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Existing home sales in October were 1.7% higher year over year.
The median price of a home sold in October was $415,200, an increase of 2.1% from a year earlier.
Homes are staying on the market longer, at an average of 34 days.

Improvement in mortgage rates at the end of the summer boosted home sales, but that gain may be short-lived.
Sales of previously owned homes in October rose 1.2% from September to 4.1 million units on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were up 1.7% year over year.

This count is based on home closings, so contracts likely signed in August and September. While contract signings would not be impacted by the government shutdown that started in October, closings, especially those requiring flood insurance or government-backed rural home loans, could be.
During that contract-signing period, the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage came down for a bit but then moved up again. The popular 30-year rate started August at 6.63%, fell steadily to 6.13% by mid-September, and then came back up to 6.37% by the end of the month, according to Mortgage News Daily. It now stands at 6.36%.
The inventory of homes for sale has also come down. After gaining for much of this year, supply fell to 1.52 million units, down 0.7% from September, although still nearly 11% higher than a year earlier. At the current sales pace, there is a 4.4-month supply, still considered lean.

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And that’s why prices are still gaining. The median price of a home sold in October was $415,200, an increase of 2.1% from October 2024 and the 28th consecutive month of annual gains.
“Looking ahead, home shoppers in today’s market face some advantages from falling mortgage rates and seasonally slower competition,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, in a release. “At the same time, a lack of housing affordability continues to be a challenge keeping home sales in their historically low level.”

Homes are staying on the market longer, at an average of 34 days last month compared with 29 days last October.
First-time buyers made a comeback in the market, representing 32% of sales, up from 27% a year ago — but not all regions are equal.
“First-time homebuyers are facing headwinds in the Northeast due to a lack of supply and in the West because of high home prices,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors. “First-time buyers fared better in the Midwest because of the plentiful supply of affordable houses and in the South because there is sufficient inventory.”
Sales growth continues to be strongest on the high end of the market. Homes priced above $1 million saw sales up more than 16% from a year ago, and those priced between $750,000 and $1 million saw a gain of 10%. Meanwhile sales of homes priced between $100,000 and $250,000 were up just about 1%, and homes priced below $100,000 saw a drop in sales of nearly 3%. More

Walmart posted third-quarter earnings and revenue that beat expectations and raised its full-year forecast.
The retailer said it drew more shoppers across incomes but also saw some temporary slowness when Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits were paused during the government shutdown.
It’s the first report since Walmart announced John Furner, CEO of its U.S. business, would take over for retiring CEO Doug McMillon early next year.

A shopper pushes a cart outside a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Walmart raised its sales and earnings outlook Thursday as the retailer posted revenue gains in its fiscal third quarter, driven by double-digit e-commerce growth and new customers across incomes.
The retailer said it expects full-year net sales to climb between 4.8% and 5.1%, up from its previous expectations of 3.75% to 4.75%. It said it expects its adjusted earnings per share to range from $2.58 to $2.63, a slight raise from its prior range of $2.52 to $2.62.

It marked the second quarter in a row Walmart hiked its full-year forecast. 
Walmart’s earnings report is the first since the Arkansas-based company announced a leadership change. The big-box retailer said last week that John Furner, the CEO of its U.S. business, will succeed longtime CEO Doug McMillon on Feb. 1.
In an interview with CNBC, Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said consumer habits didn’t change during the quarter, as shoppers spent selectively and looked for deals. He said Walmart has gained those “value-seeking” customers across incomes, both because of the economic backdrop and its own strategic moves.
“Consumers are looking to do business with those companies that are providing value, that are delivering the convenience that they’ve come to know and expect, and that are executing consistently well,” he said.

He said Walmart saw an impact from the pause in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits, formerly known as food stamps, during the prolonged government shutdown. But he said “that’s starting to rebound now that people are receiving those funds again.”

Here is what the big-box retailer reported for the fiscal third quarter compared with Wall Street’s estimates, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 62 cents adjusted vs. 60 cents expected
Revenue: $179.50 billion vs. $177.43 billion expected

Walmart also said Thursday that it will transfer the listing of its common stock to the Nasdaq and will begin trading there on Dec. 9. It is currently traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It will have the same stock ticker symbol, “WMT.”
The company’s stock was up about 1% premarket trading Thursday. As of Wednesday’s close, shares of Walmart are up about 11% so far this year. That trails the S&P 500’s nearly 13% gains during the same period. 

