Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday briefing on the stories moving markets and the broader economy.
France is back in the headlines, and the implications reach beyond Paris. More than four hundred thousand people marched across the country over school funding and soaring living costs, the largest mobilization in months. Police made nearly one thousand arrests as clashes broke out near the end of the march, and shopkeepers boarded up storefronts across the capital. The unrest adds fresh political pressure on President Macron and raises real questions about consumer confidence and stability in the eurozone's second-largest economy.
Closer to home, CVS is rethinking its entire retail identity. The pharmacy chain closed two hundred forty-three locations in twenty twenty-five alone, following hundreds more closures the two prior years. With Rite Aid gone entirely and Walgreens retrenching, CVS is now looking to models like Costco and Marshalls — leaning into curated, value-driven retail to recapture foot traffic that delivery has quietly stolen away.
And in energy, Berkshire Hathaway holds meaningful positions in both Chevron and Occidental Petroleum, making the comparison between the two a legitimate portfolio question. Occidental has been sharpening its focus on upstream production, while Chevron offers the integrated balance sheet. Which you favor depends heavily on your view of crude prices and capital return discipline over the next cycle.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
