WSJ What’s News
Nasdaq Enters Bull Market After U.S.-China Temporarily Slash Tariffs
Mon, 12 May 2025
P.M. Edition for May 12. U.S. stocks rallied today—with the Nasdaq entering a bull market, closing 20% above its April low—after the U.S. and China agreed to temporarily unwind most of the tariffs they have imposed on each other’s goods since April. Plus, President Trump signs an executive order intended to lower U.S. drug prices. WSJ White House correspondent Natalie Andrews joins to discuss the order and what it means for consumers. And the retail-property market, which had bounced back after the pandemic, is starting to fall flat. Kate King, who covers real estate for the Journal, talks about why that is and what it means for the broader state of the retail industry. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What drove the Nasdaq to enter a bull market?
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For the past few years, the retail property market has been on a post-COVID rebound. Now, that rebound is starting to fizzle. According to real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, retailers vacated nearly 6 million more square feet than they occupied during the first three months of the year. That marked the weakest quarter for shopping center leasing since the onset of the pandemic in 2020.
Real estate reporter Kate King joins me now with more. Kate, the big question I have here about all of this is why? What is happening?
The biggest reason that retail leasing is slowing down is that retailers are closing more stores than they're opening. After two years of the opposite of retailers opening more stores than they were closing, We're now starting to see some large retailer bankruptcies and closures, which are leaving holes in shopping centers.
Some examples are Big Lots, Party City, and more recently, the craft supply store Joanne. And then we also have these kind of large closures, particularly in the pharmacy sector, CVS Health and Walgreens. What does this say about the retail sector overall?
Certainly, people who own shopping malls and shopping centers don't want to see closures at their properties because then they have to spend money and time finding replacement tenants. The good news is that the retail sector is in the strongest position that it's been in a while, and that's due to a couple of factors. The
There's less competition from new properties, and there's fewer options for retailers who do want to open more stores. So they're going to be driven to the existing shopping centers. This is going to keep vacancy a little bit in check. We did see retail vacancy tick up a bit, but it's still really close to the historic low levels.
So overall, the retail sector is pretty well positioned to handle the economic turmoil that many people feel is advancing.
That was WSJ real estate reporter Kate King. Thank you, Kate. Thanks, Alex. In other news, Hamas has released the last remaining living American hostage in Gaza, marking a diplomatic win for the Trump administration that has brought mixed reactions in Israel.
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