As a retail giant that draws shoppers across incomes, Walmart is closely watched as an indication of the health of the U.S. consumer and how President Donald Trump’s tariffs are affecting the prices shoppers pay. It can speak to consumer behavior across categories, since it sells discretionary items like makeup and clothes along with necessities like milk and toilet paper.
Walmart has gained more high-income customers as even affluent households sought relief from pricier grocery bills due to high inflation in recent years. That cohort also has responded to store remodels and faster deliveries. 
That growth continued in the most recent quarter, Rainey told CNBC. He said Walmart has gained market share across incomes, but “they’re more pronounced in the upper-income segment.”
Some of those shoppers have come to Walmart for speed, Rainey said. The retailer can now deliver to about 95% of U.S. households from stores in under three hours.
Customers now expedite about a third of its online orders from stores to arrive in one- or three-hour timeframes, he said. He said revenue related to those faster deliveries has increased 70% year over year. The company charges a fee for some speedier orders, and others are included as a benefit of its subscription-based membership program, Walmart+.
The expedited delivery service is popular, even with shoppers with lower incomes, he said. During the weeks of November when SNAP benefits were paused, Rainey said Walmart noticed a dip in that volume.
In the three-month period that ended Oct. 31, Walmart’s net income increased to $6.14 billion, or 77 cents per share, from $4.58 billion, or 57 cents per share, in the year-ago period.
Excluding one-time items, such as business reorganization charges, Walmart’s adjusted earnings per share was 62 cents.
Revenue rose from $169.59 billion in the year-ago quarter. 
Comparable sales for Walmart U.S. rose 4.5% in the third quarter, excluding fuel, compared with the year-ago period. That surpassed analysts’ expectations of 4% growth, according to StreetAccount. The industry metric, also called same-store sales, includes sales from stores and clubs open for at least a year.
At Sam’s Club, comparable sales rose 3.8%, excluding fuel. 
Walmart e-commerce sales grew by 27% globally, as all segments of the company posted sharp gains. In the U.S., e-commerce rose 28%, driven by increases in store-fulfilled delivery of online orders and growth of advertising and its third-party marketplace.
E-commerce sales internationally jumped 26% and at Sam’s Club in the U.S., they rose 22%.
In the U.S., shoppers made more trips to Walmart and spent more on those visits. Customer transactions rose 1.8% and average ticket increased by 2.7%.
As Walmart gains more digital traffic and adds more products to its third-party marketplace, advertising has been a meaningful growth area, too. In the quarter, its global advertising business increased by 53%, including Vizio, the smart TV maker it acquired last year for $2.3 billion. Its U.S. advertising business, Walmart Connect, grew 33% year over year. 
Walmart is mulling another acquisition after it expanded its third-party marketplace rapidly in recent years, as it is in talks to buy R&A Data, a startup that works to curb scams and counterfeits, CNBC reported Wednesday.
Like other retailers, Walmart has said it raised prices on some items to offset higher costs from tariffs. About a third of what Walmart sells in the U.S. comes from other parts of the world, with China, Mexico, Canada, Vietnam and India representing its largest markets for imports, Rainey told CNBC in May.
On a call on Thursday, Rainey said when it comes to higher tariff costs, “the pressure is real.” Yet, he said Walmart’s team has been able to reduce the impact on customers by finding ways to absorb some costs.
Walmart’s results on Thursday followed cautious updates from Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s. All three of those retailers lowered their full-year profit outlooks this week and referred to consumers who were hesitant to make big purchases and hungry for deals. 
T.J. Maxx and Marshalls parent company TJX, on the other hand, hiked its full-year forecast, saying it’s seeing a “strong start” to the holidays as it caters to value-conscious shoppers.
Rainey said Walmart is “going into the holiday pretty optimistic,” saying it’s prepared with competitive price points. More

Last quarter, the family offices of hedge-fund billionaires including David Tepper and Carl Icahn doubled down on home appliances, flavor ingredients and health insurance.
Private investment firms of the ultra-wealthy have the war chest for opportunistic and risky market moves.
Family offices are still buying the rally of some Magnificent Seven tech stocks.

Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper listens to a question during a press conference in 2022.
Alex Slitz | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Private investment firms of the ultra-wealthy bought beaten up stocks last quarter as AI enthusiasm boosted global markets to record highs, according to third-quarter securities filings analyzed by CNBC.

