How Retailers Are Coping With Cautious Consumers

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This episode is brought to you by Charles Schwab. Decisions made in Washington can affect your portfolio every day. Washington-Wise from Charles Schwab is an original podcast that unpacks the stories making news there. Listen at schwab.com/washington-wise.

Luke Vargas (0:18)

The GOP led house rejects President Trump's Canada tariffs, but backs him up on his voter ID push. Plus, Elon Musk announces a shake up at XAI as it merges with SpaceX. And we'll look at how cautious consumers are reshaping retail.

Melissa Minkow (0:34)

Even though this consumer continues to be very aware of how expensive items are becoming, it's not necessarily meaning they'll pull all the way back. It's just meaning that as a retailer, you have to fight harder for them. You have to bring your A game.

Luke Vargas (0:50)

It's Thursday, February 12th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM Edition of What's News. The top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

Six House Republicans have joined Democrats in rejecting President Trump's tariffs on Canada. Immediately after the vote, Trump said that Republicans who broke rank would suffer the consequences come election time. At least one of them, Colorado's Jeff Hurd, said he was comfortable with his decision. Here he was speaking to CNN.

SPEAKER_4 (1:21)

I say this is something that supports the president's agenda of onshore and reshoring manufacturing. He's absolutely right. There's a lot that we need to be doing. There are a lot of trade imbalances and trade abuses that are happening. But we need to do it the right way, consistent with the Constitution. And I worry about the precedent that we might be setting if there's a Democratic president.

Luke Vargas (1:38)

The move is largely symbolic. Even if the resolution clears the Senate, President Trump would almost certainly veto it. Nevertheless, Democrats are planning more anti-tariff votes, targeting US levies on Brazil and other countries.

Meanwhile, House Republicans were able to advance a key GOP priority yesterday, passing legislation that would significantly tighten federal voter registration requirements. The Save America Act requires that voters show proof of citizenship and would establish a nationwide voter identification requirement for casting ballots. While Republicans have framed the bill as common-sense legislation, Democrats warn it could impose barriers for eligible voters. Here's Journal reporter, Anvi Bhutani.

Anvi Bhutani (2:21)

Now that the legislation has passed the House, it will come to the Senate, where it faces an uphill battle. Currently, with the rules are on the filibuster, the Senate would require a 60-vote threshold to be met in order for the legislation to pass. Currently, Republicans have a 53-vote majority in the Senate, which means they need to convince seven Democrats to side with them. But it doesn't look like that support exists currently.

Luke Vargas (2:50)

There are fresh signs that international pressure on Russia's oil industry is having an effect as dozens of tankers filled with Russian oil float at sea without buyers. Joining me with more is Journal Finance Editor Alex Frangos. Alex, what's going on here, both with these ships kind of loitering around at sea, but also this real pricing squeeze, Russian oil being discounted heavily on global markets.

Alex Frangos (3:13)

There's been a lot of pressure on Russia from European countries and the US in terms of new sanctions on individual boats in their so-called shadow fleet that they've been using to move oil around the last few years. There's also been these seizures that the Trump administration has conducted against shadow fleet ships that mostly work in Venezuela but are also tied to some Russian oil shipments. Then Trump struck this deal with India to lower tariffs there in exchange for India saying they would cut back on buying Russian oil. All this has meant that there's all this Russian oil that gets produced but they have fewer buyers and a lot of the oil is being stored on ships floating at sea waiting for a buyer to say, well, if the price gets low enough, we'll buy it.

Luke Vargas (3:57)

Everyone wants lower prices, Alex, but they're already quite cheap. I want you to zoom in on that for us. This really amazing gap that's opening up between what Russian crude oil is fetching on world markets and where international Brent crude prices are.

Alex Frangos (4:10)

Yeah, so normal oil that is sold from non-sanctioned countries sells for something in the $60 to $65 a barrel range. Russia, in order to sell its oil, has to offer a discount that's as much as $27 per barrel. So they lose a lot of money compared to back when they were a legitimate member of the global economy.

Luke Vargas (4:33)

I guess I'm just curious why this discount isn't making it more tempting than for countries to go in and buy this oil and get a great deal on it.