🌏 The price isn't right

Good morning, Quartz readers!

Here’s what you need to know

Who needs trade talks? President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration will send letters to countries over the next two or three weeks, telling them their tariff rates.

Country club diplomacy. As trade talks stall and Vietnam soon faces 46% tariffs, Hanoi just approved a $1.5 billion golf resort deal with the Trump Organization.

The weight of expectations. Novo Nordisk just ousted its CEO, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, after the Ozempic-maker’s stock dropped 50% in a year.

What the Oracle of Omaha is seeing. The most recent SEC filings show that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway continued to sell financial stocks and invest elsewhere.

Meta wants antitrust case tossed. The social media behemoth suggested the trial is a waste of time and money and said the FTC hasn’t provided clear evidence of any unlawful monopoly.

Is Microsoft no longer a Teams player? In a move designed to get EU regulators off its back, the tech giant said it would allow users to purchase its Office suite without signing up for Teams.

A deal — or DEI. Three hours after Verizon announced it would shutter its DEI programs, the FCC cleared its $20 billion purchase of Frontier Communications.

Rollbacks — rolled back

After decades of keeping retail prices in check through sheer scale, ruthless efficiency, and a direct line to low-cost Chinese manufacturing, Walmart confirmed Thursday it’s hiking prices this month and into the summer. The reason? A one-two punch of tariffs and currency whiplash.

CFO John David Rainey, who has been sounding the alarm since last fall, called the cost pressure “somewhat unprecedented in history.” The company is pulling its profit guidance, too, blaming the now-standard “dynamic macro environment” — Wall Street’s version of: “Don’t ask.” With Trump’s latest tariff blitz raising import costs and currency shifts compounding the pain, Walmart’s pricing power might have finally met its match.

This isn’t just a pricing update, it’s a vibe shift. Walmart once bent the retail world to its will, forcing competitors to match its low prices and holding inflation at bay. Now, it’s doing the opposite — and in doing so, giving everyone else permission to raise their prices too.

And here’s the kicker: Walmart’s price shift is working. Despite higher prices, Walmart is gaining share — particularly among wealthier shoppers who see a recession. The low-price company may be raising prices, but it could still be the best deal in a high-cost world. Quartz’s Catherine Baab has more on what happens when the price floor becomes a ceiling.

The Doubt Economy

U.S. consumer sentiment just hit its second-lowest point ever, despite decent economic data. According to the University of Michigan’s preliminary May reading, Americans are feeling gloomier than they did even during the Great Recession — and they’re pointing fingers at tariffs, inflation fears, and a whiplash-inducing trade policy.

The closely watched index slid to 50.8 this month, barely above its record low in June 2022. That’s nearly a 30% drop since January, with households growing increasingly wary of a future shaped by trade volatility and price surges. Three out of four respondents spontaneously mentioned tariffs — up sharply from last month — following a rollercoaster few weeks that included a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, followed by a partial (and temporary) walk-back.

Economists had expected sentiment to improve. Instead, the public’s mood soured further. And while hard data shows easing inflation and steady job growth, consumers are bracing for worse: They now expect prices to rise 7.3% over the next year, the highest projected rate since 1981.

The result? A growing psychological split between what the economy is and how it feels. Quartz’s Shannon Carroll has more on Americans’ fragile faith in their financial futures.

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