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What the CEOs of Walmart, Best Buy, Home Depot, and others say about the nervous consumer

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Good morning. With fall in full swing, it seems like a good time to do a gut check on the state of the American consumer. I pored through financial results reported over the last two weeks by a variety of big retailers and found a mixed bag. Though there are pockets of optimism, it’s clear that consumers are worried. The big wild card going into the fall will be the full impact of tariffs, expected to be felt acutely in the second half of the year. Indeed, Best Buy had a strong second quarter but did not raise its full-year guidance during its late August earnings call because of the tariff uncertainty. Many companies rushed their buying in the spring before tariffs came into effect, but that can only shield them for so long. Here’s what some prominent CEOs are seeing.

Michael Bender, interim CEO of Kohl’s: “Consumers continue to be pressured and are being choiceful with their purchases … Lower to middle-income customers continue to prioritize value and are trading down into lower opening price point products.”

Todd Vasos, CEO of Dollar General: “Seeking value, we’re seeing that in all cohorts of customers, meaning our core customer, mid- and high-end customers, all of them.”

Ted Decker, CEO of Home Depot: “The No. 1 reason for deferring the large project is general economic uncertainty.”

Corie Barry, CEO of Best Buy: “We have seen both breadth and depth of promotions higher than last year and we assume that will continue. Customers continued to be resilient but deal-focused… In the current environment, customers continue to be thoughtful about big-ticket purchases and are willing to spend on high price point products when they need to or when there is technology innovation.”

Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart: “As we replenish inventory at post-tariff price levels, we’ve continued to see our costs increase each week, which we expect will continue into the third and fourth quarters.”

Robert Ball, CFO of Abercrombie & Fitch: “Our customer doesn’t come to us for price. We’re not necessarily going to chase traffic and conversion through price … We’ve seen tariffs 1.0. We’ve seen the pandemic. We’ve seen inflation, cotton spikes, freight rate spikes, you name it, and those are just a couple of examples.”Many retailers have managed all the noise and macro angst capably, posting strong sales results for the first half of 2025. Walmart, Abercrombie & Fitch, Dollar General, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Costco to name just a few. But one thing’s for sure: When consumers get nervous, CEOs should be nervous too.—Phil Wahba

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

Nestlé fires CEO over undisclosed romantic relationship

“The departure of Laurent Freixe follows an investigation into an undisclosed romantic relationship with a direct subordinate which breached Nestlé’s Code of Business Conduct,” the company said in a press release. No other details were given. Freixe had been CEO for about a year. He will be succeeded by longtime Nestlé executive Philipp Navratil. “This was a necessary decision. Nestlé’s values and governance are strong foundations of our company. I thank Laurent for his years of service at Nestlé,” Chairman Paul Bulcke said in the statement.

Modi, Xi, and Putin literally join hands

At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization—a summit that the U.S. is not attending—Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping were photographed holding hands as they greeted each other. Their warm relations came a day after President Trump complained on social media that India was too slow in agreeing to his tariff regime. “It has been a totally one sided disaster!” he wrote. The U.S. imposed a 50% tariff on India plus a further 25% tax as a punishment for buying Russian oil. Context: India had positioned itself as a manufacturing alternative to China for the supply chains of Western countries. The tariffs tear that plan to shreds and are drawing India, Russia and China closer together, the NYT argues.

Trump family gains $5 billion from crypto ventures

On paper, the Trumps are holding $5 billion in digital assets after their token, WLFI, was made available for trading on the open market. The Trumps hold just under a quarter of all WLFI tokens—meaning that if they tried to sell them it would likely depress the price dramatically.

Trump responds to health concerns

President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social over the weekend that he’s “never felt better” amid speculation around his physical health. In the same barrage of posts, the President demanded that Judge Jia Cobb, who is overseeing proceedings in a court case between the president and Fed Governor Lisa Cook, recuse herself from the case.  

Dalio warns of autocracy and debt, again

“I think that what is happening now politically and socially is analogous to what happened around the world in the 1930-40 period,” Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio told the FT. “And by the way, during such times most people are silent because they are afraid of retaliation if they criticise.” He also predicted that the U.S. would face “a debt-induced heart attack” in roughly three years.

Revolut and Starling looking to acquire U.S. banks

The fintech platforms Revolut and Starling—popular in the U.K.—are both considering acquiring American banks because the process of registering as a bank in the U.S. is so difficult.

Space: The next job frontier

Gen Z workers are finding it more and more challenging to fetch entry-level jobs as AI gets better at taking those jobs over. Tech pioneers like Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos suggest space may be the next place to look.

The markets

S&P 500 futures were down 0.48% this morning. The index closed down 0.64% in its last trading session. STOXX Europe 600 was down 0.6% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was down 0.64% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.29%. China’s CSI 300 was down 0.74%. The South Korea KOSPI was up 0.94%. India’s Nifty 50 was flat before the end of the session. Bitcoin rose to $110.6K.

