Walmart's warning, Costco's gold bar craze, and Trump's retreat: Business news roundup

For many, a Costco (COST) membership is as good as gold. And, for some, a membership means buying gold. Just not too much of it.

The retailer’s gold bars have garnered much attention since their June 2023 launch. And now, the gold has proven so popular that the chain recently placed a one-bar limit on purchases.

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UnitedHealth Group (UNH) shares cratered more than 13% Thursday morning after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice is conducting a criminal investigation into the company’s Medicare billing practices.

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If you blinked, you might have missed the president who built his economic agenda on tariffs quietly turning the page on the U.S.-China trade war — for now — with barely a whisper of the fire and fury that he launched it with barely more than a month ago. No fanfare. No victory parade.

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Tesla (TSLA) has formed a special committee to review Elon Musk’s pay, a move that could lead to the creation of a stock option package — or another workaround to reward the CEO, whose previous $56 billion compensation deal was struck down in court earlier this year.

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Spirit Airlines, long known for its low prices and no-frills airfare, is suddenly leaning into passenger comfort.

The airline announced Tuesday that it will begin offering two premium options. They include, perhaps most surprisingly, seating with extra legroom.

The new seats will be available on May 15 for flights taking off July 9 and later, and will roll out across the majority of Spirit’s fleet sometime that month, the company said in a press release. They’ll offer 32 inches of space between seat backs, compared with the usual 28 inches. A ticket will include a carry-on bag, no change or cancel fees, Priority Boarding, reserved overhead bin space, a snack, and a non-alcoholic beverage.

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President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration doesn’t have time to negotiate individual trade deals with scores of countries, so the administration will decide what the tariff rates will be “over the next two to three weeks.”

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Walmart (WMT) posted a solid first quarter Thursday — with a big “in this economy” caveat — as digital sales, membership fees, and ad revenue all delivered double-digit growth. But after weeks of tariff anxiety, chief financial officer John David Rainey is making headlines with a clear warning: Higher prices are coming if new duties on Chinese goods take effect.

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The U.S. and China have agreed to suspend and roll back most of their sky-high reciprocal tariffs for 90 days while negotiations continue, a significant move to ease weeks of escalating trade war tensions.

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Japanese automakers Honda (HMC) and Nissan (NSANY) both announced dismal earnings on Tuesday — and the worst may still be yet to come.

Honda’s operating profit fell 76% year-over-year for the period ending March 31, while net profit for the full year dropped 24.5% to 835.84 billion yen, or about $5.7 billion. Nissan, meanwhile, announced a plunge of nearly 94% in operating profit. The company registered a net loss of 676 billion yen ($4.5 billion) in its fiscal fourth quarter after clocking a 101.3 billion yen profit in the same period a year earlier. Operating profit declined by almost 88% year-over-year.

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After months of turbulence in the skies of global trade, Boeing (BA) is finally seeing clearer weather in one of its most crucial markets: China.

Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reports that Chinese regulators have quietly lifted a ban on local airlines accepting deliveries of Boeing jets. The move comes as China and the U.S. agreed to a temporary reduction in tariffs — a détente that could offer Boeing a much-needed runway for recovery. Domestic airlines and government agencies in China were informed this week that they may resume taking delivery of U.S.-made aircraft, Bloomberg reports, though they’ve been given discretion on the timing and terms of those deliveries.

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