Hedge-fund billionaire David Tepper’s family office Appaloosa exited its entire stake in Oracle in the three months ended Sept. 30. During that period, shares of the software giant rallied by nearly 29%. Last quarter, Appaloosa locked in gains for “Magnificent Seven” stocks by closing its stake in Intel and trimming its Meta holdings by 8%.
Meanwhile, Appaloosa doubled down on tariff-beaten consumer stocks, increasing its stake in Whirlpool by 2,000%. Appaloosa’s 5.5 million shares in the home appliance company ranked as its third-largest holding at the quarter-end, worth $432 million. In the second half of the year, Whirlpool stock fallen by almost 31% thus far. Tepper’s firm also upped its stake in Goodyear Tire & Rubber, which is down 13% this year.

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Carl Icahn’s namesake family office is also betting on a turnaround for a consumer stock, increasing its holdings of International Flavors & Fragrances by 27% to $292 million. IFF, which is down 23% for the year, produces ingredients for a wide array of consumer products from potato chips to deodorant. Icahn, a longtime activist investor, first built his IFF stake in 2022, and his son Brett joined the firm’s board in late October per a prior agreement between IFF and Icahn Capital.
Omega Advisors, Leon Cooperman’s hedge-fund-turned-family-office, leaned into health insurance stocks, increasing its Cigna stake by 53% to 325,000 shares. Cooperman’s firm also widened its position in Elevance Health by 21%, making it Omega Advisor’s eighth-largest holding with a quarter-end value of $110.2 million. Shares of Cigna and Elevance are both down about 18% for the second half of the year, pressured by rising medical costs and anticipated government cuts to healthcare funding.
These bold bets aside, family offices are still buying the rally of some Mag 7 stocks. Soros Fund Management increased its stakes in Apple and Amazon by 2,000% and 481%, respectively. Amazon shares make up the firm’s largest holding with a quarter-end value of $489 million.

Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office initiated positions in Amazon and Meta of $96 million and $56 million, respectively, after exiting them in the prior quarter.
Even Appaloosa, having whittled down its positions in several tech giants, upped its Nvidia holdings by 9%. More

NBC will now have Sunday Night Baseball from 2026 to 2028.
ESPN opted out of its Sunday Night Baseball rights earlier this year. It had been paying $550 million for the deal.
MLB is receiving about $250 million for the same games previously paid for by ESPN, representing a haircut of about $300 million.
ESPN has a new deal to sell and distribute MLB.TV as well as a new 30-game midweek package. ESPN is paying $550 million for its new bundle of rights and games.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani (17) throws a pitch during the MLB game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 16, 2025 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA.
Brian Rothmuller | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

Major League Baseball officially announced a new three-year media rights agreement with NBC, Netflix and ESPN on Wednesday, foreshadowing the league’s more significant TV deal to come in 2028.
The new deal stems from ESPN’s decision to opt out of its “Sunday Night Baseball” package earlier this year. ESPN struck a new deal with MLB, acquiring the rights to MLB.TV and a midweek game package. NBC Sports will take over the Sunday Night games, and Netflix will be the new home for the next three Home Run Derbies. All the deals begin with the 2026 season.

CNBC previously reported most of the details of the agreement in August.
“Our new media rights agreements with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix provide us with a great opportunity to expand our reach to fans through three powerful destinations for live sports, entertainment, and marquee events,” said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred in a statement.

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The new deal foreshadows MLB’s quest to raise TV revenue at the end of the 2028 season, when it will get these rights back plus existing broadcast rights from Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery.
While it’s not an exact apples-to-apples comparison, MLB had to take a haircut of about $300 million per year relative to what ESPN had been paying before opting out earlier this year. NBC is paying about $200 million a year for its new package, and Netflix is paying about $50 million annually for the Derby, CNBC reported in August. The two packages, together, roughly make up what ESPN had been paying for.
Even so, MLB has a chance to expand its reach through the new and streaming-exclusive partners.

The average ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game averaged 1.8 million viewers this past season.
The loss in revenue for the Sunday Night package suggests MLB may have to get creative with the way it carves up new packages of games in 2028 to ensure it continues to grow media revenue. In aggregate, the league is now making more in overall media revenue, but it needed to sell ESPN rights and games it hadn’t previously offered. ESPN is paying about $550 million for its new package, CNBC reported in August.
The NBA nearly tripled its national media revenue in its most recent rights deal, and the NFL is so confident it can generate a huge increase on the deal it signed in 2021 that it’s open to accelerating talks with its current media partners as early as next year, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC in September.

