If you receive more Social Security benefits than you are owed, you may face a 100% default withholding rate from your monthly checks once a new policy goes into effect.

The change announced last week by the Social Security Administration marks a reversal from a 10% default withholding rate that was put in place last year after some beneficiaries received letters demanding immediate repayments for sums that were sometimes tens of thousands of dollars.

The discrepancy — called overpayments — happens when Social Security beneficiaries receive more money than they are owed.

The erroneous payment amounts may occur when beneficiaries fail to report to the Social Security Administration changes in their circumstances that may affect their benefits, according to a 2024 Congressional Research Service report. Overpayments can also happen if the agency does not process the information promptly or due to errors in the way data was entered, how a policy was applied or in the administrative process, according to the report.

The Social Security Administration paid about $6.5 billion in retirement and disability benefit overpayments in fiscal year 2022, which represents 0.5% of total benefits paid, the Congressional Research Service said in its 2024 report. The agency also paid about $4.6 billion in overpayments for Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, benefits in that year, or about 8% of total benefits paid.

The Social Security Administration recovered about $4.9 billion in Social Security and SSI overpayments in fiscal year 2023. However, the agency had about $23 billion in uncollected overpayments at the end of the 2023 fiscal year, according to the Congressional Research Service.

By defaulting to a 100% withholding rate for overpayments, the Social Security Administration said it may recover about $7 billion in the next decade. 

“We have the significant responsibility to be good stewards of the trust funds for the American people,” Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, said in a statement. “It is our duty to revise the overpayment repayment policy back to full withholding, as it was during the Obama administration and first Trump administration, to properly safeguard taxpayer funds.”

The new 100% withholding rate will apply to new overpayments of Social Security benefits, according to the agency. The withholding rate for SSI overpayments will remain at 10%.

Social Security beneficiaries who are overpaid benefits after March 27 will automatically be subject to the new 100% withholding rate.

Individuals affected will have the right to appeal both the overpayment decision and the amount, according to the agency. They may also ask for a waiver of the overpayment, if either they cannot afford to pay the money back or if they believe they are not at fault. While an initial appeal or waiver is pending, the agency will not require repayment.

Beneficiaries who cannot afford to fully repay the Social Security Administration may also request a lower recovery rate either by calling the agency or visiting their local office.

For beneficiaries who had an overpayment before March 27, the withholding rate will stay the same and no action is required, the agency said.

The new overpayment policy goes into effect about one year after former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley implemented a 10% default withholding rate.

The change was prompted by financial struggles some beneficiaries faced in repaying large sums to the Social Security Administration.

At a March 2024 Senate committee hearing, O’Malley called the policy of intercepting 100% of a benefit check “clawback cruelty.”

At the same hearing, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, recalled how one constituent who was overpaid $58,000 could not afford to pay her rent after the Social Security Administration reduced her monthly checks.

Following the Social Security Administration’s announcement that it will return to 100% as the default withholding rate, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare said it is concerned the agency may be more susceptible to overpayment errors as it cuts staff.

“This action, ostensibly taken to cut costs at SSA, needlessly punishes beneficiaries who receive overpayment notices — usually through no fault of their own,” the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, an advocacy organization, said in a statement.

For years, American financial companies have fought the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the chief U.S. consumer finance watchdog — in the courts and media, portraying the agency as illegitimate and as unfairly targeting industry players.

Now, with the CFPB on life support after the Trump administration issued a stop-work order and shuttered its headquarters, the agency finds itself with an unlikely ally: the same banks that reliably complained about its rules and enforcement actions under former Director Rohit Chopra.

That’s because if the Trump administration succeeds in reducing the CFPB to a shell of its former self, banks would find themselves competing directly with nonbank financial players, from big tech and fintech firms to mortgage, auto and payday lenders, that enjoy far less federal scrutiny than Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-backed institutions.

“The CFPB is the only federal agency that supervises non-depository institutions, so that would go away,” said David Silberman, a veteran banking attorney who lectures at Yale Law School. “Payment apps like PayPal, Stripe, Cash App, those sorts of things, they would get close to a free ride at the federal level.”

