Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
U.S. home sales hit their highest level in months and how the art market is adapting to a new demographic of bidders.
You do get the feeling that they're still just sort of testing the field of what do the younger buyers want and how kooky do they want to be.
Plus, a media deal that went for peanuts. It's Friday, December 19th. I'm Sabrina Siddiqui for The Wall Street Journal, sitting in for Alex Ossola. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. Kicking things off with some breaking news.
The Justice Department has released a batch of files related to the government's investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, marking a milestone in a long-running fight over the sex offender's case. The move comes after Congress voted overwhelmingly last month to mandate the disclosure of records into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The first batch came today, and additional releases are expected in the coming weeks. For more details, visit wsj.com. New data shows that U.S. home sales rose last month to their highest level since February. Sales of existing homes increased half a percent from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.13 million. That's according to the National Association of Realtors.
Nicole Friedman covers the U.S. housing market for us, and she says lower borrowing costs have injected some momentum into what's otherwise been a slow market.
So existing home sales have risen for three straight months, which is the longest streak of gains since late 2024. And so that shows a little bit of momentum here at the end of the year, driven by slightly lower mortgage rates. So mortgage rates in recent months have been lower than they were earlier in the year, and that is bringing some buyers into the market.
It's a slightly more affordable time to buy a home. And so there is some optimism that if rates continue to decline, that that could lead to an increase in home buying activity in 2026. But overall, home sales are still really low. This year is still likely to be at or near the lowest level since the mid-90s for existing home sales.
So even with this slight uptick in momentum, it's from a really low base, and we're not seeing any huge increase in home buying activity just yet.
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Chapter 2: What are the key details of the DOJ's release of Jeffrey Epstein files?
The announcement follows similar drug pricing agreements between the administration and other drug makers. Tesla has won its fight over a record-breaking 2018 pay package for CEO Elon Musk. The Delaware Supreme Court issued an opinion today reversing an earlier decision that rescinded Musk's pay package.
The decision ends a years-long legal battle over compensation that grew in value to total more than $126 billion. Coming up, what's driving a $13.2 billion comeback for the art market? Plus, a new home for Snoopy. That's after the break. After a two-year slump, buyers are once again paying eye-watering prices at the world's leading auction houses.
At Sotheby's and Christie's, sales topped $13.2 billion in 2025, up from $11.7 billion the year before. Kelly Crowe, a Wall Street Journal reporter covering the art market, joins us now with more. Kelly, let's break down these numbers. You note that Sotheby's sales grew 17% to $7 billion in 2025, and Christie's sales grew 6% to $6.2 billion. What's driving the comeback?
It's just been interesting to see how when broader economic issues pop up, like fears about tariffs or changes in political situations or even war, it's just distracting for the wealthy people who sort of enjoy collecting art on the side.
And so I think it's really been an issue of both just being distracted by other fears and worries and also just now sort of feeling like things have steadied, that they're just no longer as worried. And so they can sort of go back to having fun and buying art.
Who are these buyers? How old are they? Where are they from?
I think it's fascinating. So you do see some interesting generational shifts happening. Baby boomers and, to a greater extent, Gen X are kind of setting the tone and the taste at the upper reaches of the market. But collectors under 40 now represent like a quarter of Sotheby's bidders across art and luxury. And a third of Christie's buyers are like Gen Z or millennials.
So you do get this sense that younger collectors are coming in and they don't always tend to buy what their parents and their older friends bought. They kind of are determining their own taste. So many of them come in through watches or handbags, luxury items, wine, and then they sort of double down.
I mean, some of the younger ones at Christie's this last year spent twice as much as they initially did, but they didn't necessarily buy the same thing. So they're having fun and sort of exploring across all these different categories.
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Chapter 3: How have U.S. home sales changed recently?
Like they're noticing that they really are going after some novelty items. They really like collectible cars, but they don't necessarily want Rothko and Bacon and some of the artists who were really setting the tone. I think you're going to see more efforts for the houses to expand into like the Middle East,
Beyond just the sovereign wealth funds that have sort of dominated that bidding, but they really want to like the everyday person in Abu Dhabi who's wealthy, like what are they buying? Do they want jewelry? Do they want art? What kind? And then the same with the Indian diaspora. We're seeing them branch out and buying other things.
Walk us through some of the record prices for novelty objects like purses and dinosaur bones this year. Are there high sales prices in new development?
Well, the prices are always going up, and certainly for paintings like the Gustav Klimt that sold for $236.4 million. But it's interesting when you see collectors start to pay what I call like trophy art prices for things that are kind of novelty items like... Jane Birkin's original Hermes Birkin bag sold for $10.1 million this year. Christie's sold a Fabergé egg for $30.2 million.
That's a record for a Fabergé egg.
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Chapter 4: What factors are contributing to the rise in home sales?
Smaller houses like Phillips adding more natural history things. So you see dinosaur bones. They sold a $5.4 million Triceratops this year and a bunch of other amulets. And they tried to sell a huge gold nugget. And like, they're just like, you do get the feeling that they're still just sort of testing the field of what do the younger buyers want and how kooky do they want to be.
You're going to see more sports memorabilia coming into these big auctions. I feel like there's sort of a quirkiness that comes with the younger group, which honestly, I'm fine. Let's mix it up. It doesn't all have to be Rothko all the time.
That was The Wall Street Journal's Kelly Crow. Kelly, thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
The U.S. Navy says it'll commission a new class of frigates, the first in a series of warships under President Trump's planned Golden Fleet that's meant to counter China and other adversaries. The Navy says it plans to complete construction of additional vessels at other shipyards so they can get into the fleet faster and that the goal is to launch the first ship in the water by 2028.
The new frigate will play a key role in the fleet, protecting larger ships and sea lanes from threats such as enemy aircraft and ships. The e-commerce giant Shein scored a win today after a Paris court rejected the French government's request to suspend the platform.
President Emmanuel Macron's government had asked judges to halt Shein's operations in France for at least three months after authorities discovered illicit products on the platform, including childlike sex dolls, weapons, and medications. In response, she had temporarily paused sales from third-party vendors on its French marketplace and said it removed the listings and strengthened controls.
Today, a Paris court found that completely shutting down the platform in France would be excessive and an unjustified violation of the company's right to conduct business. And let's wrap things up with a couple of deals that were announced today. Biomarin Pharmaceutical will acquire fellow biotech Amicus Therapeutics for about $4.8 billion in cash.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of next year, and Biomarin says it'll expand its portfolio in rare disease treatments. It's also the latest multi-billion dollar deal in the biotech and pharmaceutical space this year. The flurry of activity has helped lift investor enthusiasm and boosted many long-struggling stocks. And Snoopy and Charlie Brown have a new majority owner.
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