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    Mattel CEO says toy manufacturing won’t come to America, but price hikes will

    Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz told CNBC he does not foresee toy manufacturing coming to America.
    Instead, the company expects to raise prices in the U.S. to offset President Donald Trump’s 145% tariff on Chinese imports.
    By the end of the year, less than 40% of Mattel’s product will be sourced from China, with a goal of reducing that to below 25% in the next two years.

    One of the goals of President Donald Trump’s 145% tariffs against China is to drive manufacturing back to America. But the odds of that are low, at least when it comes to toys.
    “We don’t see that happening,” Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday, less than a day after the company withdrew annual financial targets.

    “We need to remember that a significant part of toy creation happens in America,” he said. “Design, development, product engineering, brand management all happens in America. Making product, producing product in other countries, allows us to create quality products at affordable price points.”
    Mattel has been diversifying its global manufacturing for nearly a decade in an effort to reduce its dependence on China. By the end of the year, less than 40% of Mattel’s product will be sourced from the country. Kreiz noted that in two years, no country will represent more than 25% of Mattel’s sourcing.

    The new and old versions of the classic Barbie dolls are on display at Mattel Design Center in El Segundo, California, on Feb. 22, 2024.
    Mario Anzuoni | Reuters

    In the meantime, Mattel is taking mitigating actions to fully offset costs associated with Trump’s trade war with China, including raising prices in the U.S., while aiming to keep the cost of many toys low.
    The company is expecting to keep between 40% and 50% of its products under $20, according to Roth analyst Eric Handler.
    “This is something we are committed to do,” Kreiz said. “To continue to create quality product and find the right balance of price and value all in the service of the consumer.”
    Since the tariffs were announced on April 2, Mattel’s stock is down about 19%. More

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    Paul Tudor Jones says stock market will hit new lows even if Trump cuts China tariffs to 50%

    “We’ll probably go down to new lows, even when Trump dials back China to 50%,” Jones told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
    The widely followed investor’s bearish comments came after Trump’s rollout of the highest levies on imports in generations shocked the world last month, triggering extreme volatility on Wall Street.

    Paul Tudor Jones speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020.
    Adam Galica | CNBC

    Billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Tudor Jones said Tuesday stocks are bound to hit new lows even if President Donald Trump tones down his aggressive tariffs on China.
    “For me, it’s pretty clear. You have Trump who’s locked in on tariffs. You have the Fed who’s locked in on not cutting rates. That’s not good for the stock market,” Jones said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We’ll probably go down to new lows, even when Trump dials back China to 50%.”

    The widely followed investor’s bearish comments came after Trump’s rollout of the highest levies on imports in generations shocked the world last month, triggering extreme volatility on Wall Street. The S&P 500 suffered a severe sell-off but has since recouped much of the losses, sitting 8% below its all-time high.
    Trump has slapped tariffs of 145% on imported Chinese goods this year, prompting China to impose retaliatory levies of 125%. China said last week it is evaluating the possibility of starting trade negotiations with the U.S.
    “He’ll dial it back to 50% or 40%, whatever. Even when he does that … it’d be the largest tax increases since the 60s,” Jones said. “So you can kind of take 2%, 3% off growth.”
    Jones, the founder and chief investment officer of Tudor Investment, believes stocks haven’t found a bottom as macroeconomic conditions continue to deteriorate. The Fed has held its key overnight lending rate steady since December in a range between 4.25% and 4.5%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said he expects policymakers to “wait for greater clarity” on trade policy ramifications before adjusting any further.
    “Unless they got really dovish and really, really cut, you’re probably gonna go to new lows,” Jones said. “And then when we’re new lows, the hard day will start to follow, and it’ll probably create the Fed to move, create Trump to move. And then we’ll get some kind of reality.”
    Jones shot to fame after he predicted and profited from the 1987 stock market crash. He is also the chairman of nonprofit Just Capital, which ranks public U.S. companies based on social and environmental metrics. More

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    Prices are falling on some purchases. ‘Enjoy,’ economist says: ‘They’re not here to stay’

    Consumers are seeing prices fall in certain pockets of the U.S. economy, even as the overall inflation rate remains elevated.
    Airline fares, produce, consumer electronics and energy are among the broad categories seeing declines, according to the consumer price index.
    President Donald Trump said Friday that gasoline prices had dipped to $1.98 per gallon. However, that claim isn’t true: The retail gas price is more than $3 a gallon.

    People line up at departures gates in Los Angeles International Airport.
    Daniel Slim | Afp | Getty Images

    Even though inflation hasn’t yet declined to policymakers’ target level, some pockets of the U.S. economy have seen prices fall recently.
    Consumers have seen prices deflate for airfare, produce, household goods, electronics and gasoline, for example, according to the consumer price index, an inflation gauge. (Deflation is when prices decline, while disinflation is when prices continue to grow but at a slower pace.)

    “There are a lot of idiosyncratic factors affecting certain categories,” said Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “In the end, it’s supply and demand that will affect prices.”
    Of course, some categories are volatile and prone to extreme price gyrations — meaning price declines could quickly reverse. Tariffs also threaten to roil the picture and put upward pressure on many consumer prices.
    “Consumers should enjoy these lower prices, because they’re not here to stay,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s. “They’re going away pretty quickly, I think, over the next few weeks and months.”
    Here are some areas where consumers have seen a bit less stress on their wallets lately.