The shift could wind the clock back to a pre-2008 environment, where it was largely left to state officials to prevent consumers from being ripped off by nonbank providers. The CFPB was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis that was caused by irresponsible lending.

But since then, digital players have made significant inroads by offering banking services via mobile phone apps. Fintechs led by PayPal and Chime had roughly as many new accounts last year as all large and regional banks combined, according to data from Cornerstone Advisors.

“If you’re the big banks, you certainly don’t want a world in which the non-banks have much greater degrees of freedom and much less regulatory oversight than the banks do,” Silberman said.

The CFPB and its employees are in limbo after acting Director Russell Vought took over last month, issuing a flurry of directives to the agency’s then 1,700 staffers. Working with operatives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Vought quickly laid off about 200 workers, reportedly took steps to end the agency’s building lease and canceled reams of contracts required for legally mandated duties.

In internal emails released Friday, CFPB Chief Operating Officer Adam Martinez detailed plans to remove roughly 800 supervision and enforcement workers.

Senior executives at the CFPB shared plans for more layoffs that would leave the agency with just five employees, CNBC has reported. That would kneecap the agency’s ability to carry out its supervision and enforcement duties.

That appears to go beyond what even the Consumer Bankers Association, a frequent CFPB critic, would want. The CBA, which represents the country’s biggest retail banks, has sued the CFPB in the past year to scuttle rules limiting overdraft and credit card late fees. More recently, it noted the CFPB’s role in keeping a level playing field among market participants.

“We believe that new leadership understands the need for examinations for large banks to continue, given the intersections with prudential regulatory examinations,” said Lindsey Johnson, president of the CBA, in a statement provided to CNBC. “Importantly, the CFPB is the sole examiner of non-bank financial institutions.”

Vought’s plans to hobble the agency were halted by a federal judge, who is now considering the merits of a lawsuit brought by a CFPB union asking for a preliminary injunction.

A hearing where Martinez is scheduled to testify is set for Monday.

In the meantime, bank executives have gone from antagonists of the CFPB to among those concerned it will disappear.

At a late October bankers convention in New York, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon encouraged his peers to “fight back” against regulators. A few months before that, the bank said that it could sue the CFPB over its investigation into peer-to-peer payments network Zelle.

“We are suing our regulators over and over and over because things are becoming unfair and unjust, and they are hurting companies, a lot of these rules are hurting lower-paid individuals,” Dimon said at the convention.

Now, there’s growing consensus that an initial push to “delete” the CFPB is a mistake. Besides increasing the threat posed from nonbanks, current rules from the CFPB would still be on the books, but nobody would be around to update them as the industry evolves.

Small banks and credit unions would be even more disadvantaged than their larger peers if the CFPB were to go away, industry advocates say, since they were never regulated by the agency and would face the same regulatory scrutiny as before.

“The conventional wisdom is not right that banks just want the CFPB to go away, or that banks want regulator consolidation,” said an executive at a major U.S. bank who declined to be identified speaking about the Trump administration. “They want thoughtful policies that will support economic growth and maintain safety and soundness.”

A senior CFPB lawyer who lost his position in recent weeks said that the industry’s alignment with Republicans may have backfired.

“They’re about to live in a world in which the entire non-bank financial services industry is unregulated every day, while they are overseen by the Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC,” the lawyer said. “It’s a world where Apple, PayPal, Cash App and X run wild for four years. Good luck.”

The Trump Organization sued Capital One in Florida on Friday for allegedly “unjustifiably” closing more than 300 of the company’s bank accounts on the heels of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters.

The lawsuit said that the Trump Organization and related entities “have reason to believe that Capital One’s unilateral decision came about as a result of political and social motivations and Capital One’s unsubstantiated, ‘woke’ beliefs that it needed to distance itself from President Trump and his conservative political views.”

