Wholesale prices for used vehicles rose to their highest level since the summer of 2023 in March, with the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index rising 6.2% year over year to a reading of 215.3.

Data from Manheim, a Cox Automotive brand and the largest wholesale marketplace in the US, found that demand for used vehicles remains strong.

Values rose 1.4% in the month of March, which the report noted is well above long-term norms, and are up 2.3% from the start of 2026.

“As soon as this year began, prices at Manheim started moving higher as dealers anticipated strong demand from higher tax refunds to consumers,” said Jeremy Robb, chief economist at Cox Automotive.

“Sales conversion rates, a clear sign of demand, were higher against 2025 for every week but one in Q1, and vehicle value trends at auction show we are well ahead of last year and where we would normally be during a spring bounce in the wholesale markets,” Robb added. 

“We thought we’d see some impact from the Middle East conflict, and that may still happen. But right now, the data is clear: used-vehicle demand is healthy and inventory levels are relatively tight,” he added.

The Manheim report found that buyer activity was strengthening and there was increased competition for the available inventory in the wholesale lanes, as the sales conversion rate rose to 68.2% in March.

That’s 4.6 percentage points higher than the most recent three-year average for March and is up 5.5 percentage points from the revised-higher February rate of 62.7%.

American consumers who are looking for used cars on the market will have to pay high prices that haven’t been seen in nearly 3 years. Getty Images

Used electric vehicles (EVs) also showed strength in the first quarter with firm pricing and activity for the quarter as values rose alongside the seasonal increase. 

It noted that used EVs offer consumers affordability advantages over new EVs, while there’s also an increasing flow of off-lease EVs entering wholesale channels.

Retail used vehicle sales also showed momentum, with first quarter sales up about 2% compared with the same level a year ago.

Inventory also tightened, with the days’ supply metric declining below 40 in March, which was the lowest point this year and down from a year ago.

Data from the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index shows a 6.2% year to year increase in used vehicles, making this year the most expensive to purchase used cars since the summer of 2023. Getty Images

Cox Automotive’s outlook for 2026 sees used vehicles continuing a stronger-than-expected start to the year, before being offset by a softer second half of 2026 with total used vehicle sales declining 1% year over year.

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“As we move towards summer, we expect Manheim values to hold their ground with many more consumers yet to file their tax returns this year,” Robb said.

“The end of March typically proves to be the ‘peak’ for price action at Manheim. The Middle East conflict could dampen the spirits of the U.S. consumer, but we just haven’t seen it yet – our data is showing resiliency in the economy,” Robb said.

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“KPop Demon Hunters” won the Oscar for best animated feature on Sunday, capping a record-breaking run after becoming Netflix’s most-watched film ever on its 2025 debut. The movie’s song, “Golden,” took the Academy Award for best original song.

Netflix is negotiating with concert promoters to stage a live show featuring performances of the songs from the film, the source said.

Rei Ami, EJAE, and Audrey Nuna performing at the Oscars on Sunday. REUTERS

Bloomberg News first reported the talks earlier on Wednesday.

The parties have discussed a tour that would visit dozens of major cities, featuring shows in arenas with a capacity of 10,000 to 20,000, according to the Bloomberg report. The aim is to perform around the globe next year ahead of the sequel to the animated film.

Netflix has yet to choose a promoter but has already been offered tens of millions of dollars in upfront guarantees, the report said. A Netflix spokeswoman declined to comment.

“KPop Demon Hunters” won the Oscar for best animated feature on Sunday, capping a record-breaking run after becoming Netflix’s most-watched film ever on its 2025 debut. AP

Animated by Sony Pictures Animation, the original musical film follows K-pop girl trio Huntrix — Rumi, Mira and Zoey — as they balance their superstardom with secret lives as demon hunters. Lead vocalists EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami propelled the movie’s breakout anthem “Golden” to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a new central processor and an AI system built on technology from Groq — a chip startup from which Nvidia licensed technology for $17 billion in December at its annual GTC developer conference in San Jose, Calif.

The moves are part of Huang’s bid to firm up the company’s position in so-called inference computing, the process of answering queries, where its graphics processors face greater competition from central processing units and custom processors built by the likes of Google. Nvidia chips have dominated the process of AI model training, which has been the focus of recent years.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a new central processor and an AI system built on technology from Groq – a chip startup. Getty Images

“The inference inflection has arrived,” Huang said. “And demand just keeps on going up,” he added.

Dressed in his signature black leather jacket, Huang was speaking at a hockey arena with a capacity of more than 18,000 at the four-day conference that has become one of the biggest showcases of AI technology. “I just want to remind you, this is a tech conference,” he told the audience.

But after a dazzling rally that made Nvidia the first company to hit a $5 trillion valuation last October, doubts have risen about its growth. Investors have also questioned if its plan of plowing back profits into the AI ecosystem will pay off. Huang’s comments allayed some fears.