New deal details

ESPN’s new deal allows it sell and distribute MLB.TV, the league’s out of market streaming service, through the ESPN app. ESPN will also receive a new 30-game midweek package of live games on ESPN’s linear networks and the ESPN app.
ESPN also will sell and distribute MLB Network and in-market games for select MLB teams via the ESPN app. Those teams are the Cleveland Guardians, San Diego Padres, Minnesota Twins, Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies — franchises whose games have been produced and distributed by MLB after the collapse of regional sports networks that carried those teams.
NBC will now have MLB, NBA and NFL on Sunday for its broadcast network, its new cable sports channel, and its Peacock streaming service. NBC will also carry MLB’s entire Wild Card round, ranging from eight to 12 games each season. 
In addition to three years of the Home Run Derby, Netflix will own the rights to a singular game on Opening Night for the next three seasons. Netflix will also exclusively deliver all 47 games of the 2026 World Baseball Classic to its audience in Japan. 
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC. More

JetBlue Airways is adding seasonal flights to Barcelona and Milan from Boston next spring.
The new flights show how JetBlue is pushing its Airbus 321 narrow-body planes deeper into Europe.
The New York carrier is vying with larger rivals for high-spending travelers to return to profitability.

A JetBlue Airways Airbus A321 airplane departs from Los Angeles International Airport en route to New York on Oct. 17, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images

JetBlue Airways is pushing its fleet of single-aisle planes deeper into Europe next year with seasonal daily flights to Milan, Italy, and Barcelona, Spain, from Boston, its latest bid to win over higher-spending vacationers.
Daily service from Boston to Barcelona is set to debut on April 16, and the daily Milan flight from Boston is scheduled to begin May 11, the airline said Wednesday.

U.S. airlines — from JetBlue’s new earn-and-burn miles partner United Airlines to smaller carriers like Alaska Airlines — have been adding international destinations that command higher fares and often have more premium seats on board than shorter domestic flights to help drive profits.
JetBlue has been reworking its network to cut unprofitable routes and add others, especially new destinations served by planes with its profitable Mint business class, as it seeks to stem more than five years of losses. Demand from airlines for more spacious, premium seats has been so high in recent years it has contributed to bottlenecks of new airplane deliveries.

The New York-based airline last month said its first lounge at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which it plans to open this year, will be accessible for trans-Atlantic Mint customers, among travelers.
JetBlue’s first trans-Atlantic flight debuted in 2021 with a nonstop route to London, and it has since added service from both New York and Boston to Paris; Amsterdam; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Dublin.
The new flights go on sale Thursday.

JetBlue’s additions show how airlines are flying newer Airbus narrow-body planes farther.
It will use its A321LR, or long-range, Airbus jets for the Barcelona and Milan flights. The Milan flight will be the longest in JetBlue’s network, at about nine hours westbound and about seven hours and 45 eastbound, a spokesman said, though times can vary based on weather conditions and other factors.
Those planes carry fewer travelers than large twin-aisle jets like Boeing 777s but are cheaper to operate since they require less fuel, among other things. American Airlines plans to debut its Airbus A321XLR, an ultra-long-range version of its popular 321 plane, in December and eventually fly it to Edinburgh from both New York and its Philadelphia hub next March.

Read more CNBC airline news More

TJX Cos., the discounter behind T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods, beat Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines and raised its guidance.
The off-price chain’s sales rose 7% during the quarter and CEO Ernie Herrman said the holiday shopping season is off to a “strong start.”
TJX has been benefiting from wealthier shoppers trading down.

The T.J. Maxx logo is displayed at a T.J. Maxx store on August 20, 2025 in Pasadena, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images

The CEO of TJX Cos. said Wednesday the holiday shopping season is off to a “strong start” as the discounter behind T.J. Maxx, Home Goods and Marshalls issued fiscal third-quarter results that beat expectations on the top and bottom lines.
“The availability of merchandise continues to be outstanding, and we are excited about the deals we are seeing in the marketplace,” CEO Ernie Herrman said in a news release. He said TJX’s brands are “strongly positioned as gifting destinations for value-conscious shoppers this holiday season.”