“In essence, Capital One ‘de-banked’ Plaintiffs’ Accounts because Capital One believed that the political tide at the moment favored doing so,” the Trump Organization claims in the civil case filed in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County.

The suit seeks a declaratory judgment that the bank improperly terminated the Trump companies’ accounts in June 2021, as well as punitive and other monetary damages for what the suit alleged was “the devastating impact” of the terminations on the companies’ ability to transact and access their funds.

The closures came more than four months after the riot at the U.S. Capitol, which began after Trump for weeks falsely claimed that he had won the 2020 presidential election over former President Joe Biden.

The suit’s named plaintiffs are the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, DJT Holdings, DJT Holdings Managing Member, DTTM Operations, and Eric Trump, the president’s son, who with his brother, Donald Trump Jr., runs the Trump Organization.

The complaint says the plaintiffs and affiliated entities held hundreds of accounts at Capital One for decades before they were closed. Eric Trump said the amount of damages suffered by the companies is “millions of dollars.”

Alejandro Brito, a lawyer who is representing the Trump Organization in the suit, told CNBC the company “is contemplating other suits against financial organizations that engaged in similar conduct.”

Brito said Capital One’s actions “was an attack on free speech.”

A spokesperson for the bank wrote in an email to CNBC, “Capital One has not and does not close customer accounts for political reasons.”

Eric Trump said in a statement, “The decision by Capital One to ‘debank’ our company, after well over a decade, was a clear attack on free speech and free enterprise that flies in the face of the bedrock principles and freedoms that define our country.”

“Moreover, the arbitrary closure of these accounts, without justifiable cause, reflects a broader effort to silence and undermine the success of the Trump Organization and those who dare to express their political views,” said Eric Trump.

Struggling drugstore chain Walgreens is going private. 

The company on Thursday said it inked a deal with private equity firm Sycamore Partners that will take it off the public market for an equity value of around $10 billion.

Sycamore will pay $11.45 per share in cash for Walgreens. Shareholders could also receive up to $3 more per share in the future from sales of Walgreens’ primary-care businesses, including Village Medical, Summit Health and CityMD. Walgreens said the total value of the transaction would be up to $23.7 billion when including debt and possible payouts down the line.

Walgreens and Sycamore expect to close the take-private deal in the fourth quarter of this year. Shares of Walgreens jumped more than 5% in after-hours trading on Thursday before being halted.

The historic deal ends Walgreens’ tumultuous run as a public company, which began in 1927. As of Thursday morning, shares of the company were up more than 15% for 2025, but the stock was still down more than 48% for the last year and had fallen 70% for the past three years. 

“While we are making progress against our ambitious turnaround strategy, meaningful value creation will take time, focus and change that is better managed as a private company,” Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth, who stepped into the role in 2023, said in a release on Thursday. “Sycamore will provide us with the expertise and experience of a partner with a strong track record of successful retail turnarounds.

Stefan Kaluzny, Sycamore’s managing director, said in the release the transaction reflects the firm’s confidence in Walgreens’ “pharmacy-led model and essential role in driving better outcomes for patients, customers and communities.”

Walgreens will maintain its headquarters in Chicago. The company currently has more than 310,000 employees globally and 12,500 retail pharmacy locations across the U.S., Europe and Latin America, according to the release. Walgreens still plans to release its second-quarter earnings on April 8.

Walgreens’s market value reached a peak of more than $100 billion in 2015 as investors gained confidence in its health-care business and expansion plans, making it one of the most prominent American retail companies. 

But the company’s market cap shrank to under $8 billion in late 2024 due to competition from its main rival CVS, grocery chains, big-box retailers and Amazon, along with a slew of challenges. Walgreens has been squeezed by the transition out of the Covid pandemic, pharmacy reimbursement headwinds, softer consumer spending and a troubled push into health care.

Both Walgreens and CVS have pivoted from years of store expansions to shuttering hundreds of retail pharmacy locations across the U.S. to shore up profits. But unlike CVS, which has diversified its business model by offering insurance and pharmacy benefits, Walgreens largely doubled down on its now-flailing retail pharmacy business. 

