Target's red flag, Walmart vs. Trump, and Elon Musk vs. Bill Gates: Business news roundup

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Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images), Win McNamee (Getty Images), Sean Gallup/Getty (Getty Images), Sergio Flores (Getty Images), Michael M. Santiago (Getty Images), Andrew Harnik (Getty Images), Eric Thayer (Getty Images), Chip Somodevilla (Getty Images), Andrew Harnik/Getty Images (Getty Images), Stephen Maturen (Getty Images)
Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images), Win McNamee (Getty Images), Sean Gallup/Getty (Getty Images), Sergio Flores (Getty Images), Michael M. Santiago (Getty Images), Andrew Harnik (Getty Images), Eric Thayer (Getty Images), Chip Somodevilla (Getty Images), Andrew Harnik/Getty Images (Getty Images), Stephen Maturen (Getty Images)

Target just sent up a giant red flag about the U.S. consumer

Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)
Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)

High-income U.S. consumers are pulling back. Mortgage applications are down, Walmart (WMT) is reporting grocery gains from monied households suddenly keen for deals on eggs and bananas. And now Target joins a growing list of beloved brands waving the red flag that a recession may be coming.

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Trump-world admits it: America pays for tariffs

Photo: Win McNamee (Getty Images)
Photo: Win McNamee (Getty Images)

President Donald Trump has long insisted that the on-again, off-again tariffs he’s imposed will be fully paid by other countries at no cost to Americans. But both Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trump himself undercut that case over the weekend.

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China says the U.S. is screwing up trade talks with its move against Huawei

Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty (Getty Images)
Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty (Getty Images)

The Chinese government issued a blistering statement on Monday, accusing the Trump administration of undercutting ongoing trade talks with Beijing.

The U.S. cautioned against using Huawei’s Ascend semiconductor chips last week, and now the Chinese Commerce Ministry says the warning “seriously undermined the consensus reached at the high-level talks between China and the U.S. in Geneva.”

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Noom is offering smaller doses of compounded Wegovy for weight loss

Photo: Sergio Flores (Getty Images)
Photo: Sergio Flores (Getty Images)

Noom will start offering smaller doses of compounded Wegovy (NVO), the blockbuster weight-loss drug, as the digital health company continues to adapt to the growing demand for affordable weight-loss solutions and a changing market.

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Trump said Walmart earned billions more than expected. Here’s why that’s preposterous

Photo: Michael M. Santiago (Getty Images)
Photo: Michael M. Santiago (Getty Images)

President Donald Trump claimed over the weekend that Walmart (WMT) made “BILLIONS OF DOLLARS” more than expected last year. That’s not just wrong — it’s preposterous on multiple levels. In fact, you could say Walmart is one of the least likely companies in the world to deliver surprise windfalls.

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Elon Musk fires back at Bill Gates over claim that DOGE cuts are ‘killing’ poor children

Photo: Andrew Harnik (Getty Images)
Photo: Andrew Harnik (Getty Images)

Elon Musk has hit back at Bill Gates’s claim that his cuts to the U.S. foreign aid budget will kill millions of children.

“Who does Bill Gates think he is to make comments about the welfare of children, given that he has frequented Jeffrey Epstein?” the Tesla (TSLA) CEO said Tuesday, during an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. “I’d like him to show us any evidence,” Musk added.

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New U.S. drug prices doubled amid a shift toward treating rare diseases

Photo: Eric Thayer (Getty Images)
Photo: Eric Thayer (Getty Images)

Drugs being explicitly developed to treat rare diseases are getting more expensive.

An analysis by Reuters found that prices for newly launched pharmaceuticals more than doubled last year compared with 2021. Medicines that treat the rarest diseases typically fetch higher prices