Amazon Overtakes Walmart as the Biggest U.S. Company by Revenue

Alex Ossola (0:00)

Hey, this is Alex from What's News. Thanks so much for being a listener of the show. If you're looking for more insights and tools to understand the latest headlines, consider becoming a subscriber to The Wall Street Journal. Visit subscribe.wsj.com/what'snews to subscribe now. Walmart loses its crown as the biggest US company by revenue. Plus, US imports hit a record last year, despite President Trump's tariffs. And who's got beef? Higher prices for burgers and steaks may be here to stay.

Patrick Thomas (0:36)

Ranchers are just, they're really enjoying these good times. They've historically always struggled to make profits, and now they're really making money, and a lot of them have decided that they're going to hold on to it. And there's not a lot of signs of significant herd rebuilding, so that creates an environment where beef is just the premier luxury protein.

Alex Ossola (0:53)

It's Thursday, February 19th. I'm Alex Ossola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

A new report from the Commerce Department out today shows that the nation's trade deficit, the gap between imports and exports, was just over $900 billion last year. That's only slightly smaller than in 2024, despite big tariffs from the Trump administration that aimed at closing trade gaps. US imports last year rose 5% and hit a record, meaning that the country remains a heavy net importer. We're exclusively reporting that President Trump is weighing an initial limited strike on Iran to force it to meet his demands for a nuclear deal. It would be the first step designed to pressure Tehran into an agreement. The opening attack would target a few military or government sites. It could come within days if it's authorized. If Iran refuses to end its nuclear enrichment after that strike, the US would respond with a broad campaign against the regime, potentially aimed at toppling the government. Officials said Trump hasn't decided yet to order any attack, and it couldn't be determined how seriously Trump is considering this limited strike option. Officials said that discussions lately have focused more on larger scale campaigns. Trump signaled today that the US would decide its next moves within 10 days. At a Board of Peace gathering about Gaza, Trump said that quote, bad things will happen if Iran doesn't make a deal.

SPEAKER_4 (2:20)

So now we may have to take it a step further or we may not. Maybe we're going to make a deal where you're going to be you're going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days.

Alex Ossola (2:27)

Iranian officials have threatened to respond with maximum force to American strikes.

Walmart reported strong sales growth in its latest quarter, with US comparable sales, a key retail metric, rising 4.6%. It continued to attract shoppers of all income levels to its groceries and online deliveries. The company's new CEO, John Ferner, said on Walmart's earnings call this morning that investments in the online business were helping fuel growth.

John Ferner (2:57)

The investments we made in technology and supply chain help us deliver items even faster. They're paying off. Here in the US., customers using fast delivery, and that's delivery in under three hours, grew more than 60% for the year.

Alex Ossola (3:10)

But the end of the fiscal year also saw Walmart losing its crown as the biggest US company by annual revenue. It's been overtaken by a big rival in e-commerce, Amazon. Sarah Nassauer, who covers Walmart for the journal, says it's a milestone.

Sarah Nassauer (3:24)

For the first time in over a decade, Amazon is bigger than Walmart by annual revenue. And that is symbolic. You know, it's symbolic internally inside Walmart, right? And how they view themselves. It's also symbolic, you know, externally. And it just speaks to how quickly Amazon has been able to grow. They're a younger company than Walmart. There is a shift happening, but both Amazon and Walmart are growing fast. You're seeing these two massive behemoths grow really fast.

Alex Ossola (4:01)

If you eat beef, you may have noticed that its price has gone way up. The Labor Department said last week that ground beef prices in January rose 17% from a year earlier. That's a much bigger increase than groceries overall. Those were up 2.1%.

And it's looking like these high prices may be here to stay. Patrick Thomas, who covers the food supply chain for the Journal, is here to discuss. Okay, Patrick, what is pushing these prices so high?

Patrick Thomas (4:26)

Several years ago, cattle ranchers across the United States started shrinking their herds. This was due to some pretty poor financial conditions following the COVID-19 pandemic. And then in 22, we had a massive drought that made it really expensive to feed livestock. So it made more financial sense for ranchers to send their animals to market. They sent more to slaughter and essentially just shrunk their herds. And now we're in a situation where we just don't have the supply to meet demand. And that's pushed prices up to these record levels over the last year.