In October, Walgreens said it plans to close roughly 1,200 of its drugstores over the next three years, including 500 in fiscal 2025 alone. Walgreens has around 8,700 locations in the U.S., a quarter of which it says are unprofitable. The company has also scaled back its push into primary care by cutting its stake in provider VillageMD. 

Walgreens tapped health-care industry veteran Tim Wentworth as its new CEO in late 2023 to help regain its footing. 

The company has reportedly been seen as a potential private equity target in the past. 

In 2019, private equity firm KKR made a roughly $70 billion buyout offer to Walgreens, the Financial Times and Bloomberg reported at the time. 

Dine Brands hopes to boost sales this year with a wider swath of value meals and buzzier advertising after a rough 2024 for Applebee’s and IHOP.

“We had a soft year in 2024, which disappoints us, but we’re focused on improving that in 2025,” Dine Brands CEO John Peyton told CNBC. “We’ve got to have compelling messages and compelling promotions and compelling reasons to drive traffic into the restaurants.”

Dine on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter U.S. same-store sales dropped 4.7% at Applebee’s and 2.8% at IHOP, ending the year with four straight quarters of domestic same-store sales declines for its two flagship brands. Shares of Dine have fallen 50% over the last 12 months, dragging its market cap down to $386 million.

The company’s down year followed three years of strong growth for the company, driven by pent-up demand as diners returned to IHOP and Applebee’s after the pandemic. But like many restaurant companies, Dine saw a pullback last year from customers who make less than $75,000. After several years paying higher prices for groceries, rent, gas and other necessities, consumers opted to stay home to cook their meals or visit other chains that offered better deals or flashy promotions.

The slowdown in restaurant spending led a slew of casual-dining restaurant chains to file for bankruptcy over the last 12 months. Familiar names like Red Lobster and TGI Friday’s sought bankruptcy protection to reorganize their struggling businesses and offload their worst-performing restaurants. Most recently, On the Border filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday.

Applebee’s promotions have failed to cut through much of the noise from the so-called value wars that have ignited across the restaurant industry, at chains from McDonald’s to Bloomin’ Brands’ Outback Steakhouse. Even a triad of recent pop-culture moments last year couldn’t boost its profile: a pivotal cameo in the tennis drama film “Challengers,” an Applebee’s-motivated meltdown on “Survivor” and a shoutout from football legend Peyton Manning during Netflix’s roast of his former rival Tom Brady.

“You’ve got most of the restaurant companies are advertising value, and they’re advertising full meal deals, and so it’s harder to break through with a message when there are so many similar messages out there,” Dine’s Peyton said.

But it’s not impossible to break out from the pack. Chili’s, which is owned by Brinker International, won over diners with its viral Triple Dipper and $10.99 burger combo after spending months turning around its business.

In its most recent quarter, Brinker reported same-store sales growth of 27.4%. Thanks to its dramatic comeback, the company has become the rare casual-dining darling of investors. Brinker’s stock has soared over the last year, nearly tripling its value in the same period and raising its market cap to $6.29 billion.

For now, the star of Applebee’s value promotions, the two for $25 deal, routinely accounts for roughly a fifth of the chain’s tickets, according to Peyton. But Applebee’s is looking to add to its value offerings later this spring or in the early summer with options that appeal to larger groups or to customers who don’t want to order with their dining partner.

Dine is also trying to improve its social media presence.

“At both IHOP and Applebee’s, we know we need to do better there. We know we need to be more relevant. We know that we have to be part of the conversation and the culture,” Peyton said.

A new president for Applebee’s could help with that goal.

Peyton is currently pulling double duty serving as interim president for the chain after Tony Moralejo stepped down effective Tuesday. Peyton said the company is looking for a replacement “with a great marketing background” who understands how to connect with younger customers, on top of being a great leader with an understanding of franchising and some restaurant experience. (Yum Brands’ Lawrence Kim joined Dine as IHOP’s president in early January, succeeding Jay Johns.)