Still, the retailer’s holiday guidance fell short of Wall Street’s expectations. Assuming current tariff levels stay in effect, the company is expecting comparable sales to rise between 2% and 3% in its current quarter, shy of expectations of 3.1% growth, according to StreetAccount. TJX is expecting earnings per share to be between $1.33 and $1.36, which is also just below expectations of $1.37, according to LSEG.
Shares of the company rose less than 1% in afternoon trading.
Here’s how TJX performed during the quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $1.28 vs. $1.22 expected
Revenue: $15.12 billion vs. $14.85 billion expected

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Nov. 1 was $1.44 billion, or $1.28 per share, compared with $1.30 billion, or $1.14 per share, a year earlier.
Sales rose to $15.12 billion, up 7% from $14.06 billion a year earlier.

During the third quarter, comparable sales rose 5%, far ahead of expectations of 3.7% growth, according to StreetAccount.
TJX raised its guidance after the better-than-expected third-quarter results. While guidance for its current quarter was weaker than Wall Street anticipated, its full-year outlook came in stronger.
For fiscal 2026, TJX is now expecting comparable sales to rise 4%, better than the 3.4% growth analysts were expecting, according to StreetAccount. It’s expecting earnings per share to be between $4.63 and $4.66, better than the $4.61 analysts were expecting, according to LSEG.
The off-price retailer has been growing faster than expected in recent years thanks to value-hunting consumers who are still willing to shop for new clothes, but looking for an impressive discount. While uncertain economic times are a challenge for most companies, they tend to help off-price retailers because of a trade down effect from wealthier shoppers.
Even higher tariffs have been seen as a positive for TJX because if they force price increases elsewhere, it’s more reason to shop at an off-price store, the company said previously. More

There were an estimated 36.8% more home sellers than buyers in October.
Real estate firms cite housing affordability as the biggest challenge to their business.
Home prices in September were 1.2% higher year over year.

A home is shown for sale in The Heights in Houston, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025.
Kirk Sides | Houston Chronicle | Getty Images

This is the strongest buyer’s market in housing in more than a decade.
That’s the headline on a new report from Redfin, a real estate brokerage owned by Rocket Cos. The report points to specific data on the supply of homes for sale and the number of buyers actively looking.

There were an estimated 36.8% more sellers than buyers in October, according to Redfin, the largest gap in records dating back to 2013. Redfin defines a buyer’s market as one with at least 10% more sellers than buyers. Economists at the brokerage estimate that the last time there was a stronger buyer’s market was in the years following the 2008 financial crisis, when home prices plummeted across the nation.
“Of course, it’s only a buyer’s market for those who can afford to buy—many Americans have been priced out of the housing market as affordability has eroded,” Redfin researchers noted.
And that’s the crux of the problem. Is it really a buyer’s market, if so many buyers are still priced out and therefore not even looking?
Real estate firms cite housing affordability as the biggest challenge to their business, according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors. It far outweighs other challenges, including industry costs.
“Real estate firms are on the frontlines of the industry and are seeing firsthand how housing affordability and local economic conditions are impacting their clients,” said Jessica Lautz, NAR deputy chief economist.

Home prices continue to weaken but, nationally at least, were still 1.2% higher in September from the year before, according to Cotality. Prices are roughly 50% higher nationally than they were just five years ago, pre-pandemic.
“Much like the K-shaped trend seen in overall consumer spending—driven largely by higher income groups—lower-income potential homebuyers are facing challenges due to an uncertain job market, sluggish wage growth, and worsening financial conditions. This is leading to weaker demand for homes and downward pressure on prices,” said Selma Hepp, Cotality’s chief economist. 

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Mortgage rates have come off their recent highs, but are still roughly twice what they were in the first years of the pandemic, when it fast became a seller’s market.
Cost remains the primary obstacle to homebuying, with about 75 of the top 100 housing markets still considered overvalued, according to Cotality.
In Washington, D.C., which was hardest hit by the recent government shutdown, potential buyers — largely those who were unaffected by the shutdown — are discovering it is easier to get good deals.
“They are figuring out they have leverage and are finding they can seek price concessions and repairs,” said Paul Legere, a buyer’s agent with the Joel Nelson Group of Keller Williams, adding it “feels like it might be a short moment in time.”
The shutdown may be over, but consumer sentiment is not pointing to a surge in homebuying. In its November sentiment survey, that National Association of Home Builders reported a drop in builder sales expectations over the next six months.
“We continue to see demand-side weakness as a softening labor market and stretched consumer finances are contributing to a difficult sales environment,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz.  More

Walmart is in talks to acquire R&A Data, a tech startup founded by two Israeli scientists that monitors online marketplaces for scams, counterfeits and other compliance issues.
The potential acquisition would come as John Furner prepares to take the helm as Walmart’s new CEO and the company expands its third-party marketplace.
Two months ago, CNBC published an investigation into Walmart’s online marketplace that uncovered new details about the risks it took to scale the platform and take market share from Amazon.

