Marketplace All-in-One

The Trump administration has launched the new TrumpRx website, where people can shop for prescription drugs at discounted rates. The site, a hub that points cash-paying customers to five participating manufacturers' websites, went live yesterday. We dig in. Then, it's been a bumpy week for markets. What should we make of it? Plus, we speak with a Minneapolis restaurant owner who says sales are down 50% due to ICE's crackdown in the city.

Software companies are in trouble. Or at least their stocks are. Salesforce is down 25%, and Intuit is down 31%, after startup Anthropic released a new tool sparking fear among investors that software companies are in danger of becoming obsolete. We'll learn more. Then, all kinds of cryptocurrencies are cratering in value, and we'll hear what it's like to be a small business in an anemic job market.

From the BBC World Service: Japanese voters will give their verdict on the government of Sanae Takaichi this weekend after Japan's first female prime minister called a snap election just months into her first term. How is the economy there shaping the election? Plus, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel says his government is trying to solve an energy crisis exacerbated by U.S. sanctions. And we check in with a company on a tiny Scottish island that produces an essential piece of Winter Olympics equipment.

On this week’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” we take a look at Nvidia's changing investment relationship with OpenAI. Plus, a stormy start for the new U.S. version of TikTok. But first, SpaceX, one of the world’s largest rocket companies, announced this week that it’s buying xAI, a two-and-half-year-old artificial intelligence startup. Both companies are controlled by Elon Musk. The new company is reportedly valued at $1.25 trillion. It means the chatbot Grok, the satellite internet company Starlink, and the social media firm X are all going to co-exist under the same rocket hangar. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, about what adding these companies together equals.

The latest JOLTS report is bleaker than expected. There were 6.5 million job openings across the U.S. economy in December, down nearly 400,000 from the previous month. This misaligned labor market is especially prominent in the services sector. In this episode, what's next for employment and which groups in particular are struggling to find work. Plus: The U.S. lags behind China in electrical capacity expansion, bankers show reluctance to lend to AI-impacted industries, and a photographer installs free-to-use phones across his city.

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