Looking to 2025, Dine is trying to communicate better with its customers and use its menu innovation to attract younger diners, according to Peyton.

But Dine’s confidence in its ability to attract customers seems shaky. For 2025, the company is projecting Applebee’s same-store sales to range between a 2% decline and a 1% increase and IHOP’s same-store sales to range between a 1% decrease and a 2% gain.

Macy’s delivered another quarter of mixed results on Thursday as investors wait and see how quickly CEO Tony Spring can pull off a turnaround of the business with yet another activist investor looking to take the chain private.

Across the business, which includes the Macy’s banner, Bloomingdale’s and Blue Mercury, comparable sales during the all-important holiday quarter were down 1.1%. But comparable sales across its owned and licensed businesses, plus its online marketplace, were up 0.2%, which is the highest the metric has been since the first quarter of 2022. 

Plus, the so-called First 50 locations — the stores that Macy’s is devoting more resources to as part of its turnaround plan — saw comparable sales up 0.8%, marking the fourth quarter in a row the metric has been positive.

The two bright spots in an otherwise worse-than-expected set of results suggest Macy’s turnaround is showing some signs of life — it just might not be working fast enough.

For fiscal 2025, Macy’s is expecting adjusted earnings per share of $2.05 to $2.25 and sales of between $21 billion and $21.4 billion, lower than Wall Street expectations of $2.31 per share and $21.8 billion, according to LSEG.

Macy’s shares fell slightly in early trading.

Here’s how the department store performed during its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Feb. 1 was $342 million, or $1.21 per share, compared with a loss of $128 million, or a loss of 47 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items including impairments and settlement and restructuring charges, Macy’s reported earnings of $507 million, or $1.80 per share. 

Sales dropped to $7.77 billion, down about 4% from $8.12 billion a year earlier. Like other retailers, Macy’s benefited from an extra selling week in the year-ago period, which has skewed comparisons. 

For the current quarter, Macy’s is expecting adjusted earnings per share of between 12 cents and 15 cents and sales of between $4.4 billion and $4.5 billion, far below estimates of 28 cents and $4.71 billion, according to LSEG.

On a call with analysts, chief operating officer and chief financial officer Adrian Mitchell said the company is taking a “prudent” approach to guidance given the fluid nature of the turnaround plan, cautious consumer spending and uncertainties created by recent tariff increases between the U.S. and major trade partners.

“If we weren’t in the environment that were operating in, I would be even more bullish on our potential,” CEO Spring said during a call with analysts. “But I think prudency is important at this point in time.”

Macy’s mixed results come just over a year into Spring’s tenure as the legacy department store’s chief executive and his three-year strategy to turn the business around. While Bloomingdale’s and Blue Mercury saw another quarter of positive comparable sales, growing 4.8% and 6.2%, respectively, Macy’s namesake banner continues to be the company’s laggard with comps down 1.9%. 

To address long-standing issues at the legacy banner, Spring has implemented an aggressive store closure plan that includes shuttering 150 doors and a strategy to fix its better-performing locations. As Macy’s and other department stores have shrunk over the years, it’s faced criticism for neglecting its stores, not having enough staff and falling behind on the retail essentials that are necessary to win in any environment. 

Spring has started to address those issues by investing in 50 locations and providing better staffing, merchandising and visual presentation of the company’s varied assortment.

So far, the plan appears to be working. When Macy’s added more staffing to the shoes and handbag departments at 100 test locations, those stores outperformed shops that didn’t have those investments, Spring said Thursday.

Storewide, the first 50 locations have continued to outperform the bulk of the chain, and in February, the company added an additional 75 stores to the program, bringing the total number of “reimagined” locations to 125.

“Performance of both the first 50 and the 100 test stores illustrate that when we invest in the customer experience, we can grow sales,” said Spring. “Now we must scale these changes in order to achieve our long-term goals.”

