Finance

Wholesale egg prices have fallen more than 40% since the end of February.
The pullback comes amid a reprieve from major bird flu outbreaks so far in March and weaker consumer demand, which have helped the nation’s egg supply to start recovering.
Retail egg prices broke a record high in February. It’s unclear how rapidly, and how much, they will drop.

A shopper looks at eggs for sale in a grocery store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, Feb. 25, 2025.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Wholesale egg prices have fallen significantly in recent weeks, a dynamic that may soon offer relief for consumers shell-shocked by record-high prices at the grocery store this year.
How quickly — and how much — retail prices will fall is unclear, however, experts said.

Wholesale prices dropped to $4.83 per dozen Friday, a 44% decline from their peak of $8.58 per dozen on Feb. 28, according to Expana, which tracks agricultural commodity prices.
The pullback comes amid a reprieve from major bird flu outbreaks so far in March and weaker consumer demand, which have helped the nation’s egg supply to start recovering, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture market analysis published Friday.
Prices have “plunged,” said Karyn Rispoli, an egg market analyst and managing editor at Expana.
Market dynamics are also putting “extreme pressure” on wholesale prices to fall further, Rispoli wrote in an e-mail.

Retail prices hit record high

Consumers paid $5.90 for a dozen large grade-A eggs, on average, in February, a record high, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Retail prices have blown past their prior record — $4.82 per dozen in January 2023 — and have nearly doubled from a year ago.

Prices had surged amid a deadly outbreak of bird flu in the U.S., which has killed millions of egg-laying chickens and crimped egg supply, according to agricultural economists and market experts. The U.S. Department of Justice also opened an antitrust investigation into the pricing and supply practices of major producers.
However, bird flu outbreaks seem to have tapered off in March, at least for now.
“Slowing [bird flu] outbreaks are leading to improved supply availability and wholesale market prices have responded with sharp declines over the past week,” the USDA wrote.
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Consumers, dissuaded by high prices and purchase restrictions imposed by many grocers, have also been buying fewer eggs, helping to ease supply shortfalls, Rispoli said.
Households also stockpiled eggs because they feared prices would keep climbing — a flashback of sorts to consumer behavior witnessed in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic — meaning there isn’t an immediate need for them to replenish supply, she added.

Consumers still ‘feeling the peak market’

While there have been some early signs of easing prices, it’s unclear how rapidly — and to what extent — consumers may get more relief, experts said.
For one, there’s generally a lag of at least two to three weeks between a change in wholesale costs and subsequent retail pricing — meaning consumers are still largely “feeling the peak market when they go to buy eggs,” Rispoli said.
Plus, retailers ultimately choose “how closely they want to track wholesale prices,” she said.

Egg demand is also likely to stay elevated as the Easter holiday, which falls on April 20 this year, approaches, according to Kevin Bergquist, an egg analyst at the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute.
“Egg prices will likely remain highly variable for the near future, but at a higher-than-usual level,” Bergquist wrote in a March market update. “In the short term, we will likely see a continuation of high egg prices.”

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Installing more lifts in multi-storey buildings, extending the hours of children’s clinics during flu season, encouraging foreign direct investment in camping. These are some of the ideas sprinkled throughout China’s “special action plan” to boost consumption, which was published on March 16th, a Sunday, thus extending the hours of China’s journalists. More

Warren Buffett speaks during the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 4, 2024.

Warren Buffett’s love for Japanese stocks grows fonder even as he increasingly sells U.S. equities.
The 94-year-old investor’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company raised its holdings in five Japanese trading houses —  Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo — by more than 1 percentage point each, to stakes ranging from 8.5% to 9.8%, according to a regulatory filing.

The “Oracle of Omaha” said in his 2024 annual letter that Berkshire is committed to its Japanese investments for the long term and has reached an agreement with the companies to go beyond an initial 10% ceiling.
All five are the biggest “sogo shosha,” or trading houses, in Japan that invest across diverse sectors domestically and abroad — “in a manner somewhat similar to Berkshire itself,” Buffett said. Berkshire first bought into the companies in the summer of 2019. 
Part of the investment strategy involves Buffett hedging currency risk by selling Japanese debt and then pocketing the difference between dividends from the investments and the bond coupon payments he has to make to service the debt.
At the end of 2024, the market value of Berkshire’s Japanese holdings came to $23.5 billion, at an aggregate cost of $13.8 billion. The investor praised the companies’ managements, relationships with their investors and their capital deployment strategies. 
Buffett first unveiled the Japanese positionsd on his 90th birthday in August 2020 after making regular purchases on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, saying he was “confounded” by the opportunity and was attracted to the trading houses’ dividend growth.

