Finance

“Capital markets are realizing that the place to be is Texas,” Abbott said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
On Tuesday, the Nasdaq announced that it would open a regional headquarters in Dallas.

Texas is continuing to stake a claim as a rival to Wall Street as a key financial hub in the United States, with Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday saying his state has a “stronger brand than New York.”
“Capital markets are realizing that the place to be is Texas,” Abbott said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Abbott’s comments come as Texas continues to emerge as a financial center, complete with its own stock exchange. The Texas Stock Exchange plans to launch in 2026 and recently announced several key hires for its exchange-traded products business.
The financial industry’s leading companies are also working to increase their presence in the Lone Star State. The New York Stock Exchange announced in February it would relocate its Chicago operations to Texas, and on Tuesday, Nasdaq announced it will open a regional headquarters in Dallas.
“Nasdaq is deeply ingrained in the fabric of the Texas economy, and we look forward to maintaining our leadership as the partner of choice for the state’s most innovative companies,” Adena Friedman, Nasdaq’s CEO, said in a press release.
Trading at most major stock exchanges around the world, including the NYSE and the Nasdaq, is done almost entirely electronically. Stocks can trade on multiple exchanges in different locations although they have one designated primary listing.
Texas is also making a play to rival Delaware as a legal home to major companies, touting a more business-friendly legal environment. That includes making it harder for small shareholders to sue companies, as happened to Tesla in Delaware in a legal fight over CEO Elon Musk’s compensation. Tesla has since shifted its state of incorporation to Texas.
“A guy who had the [stock holdings] value of less than a Tesla vehicle was able to try to upend the entire corporate practice of the Tesla company,” Abbott said Tuesday. “That’s just wrong. What we are trying to codify in Texas is ownership of at least 3% of a business before a derivative action can be brought against a company.”

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IN A SCRAPPY office that is more startup than ivory tower Yossapong Laoonual, head of the Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand, strikes a bullish tone. Clinging to the internal-combustion engine is “like doubling down on horse-drawn carriages long after motorised vehicles became the standard”, he says. A stroll around Mr Yossapong’s campus at KMUTT, an engineering college in Bangkok, makes such optimism seem natural. Three electric buses sit beside a charging point. Signs outline the university’s plan for carbon neutrality. More

Probability of a recession rose to 36% from 23% in January, according to the CNBC Fed Survey, which polls fund managers, strategists and analysts.
The average 2025 GDP forecast declined to 1.7% from 2.4% with tariffs now seen as the top threat to the U.S. economy, replacing inflation.
Three-quarters of respondents forecast two or more quarter-point cuts this year.

Respondents to the March CNBC Fed Survey have raised the risk of recession to the highest level in six months, cut their growth forecast for 2025 and raised their inflation outlook.
Much of the change appears to stem from concern over fiscal policies from the Trump administration, especially tariffs, which are now seen by them as the top threat to the U.S. economy, replacing inflation. The outlook for the S&P 500 declined for the first time since September.

The 32 survey respondents, who include fund managers, strategists and analysts, raised the probability of recession to 36% from 23% in January. The January number had dropped to a three-year low and looked to have reflected initial optimism following the election of President Trump.  But like many consumer and business surveys, the recession probability now shows considerable concern about the outlook.
“We’ve had an abundance of discussions with investors who are increasingly concerned the Trump agenda has gone off the rails due to trade policy,” said Barry Knapp of Ironsides Macroeconomics. “Consequently, the economic risks of something more insidious than a soft patch are growing.”
“The degree of policy volatility is unprecedented,” said John Donaldson, director of fixed income at Haverford Trust.
The average GDP forecast for 2025 declined to 1.7% from 2.4%, a sharp markdown that ended consecutive increases in the three prior surveys dating back to September. GDP is forecast to bounced back to 2.1% in 2026, in line with prior forecasts.

Arrows pointing outwards

CNBC Fed Survey

“The risks to consumers’ spending are skewed to the downside,” said Neil Dutta, head of economic research at Renaissance Macro Research. “Alongside a frozen housing market and less spending across state and local governments, there is meaningful downside to current estimates of 2025 GDP.”

Fed rate cut outlook

Most continue to believe the Fed will cut rates at least twice and won’t hike rates, even if faced with persistently higher prices and weaker growth. Three-quarters forecast two or more quarter-point cuts this year. Part of the reason is that two-thirds believe that tariffs will result in one-time price hikes rather than a broader outbreak of inflation. But the policy uncertainty has created a wider range of views on the Fed than normal with 19% believing the Fed won’t cut at all.

