Big-box retailers chase the tariff refund pot
Spring housing market anemic, gas prices could hit $5 nationwide
A big story for shoppers played out in a corner of corporate filings this past week: the country’s biggest retailers are formally pursuing federal tariff refunds tied to the Trump administration’s IEEPA duties, CNBC reported.
Walmart Finance Chief John David Rainey confirmed the company has applied, said it does not expect a “substantial financial windfall” and pledged any refunds would be invested back into prices. The dollar pool is real: more than $35 billion in refund claims have already been processed and are en route to businesses, according to figures cited in the CNBC piece.
Target CFO Jim Lee said the discount retailer is “working through the process” of getting its share, and Home Depot Finance Chief Richard McPhail said the home-improvement chain had filed, with “an immaterial amount to recover” but enough that “the refunds could significantly offset tariff costs.”
Apple is also in the queue: CEO Tim Cook said the company has applied and would reinvest any recovered funds in “U.S. innovation and advanced manufacturing.”
Mr. Trump, who had warned he would “remember” companies that opted out, told Walmart in a separate exchange to “eat the tariffs” and that he would be “watching.” Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison said only that “we’re just monitoring the situation,” declining to confirm a filing.
Spring housing market is shaping up as a bust
The peak buying season is ending without the lift sellers expected. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index rose just 0.7 percent in the 12 months ending in March, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, down from 0.8 percent in February.
Mortgage rates remain a roadblock: CBS News’ latest forecast had the 30-year fixed running between 6.2 percent and 6.4 percent in May, with the Iran conflict raising oil prices and “fueling inflation across the economy,” according to Del Palacio’s CBS commentary.
April home sales reflected the same drag. National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun said the modest April increase came “despite varied macroeconomic indicators — featuring a record-high stock market alongside historically low consumer confidence,” CNBC reported. The Journal earlier framed the broader picture more bluntly, describing the spring season as “shaping up as a bust after April sales were flat,” in its May 11 housing dispatch.
For sellers, the takeaway is that the post-pandemic appreciation engine has stalled; for buyers, the affordability math still does not work despite the headline price moderation.
Gas hangs at $4.55, with California a $6 preview
National gasoline prices ended Tuesday at $4.56 a gallon, AAA data show, up more than $1.40 from a year ago and more than 50 percent since the war began on Feb. 28. GasBuddy now forecasts a summer-average pump price of $4.80 between Memorial Day and Labor Day, CBS News reported, with a possible test of the all-time $5.02 a gallon record if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed late into summer.
GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan said a $5 national average is “plausible” in June if traffic does not resume.
California is already a preview. AAA put the state’s regular gasoline average at roughly $6.15 a gallon this week, The New York Times reported, up from $4.90 a year ago, while the national average sat at $4.56. CNBC earlier put California diesel at about $7.50 a gallon, a 47 percent jump since the war’s Feb. 28 onset.
Energy consultant David Goldwyn warned in CNBC’s Memorial Day coverage that the country is “likely already facing $6 diesel, possibly $7 diesel” because of global competition for refined products.