In 2023, Buffett even paid a visit to Japan with his designated successor Greg Abel and met with the heads of the Japanese firms. He said he’d like Berkshire to own the companies forever.
The student of famed investor Benjamin Graham has been aggressively selling U.S. stocks and growing his record cash pile to $334 billion. Berkshire sold more than $134 billion worth of stocks in 2024, largely by shrinking the size of Berkshire’s two largest equity holdings — Apple and Bank of America. More

Swedish fintech firm Klarna will be the exclusive provider of buy now, pay later loans for Walmart, taking a coveted partnership away from rival Affirm, CNBC has learned.
Klarna, which just disclosed its intention to go public in the U.S., will provide loans to Walmart customers in stores and online through the retailer’s majority-owned fintech startup OnePay, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
OnePay, which updated its brand name this month, will handle the user experience via its app, while Klarna will make underwriting decisions for loans ranging from three months to 36 months in length.

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, speaking at a fintech event in London on Monday, April 4, 2022.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Swedish fintech firm Klarna will be the exclusive provider of buy now, pay later loans for Walmart, taking a coveted partnership away from rival Affirm, CNBC has learned.
Klarna, which just disclosed its intention to go public in the U.S., will provide loans to Walmart customers in stores and online through the retailer’s majority-owned fintech startup OnePay, according to people with knowledge of the situation who declined to be identified speaking about the partnership.

OnePay, which updated its brand name from One this month, will handle the user experience via its app, while Klarna will make underwriting decisions for loans ranging from three months to 36 months in length, and with annual interest rates from 10% to 36%, said the people.
The new product will be launched in the coming weeks and will be scaled to all Walmart channels by the holiday season, likely leaving it the retailer’s only buy now, pay later option by year-end.
The move heightens the rivalry between Affirm and Klarna, two of the world’s biggest BNPL players, just as Klarna is set to go public. Although both companies claim to offer a better alternative for borrowers than credit cards, Affirm is more U.S.-centric and has been public since 2021, while Klarna’s network is more global.
Shares of Affirm fell 11% in premarket trading Monday.

Deal sweetener

The deal comes at an opportune time for Klarna as it readies one of the year’s most highly anticipated initial public offerings. After a dearth of big tech listings in the U.S. since 2021, the Klarna IPO will be a key test for the industry. It’s private market valuation has been a rollercoaster: It soared to $46 billion in 2021, then crashed by 85% the next year amid the broader decline of high-flying fintech firms.

CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has worked to improve Klarna’s prospects, including touting its use of generative AI to slash expenses and headcount. The company returned to profitability in 2023, and its valuation is now roughly $15 billion, according to analysts, nearly matching the public market value of Affirm.
The OnePay deal is a “game changer” for Klarna, Siemiatkowski said in a release confirming the pact.
“Millions of people in the U.S. shop at Walmart every day — and now they can shop smarter with OnePay installment loans powered by Klarna,” he said. “We look forward to helping redefine checkout at the world’s largest retailer — both online and in stores.”
As part of the deal, OnePay can take a position in Klarna. In its F-1 filing, Klarna said it entered into a “commercial agreement with a global partner” in which it is giving warrants to purchase more than 15 million shares for an average price of $34 each. OnePay is the partner, people with knowledge of the deal confirmed.
For Affirm, the move is likely to be seen as a blow at a time when tech stocks are particularly vulnerable. Run by CEO Max Levchin, a PayPal co-founder, the company’s stock has surged and fallen since its 2021 IPO. The lender’s shares have dipped 18% this year before Monday.
Affirm executives frequently mention their partnerships with big merchants as a key driver of purchase volumes and customer acquisition. In November, Affirm chief revenue officer Wayne Pommen referred to Walmart and other tie-ups including those with Amazon, Shopify and Target as its “crown jewel partnerships.”
An Affirm spokesman declined to comment.