Arrows pointing outwards

CNBC Fed Survey

Still, higher tariffs and weaker growth are a dilemma for the Fed.
“Powell is really stuck here because of the tariff overhang,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer, Bleakley Financial Group. “If he gets more worried about growth because of them and cuts rates as unemployment rises but then Trump removes all the tariffs, he’s jumped the gun.”
More than 70% of respondents believe tariffs are bad for inflation, jobs and growth. 34% say tariffs will decrease US manufacturing with 22% saying they will result in no change. Thirty-seven percent of respondents believe tariffs will end up in greater manufacturing output. More than 70% believe the DOGE effort to reduce government employment is bad for growth and jobs but will be modestly deflationary.
“A global trade war, haphazard DOGE cuts to government jobs and funding, aggressive immigrant deportations, and dysfunction in DC threaten to push what was an exceptionally performing economy into recession,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist, Moody’s Analytics.

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Chinese electric car company Zeekr is releasing advanced driver-assistance capabilities to its local customers for free as competition heats up, Zeekr CEO Andy An told CNBC ahead of a launch event Tuesday.
It’s the latest Chinese electric vehicle brand to upgrade its driver-assistance products as Tesla tries to attract more buyers of its own version, called Full Self Driving, in China.
Over the last two years, driver assistance has increasingly become a selling point for new energy vehicles in China, which include battery-only and hybrid-powered cars.

The view from inside a Zeekr Mix electric vehicle at one of the company’s showrooms in Shanghai, China, on March 16, 2025.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

BEIJING — Chinese electric car company Zeekr is releasing advanced driver-assistance capabilities to its local customers for free as competition heats up, Zeekr CEO Andy An told CNBC ahead of a launch event Tuesday.
The tech enables the car to drive nearly autonomously from one pre-set destination to another, as long as drivers keep their hands on the steering wheel and there is regulatory approval — which is increasingly the case in most major Chinese cities.

It’s the latest Chinese electric vehicle brand to upgrade its driver-assistance products as Tesla tries to attract more buyers of its own version, called Full Self Driving, in China.
After initial criticism that the 64,000 yuan ($8,850) software was too expensive, some Chinese social media users said Monday that Tesla was offering some users the driver-assistance system for free through April 16. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zeekr’s version will be free, rolled out to a pilot group initially and then released to the public in April, according to the company.
“Right now, in this period of development, I think subscriptions aren’t that meaningful,” CEO An said in an interview Friday, according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.
Given intense competition, he said, Zeekr needs to close the gap on driver assistance with market leaders and become a top player. “So we need to bear some cost,” An said, noting Zeekr previously only offered more basic driver-assistance capabilities, such as for parking.

Zeekr, which is listed in the U.S., is scheduled to release quarterly earnings on Thursday ahead of the U.S. market open. Shares are up about 6% year-to-date.

Nvidia chips

CEO An said that Zeekr’s driver-assistance system uses two Nvidia Orin X chipsets and one lidar, or a light detection and ranging unit that allows a vehicle to navigate roads without relying too much on sunlight conditions.
He said a forthcoming version of the system will use Nvidia’s more advanced Thor automotive chip, one long-range lidar and four shorter-range lidar units.
“Using lidar may increase cost, but this reflects how much we value safety,” An said. He said the driver-assistance system for Zeekr cars sold overseas will not use the Nvidia chips for now, given different regulations and local market demand.
Zeekr’s driver-assistance system will also be used for fellow EV brand Lynk & Co.’s cars, An said, and potentially vehicles from parent company Geely. Zeekr officially acquired Lynk & Co. this year.

From price war to driver-assistance competition

Sales of Nvidia’s “self-driving platforms” helped drive the chipmaker’s revenue from automotive and robotics to a record $570 million in the fourth quarter of the 2025 fiscal year.
Also reflecting market demand, major lidar producer Hesai said this month that its lidar shipments have more than doubled annually for four straight years as of 2024.
Hesai’s CFO Andrew Fan told CNBC last week that the company expects significant growth in advanced driver-assistance systems this year from last year, and noted an industry joke that China’s electric car market has shifted from a price war to a war over driver assistance.
Over the last two years, the technology has increasingly become a selling point for new energy vehicles in China, which include battery-only and hybrid-powered cars.
NEV giant BYD in February announced it was rolling out driver-assist capabilities to more than 20 of its car models. While current features mostly focus on parking and highway navigation, the company said an upgrade with point-to-point driver assistance would likely be issued by the end of 2025.
The most basic version of BYD’s driver-assistance system uses Horizon Robotics’ chipset along with Nvidia’s Orin, while more advanced versions only use other Nvidia chips, according to Nomura’s research.
Chinese EV startup Xpeng, another Nvidia customer which made advanced driver assistance an early selling point, has delivered more than 30,000 cars a month since November, thanks in part to its new P7+ car that also did away with requiring additional subscriptions for driver assistance.
Nio has advertised subscriptions for its driver-assistance features but has yet to charge users for them, according to the company. More

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