Walmart is in talks to buy a startup called R&A Data, a company founded by two Israeli scientists that works to reduce scams and counterfeits on online marketplaces, according to people familiar with the matter and records reviewed by CNBC. 
The potential acquisition would come at a key time for the largest U.S. retailer as incoming CEO John Furner prepares to take the helm early next year. Walmart’s third-party marketplace has become a central part of the company’s strategy to increase profits faster than sales, and has helped it expand its e-commerce business, which grew 25% in the U.S. in its most recently reported quarter.

The company has said it added hundreds of millions of product listings to the platform in recent years, growth that experts say increases the need for tools to detect issues with items.
R&A Data has been working with Walmart as a third-party vendor since at least 2024, helping the company screen listings on its online marketplace for compliance issues, such as counterfeiting, according to the people and records. After working with the tech startup, Walmart decided to acquire it, CNBC learned.
Additional details about the possible deal weren’t immediately clear. Walmart, which is due to report fiscal third-quarter earnings on Thursday, didn’t return multiple requests for comment from CNBC. R&A Data declined to comment.
The news comes two months after CNBC published an investigation into Walmart’s online marketplace that found the company made its seller and product vetting controls more lax over time as it looked to grow the platform and take market share from Amazon. Third-party online sales have become a critical growth engine for Walmart, as the retailer moves to offer a wider variety of items to a larger base of shoppers.

During its investigation, CNBC found at least 43 third-party sellers that had used the identity of another business to set up their account. CNBC authenticated 20 beauty products and supplements offered by the sellers who had used the identity of a different business, and all of those products were determined to be counterfeit, according to brands that make the products or outside lab testing.

After CNBC shared the results of its investigation, Walmart said “trust and safety are non-negotiable for us.” 
“Counterfeiters are bad actors who target retail marketplaces across the world, and we are aggressive in our efforts to prevent and combat their deceptive behavior,” Walmart said at the time. “We enforce a zero-tolerance policy for prohibited or noncompliant products and continue to invest in new tools and technologies to help ensure only trusted, legitimate items reach our customers.”

How retailers prevent fakes — and where R&A fits

To combat counterfeits and other scams, marketplaces generally need a two-pronged approach, experts previously told CNBC. They said platforms need to have firm onboarding and vetting protocols to ensure bad actors aren’t joining to begin with, and ongoing monitoring of listings to prevent the sale of dangerous, fake or illegal products. 
A Walmart acquisition of R&A could help it monitor the hundreds of millions of product listings it hosts on its platform to ensure they’re compliant with its rules, according to the people familiar with the matter.
Founded in 2022 by entrepreneurs Noam Rabinovich and Raz Abramov, both former members of the Israel Defense Forces’ intelligence unit, R&A Data uses artificial intelligence to monitor listings for compliance, according to the people, the founders’ LinkedIn profiles, interviews they’ve given in the past and R&A’s website. 
There’s little public information about R&A Data but its website, which was taken down some time in the last two months, described the company as “your partner in portfolio safety.” 
“Scan millions of listings and products at lightning speeds, with incredible accuracy; our AI-powered platform delivers reliable, dependable protection, at scale,” the website said, according to an archive of the page captured on Sept. 5. 
People interested in the software could submit their contact details for further information, but the website said registration for early access was “full” and it was “not accepting any further sign-ups.” 
“If you would like to be considered for 2025 access please submit your details,” the website said. 
Rabinovich and Abramov previously founded another company, EverC, which helps online platforms and other firms detect and remove risky merchants, money laundering schemes, fake, illegal and dangerous products, and other compliance challenges, according to its LinkedIn page. Rabinovich left the company in October 2022, while Abramov departed in February 2023, according to their LinkedIn pages.
— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Paige Tortorelli. More