The $1 trillion forecast is up from the $500 billion revenue opportunity through 2026 that Nvidia cited for its Blackwell and Rubin AI chips on its last earnings call in February.

Huang is joined at the stage by Olaf, a Disney character from “Frozen.” AFP via Getty Images

Shares of Nvidia briefly jumped on the new forecast but pared those gains to close up 1.2%.

“Huang mapping out a $1 trillion opportunity through 2027 underscores the durable demand for Nvidia’s AI infrastructure despite investor concerns,” Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne said.

“It signals Nvidia is sustaining its leadership in the AI chip market while the overall AI industry expands beyond early experimentation into large-scale deployment.”

Huang’s seeks to firm up Nvidia’s position in so-called inference computing, the process of answering queries, where its graphics processors face greater competition from the likes of Google. AP

Inference boom

Huang said that inference, where AI systems answer questions or carry out tasks, will be split up into two steps.

Nvidia’s Vera Rubin chips will handle a first step called “prefill,” where the user’s request is transformed from human words into ‌the language of “tokens” that AI computers use.

Groq’s new chips will handle a second “decode” stage where the AI computer provides the answer the user is looking for.

“Huang mapping out a $1 trillion opportunity through 2027 underscores the durable demand for Nvidia’s AI infrastructure despite investor concerns,” Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne said. AFP via Getty Images

After spending hundreds of billions of dollars in recent years on chips for training their AI models, companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta are shifting toward serving hundreds of millions of users who are tapping those AI systems.

That is also driving demand for CPUs – which are dominated by Intel and are increasingly seen as a viable alternative to graphics processors from Nvidia for deploying AI models.

“We are selling a lot of CPU standalone,” Huang said as he unveiled the new Vera CPU. “This is already for sure going to be a multi-billion-dollar business for us,” he added.

After spending billions of dollars in recent years on chips for training their AI models, companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta are shifting toward serving hundreds of millions of users who are tapping those AI systems. REUTERS

Huang also showed off the company’s Feynman roadmap but offered few details beyond a list of the various chips Nvidia plans to include in the platform, including AI processors and several networking chips. The Feynman architecture is expected in 2028, following the company’s Rubin Ultra chips.

The company is also targeting the market for autonomous AI agents with NemoClaw, which integrates with the viral OpenClaw platform to add privacy and safety controls to the tool that can autonomously execute a wide range of tasks with minimal human guidance and has generated global buzz.

“It’s kind of upleveled the entire discussion. It’s up leveled the entire thought of how they do infrastructure,” said Technalysis Research president Bob O’Donnell, referring to the announcements.

“He (Huang) used to come out with a new GPU chip and say, look, here’s my new chip. Now he’s got, you know, five racks of equipment that make up these systems.”

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Supernal, which makes vertical take-off prototypes, revealed last week it was axing 296 jobs at plants in Orange County and Fremont and at a test site in Mojave.

The $1.7 billion startup, which relocated from Washington DC to California three years ago, said it would consolidate operations to its Irvine headquarters.

A futuristic gray and blue electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) aircraft displayed on a stage. supernal.aero

Illustration of a futuristic flying electric vehicle, with a transparent cabin showcasing rows of white passenger seats. supernal.aero

A spokesman told the Orange County Register: “This decision is a strategic pivot to ensure our staffing and cost structures are optimized for the long-term delivery of our market-aligned aircraft design.

“Hyundai Motor Group remains committed to the Advanced Air Mobility business as part of its future mobility vision, and Supernal will continue to serve as the group’s dedicated AAM execution arm for aircraft development.”

They added the focus “remains on stabilizing the company, shaping a new business model, and developing a commercially viable aircraft.”

The exterior of a Supernal building. supernal.aero

Hyundai reshuffled the leadership structure at Supernal in September and has been struggling with test flights for autonomous EVs in Mojave.

After 10% of its workforce was laid off last summer, 80 remain.

It is the latest blow for business in California as rafts of companies scale back in the Golden State amid high taxes.

Last week the Post reported major wine manufacturer Gallo was closing a large Napa Valley production facility, wiping out nearly 100 jobs.

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Some 135 corporate Amazon employees who worked at 1140 Broadway received pink slips in January, according to a state Department of Labor filing this week. 

Another 165 Amazon workers in New York were axed, with the government records expected to hit the system within the coming weeks, a source familiar with the filings told The Post. 

Amazon laid off 135 employees who worked at 1440 Broadway. Google Maps

They’re all part of 16,000 layoffs announced last month. In October, the e-commerce giant slashed another 14,000 corporate jobs — part of a restructuring plan stemming from investments in artificial intelligence and what experts described as over-hiring during the COVID pandemic.

The company’s CEO Andy Jassy has slashed nearly 10% of Amazon’s workforce in a three-month span.

Last year, he said new tech could create new job opportunities – though he also admitted it could bring “efficiency gains” by helping to reduce the overall workforce.

“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today,” Jassy wrote in a memo in June. 