Around the watercooler

Reeling after being widowed, Suzy Welch created NYU’s most popular b-school class ever, offering Gen Z the one thing they want most: purpose by Geoff Colvin

A tech founder says his son spurned the Ivy League as ‘unfun, judgey and biased against white boys’—he’s one of many heading South for college instead by Jeff John Roberts

This OpenAI engineer left her dream job and San Francisco home to move to Stockholm—all because of Trump 2.0 by Eleanor Pringle

How the midlife crisis was replaced by a decadelong rise in ‘young worker despair’ in the U.S.—and what it means for Gen Z by Nick Lichtenberg

Trump’s trade adviser says tariffs aren’t permanent after appeals court strikes down reciprocal duties by Jason Ma

CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.

This is the web version of CEO Daily, a newsletter of must-read global insights from CEOs and industry leaders. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.



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SpaceX to offer insider shares at record-setting $800 billion valuation

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SpaceX is preparing to sell insider shares in a transaction that would value Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker at as much as $800 billion, people familiar with the matter said, reclaiming the title of the world’s most valuable private company. 

The details, discussed by SpaceX’s board of directors on Thursday at its Starbase hub in Texas, could change based on interest from insider sellers and buyers or other factors, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. SpaceX is also exploring a possible initial public offering as soon as late next year, one of the people said. 

Another person briefed on the matter said that the price under discussion for the sale of some employees and investors’ shares is higher than $400 apiece, which would value SpaceX at between $750 billion and $800 billion. The company wouldn’t raise any funds though this planned sale, though a successful offering at such levels would catapult it past the record of $500 billion valuation achieved by OpenAI in October.

Elon Musk on Saturday denied that SpaceX is raising money at a $800 billion valuation without addressing Bloomberg’s reporting on the planned offering of insiders’ shares. 

“SpaceX has been cash flow positive for many years and does periodic stock buybacks twice a year to provide liquidity for employees and investors,” Musk said in a post on his social media platform X. 

The share sale price under discussion would be a substantial increase from the $212 a share set in July, when the company raised money and sold shares at a valuation of $400 billion. The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times earlier reported the $800 billion valuation target.

News of SpaceX’s valuation sent shares of EchoStar Corp., a satellite TV and wireless company, up as much as 18%. Last month, EchoStar had agreed to sell spectrum licenses to SpaceX for $2.6 billion, adding to an earlier agreement to sell about $17 billion in wireless spectrum to Musk’s company.

Subscribe Now: The Business of Space newsletter covers NASA, key industry events and trends.

The world’s most prolific rocket launcher, SpaceX dominates the space industry with its Falcon 9 rocket that lifts satellites and people to orbit.

SpaceX is also the industry leader in providing internet services from low-Earth orbit through Starlink, a system of more than 9,000 satellites that is far ahead of competitors including Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Leo.

Elite Group

SpaceX is among an elite group of companies that have the ability to raise funds at $100 billion-plus valuations while delaying or denying they have any plan to go public. 

An IPO of the company at an $800 billion value would vault SpaceX into another rarefied group — the 20 largest public companies, a few notches below Musk’s Tesla Inc. 

If SpaceX sold 5% of the company at that valuation, it would have to sell $40 billion of stock — making it the biggest IPO of all time, well above Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion listing in 2019. The firm sold just 1.5% of the company in that offering, a much smaller slice than the majority of publicly traded firms make available.

A listing would also subject SpaceX to the volatility of being a public company, versus private firms whose valuations are closely guarded secrets. Space and defense company IPOs have had a mixed reception in 2025. Karman Holdings Inc.’s stock has nearly tripled since its debut, while Firefly Aerospace Inc. and Voyager Technologies Inc. have plunged by double-digit percentages since their debuts.

SpaceX executives have repeatedly floated the idea of spinning off SpaceX’s Starlink business into a separate, publicly traded company — a concept President Gwynne Shotwell first suggested in 2020. 

However, Musk cast doubt on the prospect publicly over the years and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said in 2024 that a Starlink IPO would be something that would take place more likely “in the years to come.”

The Information, citing people familiar with the discussions, separately reported on Friday that SpaceX has told investors and financial institution representatives that it’s aiming for an IPO of the entire company in the second half of next year.

Read More: How to Buy SpaceX: A Guide for the Eager, Pre-IPO

A so-called tender or secondary offering, through which employees and some early shareholders can sell shares, provides investors in closely held companies such as SpaceX a way to generate liquidity.

SpaceX is working to develop its new Starship vehicle, advertised as the most powerful rocket ever developed to loft huge numbers of Starlink satellites as well as carry cargo and people to moon and, eventually, Mars.



