7%, well ahead of estimates of up 0.8%, according to StreetAccount.
    “Gap is back in the cultural conversation,” said Dickson on the call. “This brand was built on strong product narratives with brilliant marketing expressed through big ideas, and over the past year, each of these were reignited.”
    The brand’s longtime chief product officer Chris Goble left Gap in October for Dickie’s, but the company filled the position internally after he left. Dickson told CNBC in an interview that the brand has “great leadership” and is “staffed with extraordinary talent.” 

    Banana Republic

    The safari chic, officewear brand saw comparable sales grow 4%, when analysts expected them to shrink by 1.5%, according to StreetAccount. It continued to build strength in men’s apparel but is still without a CEO. Dickson expects the company to have an update on the role “shortly.” 
    In the year ahead, Gap will close 35 stores on a net basis, the majority of which will be Banana stores, the company said.

    Athleta

    The athleisure brand’s comparable sales fell 2% during the quarter after it failed to offer the right types of products necessary for its core consumer, explained Dickson. Analysts didn’t have expectations for Athleta’s comparable sales.  
    “We certainly have entered the cultural conversation again, and it reinforces that we do believe in this brand. We have long-term opportunities, but we do have work to do to reset the brand,” said Dickson. “In the fourth quarter, very specifically, you know, we needed to do more to excite our core consumer during the holiday period, we did a good job attracting new consumers. We did a great job reactivating customers, but we lacked the depth of product interest for our core customer at that holiday time.”
    Dickson cautioned that the brand’s performance is likely to remain “choppy” in the quarters ahead as it continues its reset. More

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    Walgreens to go private in roughly $10 billion deal with Sycamore Partners

    Walgreens said it inked a deal with private equity firm Sycamore Partners that will take it off the public market for an equity value of around $10 billion.
    The historic transaction ends Walgreens’ tumultuous run as a public company, which began in 1927.
    Walgreens has been squeezed by the transition out of the Covid pandemic, pharmacy reimbursement headwinds, softer consumer spending and a troubled push into healthcare.

    The Walgreens logo is displayed at a Walgreens store on October 15, 2024 in San Rafael, California. 
    Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

    Struggling drugstore chain Walgreens is going private. 
    The company on Thursday said it inked a deal with private equity firm Sycamore Partners that will take it off the public market for an equity value of around $10 billion.

    Sycamore will pay $11.45 per share in cash for Walgreens, representing a roughly 8% premium to the stock’s closing price on Thursday. Shareholders could also receive up to $3 more per share in the future from sales of Walgreens’ primary-care businesses, including Village Medical, Summit Health and CityMD.
    Walgreens said the total value of the transaction would be up to $23.7 billion when including debt and possible payouts down the line.
    Walgreens and Sycamore expect to close the take-private deal in the fourth quarter of this year. Shares of Walgreens jumped more than 5% in after-hours trading on Thursday before being halted.
    The historic deal ends Walgreens’ tumultuous run as a public company, which began in 1927. As of Thursday morning, shares of the company were up more than 15% for 2025, but the stock was still down more than 48% for the last year and had fallen 70% for the past three years. 
    “While we are making progress against our ambitious turnaround strategy, meaningful value creation will take time, focus and change that is better managed as a private company,” Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth, who stepped into the role in 2023, said in a release on Thursday. “Sycamore will provide us with the expertise and experience of a partner with a strong track record of successful retail turnarounds.

    Stefan Kaluzny, Sycamore’s managing director, said in the release the transaction reflects the firm’s confidence in Walgreens’ “pharmacy-led model and essential role in driving better outcomes for patients, customers and communities.”
    Walgreens will maintain its headquarters in Chicago. The company currently has more than 310,000 employees globally and 12,500 retail pharmacy locations across the U.S., Europe and Latin America, according to the release. Walgreens still plans to release its second-quarter earnings on April 8.
    Walgreens’s market value reached a peak of more than $100 billion in 2015 as investors gained confidence in its health-care business and expansion plans, making it one of the most prominent American retail companies. 
    But the company’s market cap shrank to under $8 billion in late 2024 due to competition from its main rival CVS, grocery chains, big-box retailers and Amazon, along with a slew of challenges. Walgreens has been squeezed by the transition out of the Covid pandemic, pharmacy reimbursement headwinds, softer consumer spending and a troubled push into health care.
    Both Walgreens and CVS have pivoted from years of store expansions to shuttering hundreds of retail pharmacy locations across the U.S. to shore up profits. But unlike CVS, which has diversified its business model by offering insurance and pharmacy benefits, Walgreens largely doubled down on its now-flailing retail pharmacy business. 
    In October, Walgreens said it plans to close roughly 1,200 of its drugstores over the next three years, including 500 in fiscal 2025 alone. Walgreens has around 8,700 locations in the U.S., a quarter of which it says are unprofitable. The company has also scaled back its push into primary care by cutting its stake in provider VillageMD. 
    Walgreens tapped health-care industry veteran Tim Wentworth as its new CEO in late 2023 to help regain its footing. 
    The company has reportedly been seen as a potential private equity target in the past. 
    In 2019, private equity firm KKR made a roughly $70 billion buyout offer to Walgreens, the Financial Times and Bloomberg reported at the time.  More