Amazon is shedding some 300 jobs in New York as part of the 16,000 job reductions it announced in January. REUTERS

“In the next few years, we expect that [AI] will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company,” he added.

Amazon did not announce the locations it targeted for layoffs, so the government filings are the only indication of where the losses took place.

The company declined to comment on the Department of Labor filings.

Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, has said that Amazon “will need fewer people” as it rolls out artificial intelligence. Getty Images for Amazon Web Services

“We’ve been working to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy,” senior vice president of people Beth Galetti wrote in a January blog post.

New York took a big hit last year with nearly 1,000 job losses at nine Amazon locations in the city.

The latest cuts are smaller and likely focused on tech roles, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told The Post.

“Amazon has tried to establish a strong presence as part of the New York tech community and this layoff is a dent in those plans,” he said, adding that “many other NYC tech players will likely aggressively focus on this opportunity to add great tech talent.” 

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The protests have driven away customers hoping to avoid the unrest, leading to reduced foot traffic, temporary closures and shortened business hours.

They’ve also kept many employees from showing up to work, further hamstringing employers, according to Adam Duininck, CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council.

Duininck estimated that business activity in South Minneapolis, where 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier this month and where most of the protests had occurred, is down 80% to 100%, while downtown businesses are down around 50%.

Businesses and restaurants across Minneapolis, Minnesota, have taken a financial hit with the anti-ICE protests across the city. Getty Images

“January is already a slow time in the restaurant world, but we’re seeing even bigger slowdowns than normal,” Duininck said.

“It’s been reported that a number of restaurants are seeing half of the revenue they normally would see in a January weekday or weeknight.”

Reservations for fine dining have also slowed, he said, adding that manufacturers are struggling to get employees to come to work, creating challenges for both workers trying to earn a paycheck and employers facing broader operational impacts.

A city official reports that some individuals across the area have said the rising tensions in the anti-ICE demonstrations compare to those during the COVID-19 pandemic. REUTERS

The protests have led customers to leave, resulting in many businesses temporarily shutting down and reducing their daily hours. Getty Images

“We’re definitely seeing that slow down the impact to the city and its economy,” he said.

“People are saying this is like the pandemic all over again for some of these businesses.”

Duininck warned that things wouldn’t change soon either, as another protest has been planned for this weekend. 

“I’m sure it was a pretty slow and quiet weekend for the restaurants,” Duininck added.

“A number of restaurants have cut back their hours in response to this, and so I think everyone’s kind of playing it day by day, week by week.”

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Single-family homes in a residential neighborhood in Miramar, Florida, Oct. 27, 2022.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Private investment firms of ultra-rich families could inadvertently get caught in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s proposed ban on “large institutional investors” buying more single-family homes. While Trump’s announcement took aim at Wall Street landlords, and particularly private equity giants like Blackstone, Haynes Boone partner Vicki Odette told Inside Wealth that family offices aren’t necessarily out of the woods.

Three-quarters of family offices in North America invest in real estate, with an average allocation of 18%, according to a survey issued by Campden Wealth and RBC Wealth Management last year. Residential properties made up just under a third of the average family office’s real estate holdings, per the same report.

The consequences of Trump’s proposal hinge on how it would define a large institutional investor, which has yet to be revealed. According to Odette, in recent years, Congress and government agencies have focused on the number of homes owned rather than the investor’s total assets or investment strategy.

A 2024 report by the Government Accountability Office about institutional investors focused on those who own more than 1,000 properties of four units or less. The threshold is even lower in the Stop Predatory Investing Act that was introduced in March, which names “disqualified single family property owners,” defined as taxpayers who directly or indirectly own 50 or more single-family residential rental properties.

“There’s a lot of rich families that would fall into that category inadvertently because they are real estate developers and made their money in real estate,” said Odette, a partner at Haynes Boone who advises family offices, funds and institutional investors.

Family offices generally prefer multifamily housing and commercial developments, she said. However, there are some family offices, especially in the South, that have meaningful portfolios of single-family homes in suburban or rural areas, she said.

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Michael Cole, managing partner of R360, an investment community for centimillionaires, said it is too early to tell if the ban will affect family offices. Muddying matters is the fact that family offices are structured in a wide variety of ways, he said.

“There is no legal entity called a family office. It’s not a corporation, it’s not an LLC, it’s not an FLP,” he said, referring to family-limited partnerships. “Those are organizations that are run by the concept of a single-family office, but a single-family office is not a legal structure.”

Arielle Frost, partner in Withers’ real estate practice, said family offices likely wouldn’t be affected immediately, as Wall Street landlords are the primary target. What is unclear, she said, is whether politicians and legislators would continue to target other types of investors.

“The first strike is probably the most important, because you need to get the support for it and the momentum behind it,” she said. “Then the question becomes will it peter out? ‘OK, we made our base happy, and now we move on to other things,’ or is this this truly something that the administration cares about and is going to continue to focus on?”

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