Everything app

The deal is no less consequential to Walmart’s OnePay, which has surged to a $2.5 billion pre-money valuation just two years after rolling out a suite of products to its customers.
The startup now has more than 3 million active customers and is generating revenue at an annual run rate of more than $200 million.
As part of its push to penetrate areas adjacent to its core business, Walmart executives have touted OnePay’s potential to become a one-stop shop for Americans underserved by traditional banks.
Walmart is the world’s largest retailer and says it has 255 million weekly customers, giving the startup — which is a separate company backed by Walmart and Ribbit Capital — a key advantage in acquiring new customers.
Last year, the Walmart-backed fintech began offering BNPL loans in the aisles and on checkout pages of Walmart, CNBC reported at the time. That led to speculation that it would ultimately displace Affirm, which had been the exclusive provider for BNPL loans for Walmart since 2019.
OnePay’s move to partner with Klarna rather than going it alone shows the company saw an advantage in going with a seasoned, at-scale provider versus using its own solution.

The Walmart logo is displayed outside their store near Bloomsburg.
Paul Weaver | Lightrocket | Getty Images

OnePay’s push into consumer lending is expected to accelerate its conversion of Walmart customers into fintech app users. Cash-strapped consumers are increasingly relying on loans to meet their needs, and the installment loan is seen as a wedge to also offer users the banking, savings and payments features that OnePay has already built.
Americans held a record $1.21 trillion in credit card debt in the fourth quarter of last year, about $441 billion higher than balances in 2021, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York data.
“It’s never been more important to give consumers simple and convenient ways to access fair credit at the point of sale,” said OnePay CEO Omer Ismail. “That’s especially true for the millions of people who turn to Walmart every week for everything.”
Next up is likely a OnePay-branded credit card offered with the help of a new banking partner after Walmart successfully exited its partnership with Capital One.
“We’re looking forward to going down this new path where not only can they provide installment credit … but also revolving credit,” Walmart CFO John David Rainey told investors in June.
— CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos and Melissa Repko contributed to this report. More

Retail sales rose by 4.0% in the January-February period from a year ago, compared with the 3.7% year-on-year growth in December and in line with Reuters estimates.
Industrial production climbed 5.9% in the first two months of the year from a year ago, slower than the 6.2% growth in December, but faster than a 5.3% expansion forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.
Chinese policymakers unveiled on Sunday a wide-ranging plan to stimulate domestic consumption, reiterating Beijing’s pledges to bolster residents’ income and household spending.

A woman, right, looks at herself on her phone as she and others buy warm winter hats at a vendors shop in the Panjiayuan Market on December 6, 2024 in Beijing, China. 
Kevin Frayer | Getty Images

China’s economy showed a modest pickup for the first two months of the year, according to data published Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics, as Beijing reiterated its plan to bolster domestic consumption.
Retail sales rose by 4.0% in the January-February period from a year ago, compared with the 3.7% year-on-year growth in December and in line with Reuters estimates.

Industrial production climbed 5.9% in the first two months of the year from a year ago, slower than the 6.2% growth in December, but faster than a 5.3% expansion forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll. Industrial output growth in the equipment-making and high-tech manufacturing sector accelerated, the statement said, growing 10.6% and 9.1% on year, respectively.
Fixed asset investment, reported on a year-to-date basis, rose by 4.1%, beating the 3.6% growth estimated by economists, a notable jump from the 3.2% increase last year.
The statistics agency attributed the improvement in economic activities at the start of the year to “sustained effects from several stimulus measures,” while flagging “a more complicated and challenging external environment, insufficient domestic demand and difficulties for enterprises in operation and production,” according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese statement.
“The foundation for a sustainable economic recovery is still unstable,” it added.

The data comes shortly after Chinese policymakers unveiled a wide-ranging plan to stimulate domestic consumption, reiterating Beijing’s pledges to bolster residents’ income and household spending.

The notice, published Sunday, repeated Beijing’s plan to stabilize the stock market, establish a childcare subsidy scheme as well as boosting tourism.
While the high-level document appears to lack concrete implementation details, it provides a glance into Beijing’s stance toward addressing some deep-seated issues, such as the slowing income growth and insufficient social safety net, Lynn Song, chief China economist at ING, told CNBC via email.
“Directionally it is quite encouraging that policymakers are taking a sober look at these themes, and it should help the longer term transition to a consumption driven economy,” he added.