In fiscal 2024, comparable sales across Macy’s business were still down by 0.9%, but that’s an improvement of 5.1 percentage points compared to fiscal 2023. In the fourth quarter, comparable sales at the Macy’s nameplate also saw a decline of 0.9%, up 3.8 percentage points from the prior year.

Still, investors shouldn’t expect a return to growth this year. The company is projecting comparable sales for the owned stores it’s keeping open, plus its licensed businesses and online marketplace, to be down 2% to flat in fiscal 2025 compared to the prior year.

Reimagined stores now make up 36% of the 350 Macy’s locations that the business plans to keep open after it finishes closing underperforming locations. It will take time — and capital — to extend its strategy to the bulk of the chain. Spring has given the company two more years to pull it off, but whether investors have the patience to see the strategy play out — and whether macroeconomic conditions will slow it down — remains to be seen. 

In December, activist investor Barington Capital revealed it has a position in Macy’s and wants the company to cut spending, explore selling its luxury brands and take a hard look at its real estate portfolio. It’s the fourth activist push at the department store in the last decade.

Like the activists that had come right before it, Arkhouse and Brigade, many suspect that Barington is mainly after Macy’s lucrative real estate portfolio and is more interested in juicing it for profit than doing the work necessary to revitalize the chain. Still, Macy’s must act in the interest of shareholders and if it’s not doing enough to return value quickly an activist could eventually win out.

Macy’s on Thursday announced its intent to resume share buybacks under its remaining $1.4 billion share repurchase authorization, “market conditions pending.” 

“Building on our momentum, we continue to elevate the customer experience, deliver operational excellence and make prudent capital investments,” said Mitchell. “We remain committed to generating healthy free cash flow and returning capital to shareholders through share buybacks and predictable quarterly dividends.” 

Macy’s delivered another quarter of mixed results on Thursday as investors wait and see how quickly CEO Tony Spring can pull off a turnaround of the business with yet another activist investor looking to take the chain private.

Across the business, which includes the Macy’s banner, Bloomingdale’s and Blue Mercury, comparable sales during the all-important holiday quarter were down 1.1%. But comparable sales across its owned and licensed businesses, plus its online marketplace, were up 0.2%, which is the highest the metric has been since the first quarter of 2022. 

Plus, the so-called First 50 locations — the stores that Macy’s is devoting more resources to as part of its turnaround plan — saw comparable sales up 0.8%, marking the fourth quarter in a row the metric has been positive.

The two bright spots in an otherwise worse-than-expected set of results suggest Macy’s turnaround is showing some signs of life — it just might not be working fast enough.

For fiscal 2025, Macy’s is expecting adjusted earnings per share of $2.05 to $2.25 and sales of between $21 billion and $21.4 billion, lower than Wall Street expectations of $2.31 per share and $21.8 billion, according to LSEG.

Macy’s shares fell slightly in early trading.

Here’s how the department store performed during its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Feb. 1 was $342 million, or $1.21 per share, compared with a loss of $128 million, or a loss of 47 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items including impairments and settlement and restructuring charges, Macy’s reported earnings of $507 million, or $1.80 per share. 

Sales dropped to $7.77 billion, down about 4% from $8.12 billion a year earlier. Like other retailers, Macy’s benefited from an extra selling week in the year-ago period, which has skewed comparisons. 

For the current quarter, Macy’s is expecting adjusted earnings per share of between 12 cents and 15 cents and sales of between $4.4 billion and $4.5 billion, far below estimates of 28 cents and $4.71 billion, according to LSEG.

On a call with analysts, chief operating officer and chief financial officer Adrian Mitchell said the company is taking a “prudent” approach to guidance given the fluid nature of the turnaround plan, cautious consumer spending and uncertainties created by recent tariff increases between the U.S. and major trade partners.

“If we weren’t in the environment that were operating in, I would be even more bullish on our potential,” CEO Spring said during a call with analysts. “But I think prudency is important at this point in time.”