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National Park Service drops free admission on MLK Day and Juneteenth while adding Trump’s birthday

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The National Park Service will offer free admission to U.S. residents on President Donald Trump’s birthday next year — which also happens to be Flag Day — but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.

The new list of free admission days for Americans is the latest example of the Trump administration downplaying America’s civil rights history while also promoting the president’s image, name and legacy.

Last year, the list of free days included Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth — which is June 19 — but not June 14, Trump’s birthday.

The new free-admission policy takes effect Jan. 1 and was one of several changes announced by the Park Service late last month, including higher admission fees for international visitors.

The other days of free park admission in 2026 are Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, Veterans Day, President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27) and the anniversary of the creation of the Park Service (Aug. 25).

Eliminating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Americans were emancipated, removes two of the nation’s most prominent civil rights holidays.

Some civil rights leaders voiced opposition to the change after news about it began spreading over the weekend.

“The raw & rank racism here stinks to high heaven,” Harvard Kennedy School professor Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP, wrote on social media about the new policy.

Kristen Brengel, a spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association, said that while presidential administrations have tweaked the free days in the past, the elimination of Martin Luther King Jr. Day is particularly concerning. For one, the day has become a popular day of service for community groups that use the free day to perform volunteer projects at parks.

That will now be much more expensive, said Brengel, whose organization is a nonprofit that advocates for the park system.

“Not only does it recognize an American hero, it’s also a day when people go into parks to clean them up,” Brengel said. “Martin Luther King Jr. deserves a day of recognition … For some reason, Black history has repeatedly been targeted by this administration, and it shouldn’t be.”

Some Democratic lawmakers also weighed in to object to the new policy.

“The President didn’t just add his own birthday to the list, he removed both of these holidays that mark Black Americans’ struggle for civil rights and freedom,” said Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. “Our country deserves better.”

A spokesperson for the National Park Service did not immediately respond to questions on Saturday seeking information about the reasons behind the changes.

Since taking office, Trump has sought to eliminate programs seen as promoting diversity across the federal government, actions that have erased or downplayed America’s history of racism as well as the civil rights victories of Black Americans.

Self-promotion is an old habit of the president’s and one he has continued in his second term. He unsuccessfully put himself forwardfor the Nobel Peace Prize, renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after himself, sought to put his name on the planned NFL stadium in the nation’s capital and had a new children’s savings program named after him.

Some Republican lawmakers have suggested putting his visage on Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill.



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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says Europe has a ‘real problem’

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon called out slow bureaucracy in Europe in a warning that a “weak” continent poses a major economic risk to the US.

“Europe has a real problem,” Dimon said Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum. “They do some wonderful things on their safety nets. But they’ve driven business out, they’ve driven investment out, they’ve driven innovation out. It’s kind of coming back.”

While he praised some European leaders who he said were aware of the issues, he cautioned politics is “really hard.” 

Dimon, leader of the biggest US bank, has long said that the risk of a fragmented Europe is among the major challenges facing the world. In his letter to shareholders released earlier this year, he said that Europe has “some serious issues to fix.”

On Saturday, he praised the creation of the euro and Europe’s push for peace. But he warned that a reduction in military efforts and challenges trying to reach agreement within the European Union are threatening the continent.

“If they fragment, then you can say that America first will not be around anymore,” Dimon said. “It will hurt us more than anybody else because they are a major ally in every single way, including common values, which are really important.”

He said the US should help.

“We need a long-term strategy to help them become strong,” Dimon said. “A weak Europe is bad for us.”

The administration of President Donald Trump issued a new national security strategy that directed US interests toward the Western Hemisphere and protection of the homeland while dismissing Europe as a continent headed toward “civilizational erasure.”

Read More: Trump’s National Security Strategy Veers Inward in Telling Shift

JPMorgan has been ramping up its push to spur more investments in the national defense sector. In October, the bank announced that it would funnel $1.5 trillion into industries that bolster US economic security and resiliency over the next 10 years — as much as $500 billion more than what it would’ve provided anyway. 

Dimon said in the statement that it’s “painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing.”

Investment banker Jay Horine oversees the effort, which Dimon called “100% commercial.” It will focus on four areas: supply chain and advanced manufacturing; defense and aerospace; energy independence and resilience; and frontier and strategic technologies. 

The bank will also invest as much as $10 billion of its own capital to help certain companies expand, innovate or accelerate strategic manufacturing.

Separately on Saturday, Dimon praised Trump for finding ways to roll back bureaucracy in the government.

“There is no question that this administration is trying to bring an axe to some of the bureaucracy that held back America,” Dimon said. “That is a good thing and we can do it and still keep the world safe, for safe food and safe banks and all the stuff like that.”



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