China’s unemployment rate in urban areas rose to 5.4% in February, the highest level in two years, according to LSEG data based on the official figures.
Separate data on Monday showed China’s new home prices fell 4.8% in February from a year ago, a smaller decline than the 5.0% drop in January.
Investment into real estate development fell 9.8% year-on-year in the two months, compared with a 10.6% decline in December. The data reflected policymakers’ efforts to provide credit support to the cash-strapped developers, Zichun Huang, China economist at Capital Economics, said in a note.

Growth target ‘will not be easy’

Chinese leadership took on a hefty task by keeping a growth target of “around 5%” this year, a target seen harder to reach given rising trade tensions with the U.S. and entrenched deflationary pressure for the economy.
Fu Lingui, spokesperson for the statistics bureau, said at a press conference on Monday that achieving this year’s growth target “will not be easy.”
Economists say Beijing will likely need to provide stronger stimulus to achieve this year’s growth target and bolster domestic consumption to fill the hole left by potentially slowing exports. Exports contributed nearly a quarter of China’s GDP last year.
China’s exports growth slowed significantly in the first two months while imports plunged on lackluster domestic demand. Consumer price inflation in February fell below zero for the first time in over a year.
Beijing revised down its annual inflation target to “around 2%” — the lowest in more than two decades — from above 3% in prior years, a move seen to show a degree of official acceptance of the current deflationary environment.
As part of an expanded fiscal package, Chinese leaders pledged at an annual parliamentary meeting earlier this month an additional 300 billion yuan ($41.5 billion) of ultra-long special treasury bonds for consumers’ subsidy support.
Still, beyond the trade-in program, the existing stimulus measures have barely targeted consumers directly.
Beijing’s directive to boost consumption is “a step in the right direction … but as is the case with other policy directives, its effectiveness will depend on how it will be implemented at the local level, and on how many resources will be put behind it,” said Alfredo Montufar-Helu, head of the China Center at The Conference Board, yet “these remain unknown.” More

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaking to CNBC on March 13th, 2025. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday the Trump administration is focused on preventing a financial crisis that could be the result of massive government spending over the past few years.
“What I could guarantee is we would have had a financial crisis. I’ve studied it, I’ve taught it, and if we had kept up at these spending levels that — everything was unsustainable,” Bessent said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We are resetting, and we are putting things on a sustainable path.”

President Donald Trump has made getting the government’s fiscal house in order a priority since taking office. He created the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, to spearhead job cuts and early retirement incentives across multiple federal agencies.
Still, the U.S. debt and deficit problem worsened during Trump’s first month in office, as the budget shortfall for February passed the $1 trillion mark.
Bessent noted that there are “no guarantees” there won’t be a recession.
The market has been on a tumultuous ride as of late as Trump’s widespread tariffs raised concerns about inflation and economic slowdown. The S&P 500 on Thursday fell into a 10% correction from its February high as volatility spiked.
Bessent believes pullbacks like the one the market is in right now are benign, and Trump’s pro-business policies will boost the market and the economy over the long run.

“I’ve been in the investment business for 35 years, and I can tell you that corrections are healthy. They’re normal,” he said. “What’s not healthy is straight up, that you get these euphoric markets. That’s how you get a financial crisis. It would have been much healthier if someone had put the brakes on in ’06, ’07. We wouldn’t have had the problems in ’08.”
“I’m not worried about the markets. Over the long term, if we put good tax policy in place, deregulation and energy security, the markets will do great,” Bessent added. “I say that one week does not the market make.” More

Across advanced economies, the rental market is undergoing a profound change. In the years before covid-19 struck, rents were high but not growing fast: the cost of leasing a home rose by about 2% a year, according to official data. During the pandemic, rental inflation slowed and, in some cities, rents fell as landlords desperately looked for tenants. More

Across advanced economies, the rental market is undergoing a profound change. In the years before covid-19 struck, rents were high but not growing fast: the cost of leasing a home rose by about 2% a year, according to official data. During the pandemic, rental inflation slowed and, in some cities, rents fell as landlords desperately looked for tenants. More