Macy’s mixed results come just over a year into Spring’s tenure as the legacy department store’s chief executive and his three-year strategy to turn the business around. While Bloomingdale’s and Blue Mercury saw another quarter of positive comparable sales, growing 4.8% and 6.2%, respectively, Macy’s namesake banner continues to be the company’s laggard with comps down 1.9%. 

To address long-standing issues at the legacy banner, Spring has implemented an aggressive store closure plan that includes shuttering 150 doors and a strategy to fix its better-performing locations. As Macy’s and other department stores have shrunk over the years, it’s faced criticism for neglecting its stores, not having enough staff and falling behind on the retail essentials that are necessary to win in any environment. 

Spring has started to address those issues by investing in 50 locations and providing better staffing, merchandising and visual presentation of the company’s varied assortment.

So far, the plan appears to be working. When Macy’s added more staffing to the shoes and handbag departments at 100 test locations, those stores outperformed shops that didn’t have those investments, Spring said Thursday.

Storewide, the first 50 locations have continued to outperform the bulk of the chain, and in February, the company added an additional 75 stores to the program, bringing the total number of “reimagined” locations to 125.

“Performance of both the first 50 and the 100 test stores illustrate that when we invest in the customer experience, we can grow sales,” said Spring. “Now we must scale these changes in order to achieve our long-term goals.”

In fiscal 2024, comparable sales across Macy’s business were still down by 0.9%, but that’s an improvement of 5.1 percentage points compared to fiscal 2023. In the fourth quarter, comparable sales at the Macy’s nameplate also saw a decline of 0.9%, up 3.8 percentage points from the prior year.

Still, investors shouldn’t expect a return to growth this year. The company is projecting comparable sales for the owned stores it’s keeping open, plus its licensed businesses and online marketplace, to be down 2% to flat in fiscal 2025 compared to the prior year.

Reimagined stores now make up 36% of the 350 Macy’s locations that the business plans to keep open after it finishes closing underperforming locations. It will take time — and capital — to extend its strategy to the bulk of the chain. Spring has given the company two more years to pull it off, but whether investors have the patience to see the strategy play out — and whether macroeconomic conditions will slow it down — remains to be seen. 

In December, activist investor Barington Capital revealed it has a position in Macy’s and wants the company to cut spending, explore selling its luxury brands and take a hard look at its real estate portfolio. It’s the fourth activist push at the department store in the last decade.

Like the activists that had come right before it, Arkhouse and Brigade, many suspect that Barington is mainly after Macy’s lucrative real estate portfolio and is more interested in juicing it for profit than doing the work necessary to revitalize the chain. Still, Macy’s must act in the interest of shareholders and if it’s not doing enough to return value quickly an activist could eventually win out.

Macy’s on Thursday announced its intent to resume share buybacks under its remaining $1.4 billion share repurchase authorization, “market conditions pending.” 

“Building on our momentum, we continue to elevate the customer experience, deliver operational excellence and make prudent capital investments,” said Mitchell. “We remain committed to generating healthy free cash flow and returning capital to shareholders through share buybacks and predictable quarterly dividends.” 

Rare pieces of memorabilia from two of the National Basketball Association’s biggest icons are hitting the auction block and are expected to sell for a combined $20 million.

Sotheby’s announced on Thursday that it is putting up for auction Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant rookie jerseys that were worn during each of their first NBA games. The auction comes as rookie memorabilia has seen a recent surge in popularity and pricing.

“The historical weight of these two jerseys is difficult to overstate. They are as rare as they come,” said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of modern collectables, in a statement.

The jerseys will be available in separate lots beginning March 21.

Sotheby’s is auctioning off rare jerseys from Michael Jordan’s and Kobe Bryant’s rookie season.

The Jordan jersey was first worn Oct. 5, 1984, in Peoria, Illinois, where he played his first game for the Chicago Bulls in front of a crowd of just 2,000 people.

Sotheby’s said jerseys from Jordan’s rookie season are “unicorns” and rarely seen on the market.

