Tourism's perfect storm, Walmart and Costco's gas stations, and Musk leaves DOGE: Business news roundup

On a recent Finnair flight from Helsinki to Los Angeles, something felt off. The economy cabin — typically packed with tourists eager to explore California’s beaches and theme parks — was less than half full. A flight to Europe two months earlier had been packed to the gills, but this flight had entirely empty rows, a stark reminder that America’s appeal as a travel destination has taken a beating this year.

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Major retailers like Costco (COST), Sam’s Club, and Walmart (WMT) are stepping on the gas even as the age of electric vehicles creeps closer. These big box stores — traditionally not a place for pumps, unless they are the kind sold in the shoe aisle — are turning into gas giants, expanding their hours, adding car capacity, and building more infrastructure

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Elon Musk is putting his stint in Washington in the rearview mirror. The Tesla (TSLA) CEO tweeted Wednesday night that his time as a special government employee leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has come to an end.

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Show up for work and do your job — that’s what 12 large pension funds, representing $950 billion in assets, told Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk in an open letter, where they demanded he work 40 hours a week at the EV giant.

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Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk swiped at the large Republican domestic policy bill making its way through Congress, in a notable break from President Donald Trump.

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President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs have draped the economy in uncertainty.

Because of this, some companies have simply resorted to tossing earnings guidance and raising prices to absorb whatever comes the market’s way.

“When a single tariff announcement can erase trillions in market value overnight, who can blame finance leaders for tossing their annual forecasts out the window?” Sunil Rajasekar, CEO of fintech platform Billtrust, tells Quartz.

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Starbucks (SBUX) is looking to hire a corporate pilot — and the job will probably include a lot of trips to Newport Beach, California.

The coffee chain has a job posting on its website for a “captain, Starbucks Aviation,” with a salary range between $207,000 and $360,300. The gig involves flying the company’s corporate jets and requires thousands of hours of recorded flight time.

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A top White House economic advisor said President Donald Trump doesn’t want to hurt Apple (AAPL) with its tariffs, only days after the president threatened the smartphone maker with steep import taxes on the iPhone.

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GameStop (GME) has become the latest publicly-traded U.S. company to put cryptocurrency on its balance sheet.

The video game retailer bought 4,710 Bitcoin, it announced Wednesday morning in a single-sentence press release. The purchase is worth around $509 million at current market prices, with Bitcoin hovering around $108,000. Shares of GameStop rose nearly 3% in premarket trading.

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The president floated a 25% tariff on iPhones imported into the U.S. on Friday, adding that Apple (AAPL) would foot the bill.

“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.,” President Trump said in a TruthSocial post on Friday morning.

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