Jordan ended up averaging 28.2 points per game that rookie season, earning him Rookie of the Year honors. He went on to win six NBA championships and has cemented his name as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

Sotheby’s expects the iconic jersey to fetch about $10 million.

A second lot is offering Bryant’s first jersey from his 1996-97 rookie reason with the Los Angeles Lakers. Sotheby’s said the rare jersey was worn during Bryant’s first preseason and regular season games.

Bryant entered the NBA at just 18 years old and went on to win five NBA championships and two Finals MVP awards. He died in a tragic helicopter crash in 2020.

Bryant’s jersey is also expected to sell in the $10 million range.

Sotheby’s says rookie memorabilia has seen a recent uptick in demand among its customers. In October 2023, Victor Wembanyama’s game-worn San Antonio Spurs jersey sold for $762,000, and in August 2022, a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card sold for $12.6 million.

“Early rookie jerseys represent the genesis of an athlete’s career. For collectors in search of true one-of-one treasures, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own iconic pieces of basketball history,” said Wachter.

President Donald Trump will “probably” announce tariff compromise deals with Canada and Mexico soon, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday.

The potential agreements would likely involve scaling back at least part of Trump’s brand new 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, he added.

Lutnick’s comments came minutes after the U.S. stock market limped to a close for a second day of sharp declines, spurred at least in part by investors’ fears that Trump’s aggressive policies will ignite a crippling trade war.

The compromise with Canada and Mexico will likely be revealed as soon as Wednesday, Lutnick said on “Fox Business.”

While the Cabinet secretary did not specify what Trump would agree to, he suggested the U.S. president would be willing to meet Canada and Mexico “in the middle.” He also appeared to foreclose on the possibility that Trump would lift the tariffs entirely.

The Trump administration on Tuesday reimposed sweeping 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports after putting them on pause for a month.

Trump, who has held up tariffs as an all-powerful negotiating tool, based the policy on allegations that the neighboring countries were failing to stem the flow of drugs and crime into the U.S.

“Both the Mexicans and the Canadians are on the phone with me all day today, trying to show that they’ll do better,” Lutnick said Tuesday afternoon.

“And the President is listening because, you know, he’s very, very fair and very reasonable. So I think he’s going to work something out with them,” he said.

Lutnick described a deal in which Canada and Mexico agree to “do more,” at which point Trump would “meet you in the middle some way.”

“We’re going to probably be announcing that tomorrow,” he said.

Lutnick said the announcement would not be another pause.

The comments came hours before Trump was set to deliver a primetime address to a joint session of Congress.

Starbucks announced Tuesday that Nordstrom CFO Cathy Smith will join the company as its new chief financial officer, replacing longtime veteran Rachel Ruggeri.

The executive change is the latest for Starbucks after Brian Niccol joined the company as chief executive in September with the goal of turning around slumping coffee sales.

So far, noteworthy departures during Niccol’s tenure have included the company’s North American CEO, North American president, chief supply officer and the former chair of the board. Meanwhile, many executives with ties to Niccol from his time leading Chipotle Mexican Grill and Yum Brands’ Taco Bell have joined the company.

Smith, 61, joins Starbucks after two years at Nordstrom, which is also based in Seattle and recently announced a $6.25 billion deal to go private. Throughout her decades-long career, Smith has also served as CFO for Bright Health Group, Target, Express Scripts, Walmart International, GameStop, Centex, Kennametal, Textron and Raytheon.

Smith is expected to start next month, Niccol wrote in a letter to employees.

Ruggeri has served as chief financial officer for Starbucks since 2021. Excluding two brief stints at other companies, she has worked at the coffee chain since 2001.

“I’m personally grateful for the partnership we’ve had over the last 6 months since I joined Starbucks,” Niccol said in the letter. “Thank you, Rachel, for all you have done for our business, our culture and our partners.”

Her departure is without cause, the company said in a regulatory filing. Ruggeri will stick around to help with Smith’s transition into the role, according to Niccol.