    Gasoline

    President Donald Trump claimed in a social media post Friday that gas prices had dipped to $1.98 per gallon for motorists. However, that claim isn’t true: The average retail gas price is more than $3 a gallon , according to the US. Energy Information Administration.

    However, prices have broadly declined in the past year.
    Gasoline prices are down almost 10% from a year ago, according to the latest CPI data. They fell about 6% just in the month from February to March, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the data shows.
    Oil prices have a large bearing on the prices consumers pay at the pump, since gasoline is refined from oil.

    Crude oil prices have fallen significantly. For example, futures prices for West Texas Intermediate, a U.S. oil benchmark, are down 22% over the past year.
    Lower prices signal fears that the U.S. economy is slowing down, which would mean less demand for oil, Sweet said. Meanwhile, a group of oil-producing nations known OPEC+ agreed to raise production over the weekend, weakening prices amid greater supply.
    “Prices can’t go much lower for very long or [oil] producers will start pulling back production,” Zandi said.

    Airline fares

    Lower oil prices are filtering through to many other areas of the economy, Zandi said.
    Airline fares are one example, economists said.
    Prices for airline tickets are down more than 5% from a year ago, according to CPI data. They fell about 5.3% in the month from February to March.
    Jet fuel is a major input cost for airlines; jet fuel prices are down about 15% in the year through April 25, according to the International Air Transport Association.
    More from Personal Finance:Trump’s tax package could include ‘SALT’ deduction reliefGold ETF investors may be surprised by their tax bill on profitsThis is what typically happens to stocks after periods of high volatility
    Weaker travel demand, particularly from international tourists to the U.S., has also put downward pressure on fares, economists said.
    International visits to the U.S. fell about 14% in March 2025 from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Travel Association.
    The international community is wary of traveling to the U.S. due to tensions from a U.S.-initiated trade war, and territorial declarations from the White House such as Canada becoming the 51st state or about a possible takeover of Greenland, economists said. People also fear the threat of being detained when entering the country, economists said.

    Produce

    A farm worker carries a bin with tomatoes in Immokalee, Florida.
    Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post via Getty Images

    Produce like tomatoes, lettuce and potatoes have seen sharp price declines.
    Tomatoes, for example, have seen prices fall about 8% in the past year, according to CPI data. Those of lettuce and potatoes have pulled back about 5% and 2%, respectively.
    Lower costs for diesel fuel — and, by extension, lower transportation costs from farm to grocery store shelf — have helped, economists said.
    There are also seasonal supply-and-demand factors at play, they said.
    “Tomato supplies are increasing as the Florida harvest is well underway,” Brad Rubin, sector manager at the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute, wrote in an e-mail. “The Mexico spring harvest is also plentiful in Culiacan. This includes round, Roma, and snacking tomato varieties.”
    Tomatoes imported from Mexico will face new tariffs starting in mid-July, however, following a Trump administration withdrawal from a trade agreement between the two nations.
    The lettuce crop has transitioned to Salinas, California, for the spring and the harvest has “plentiful yield and high quality,” Rubin wrote. The crop generally transitions to Yuma, Arizona, from November to April, but “production challenges” through the winter put upward pressure on prices, he wrote.

    TVs, smartphones and other goods

    Televisions and smartphones have seen prices fall 9% and 14% in the past year, according to CPI data. They each declined more than 1% in the month from February to March.
    It’s common to see prices deflate for consumer electronics, because companies can generally make products like TVs and iPhones more efficiently over time, Sweet said.
    “The flat screen TV you may have bought five years ago is a lot cheaper if you go out today,” he said. “That’s normal.”

    Technology continually improves, meaning consumers get more for their money. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which compiles CPI data, treats those quality improvements as a price decline, giving the illusion of falling prices on paper.
    The reasons for price declines in other categories can be somewhat hard to pin down, economists said.
    For example, certain household goods like dishes and flatware, sporting goods, and toys saw prices fall about 11%, 5% and 2%, respectively, in the past year. Similarly, segments of the clothing market like infants’ and toddlers’ apparel fell 4%.

    Apparel, for example, can be “very seasonal,” Sweet said.  
    “It could be weather or the timing of certain holidays,” he said. “All of that can throw apparel prices for a loop.”
    A potential explanation, Zandi said, is retailers who tried stockpiling certain goods in anticipation of tariffs may have bulked up their inventories more than expected, and may be pricing those goods more aggressively to reduce those inventories, he said. More

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    Hispanic shoppers are spending less on groceries, putting pressure on consumer companies

    Coca-Cola, Constellation Brands and Colgate-Palmolive reported that Hispanic consumers are spending less, which weighed on their North American sales.
    Some executives have pointed to the White House’s hard-line immigration stance and broader economic concerns as reasons for the slowdown.
    Hispanic Americans overall spend more on consumer packaged goods and outpace non-Hispanic consumers, according to market research firm Circana.

    Miami, Hialeah Gardens, Florida, Walmart Supercenter, checkout line cashier, customers paying.
    Jeff Greenberg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

    Hispanic consumers are cutting back their grocery spending on everything from beer to cooking spray, executives said during recent earnings calls.
    Coca-Cola, Constellation Brands and Colgate-Palmolive are among the companies that have reported a slowdown in North American sales from Hispanic shoppers.

    A fifth of the U.S. population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Hispanics are now the second-largest demographic in the U.S. and the second-fastest growing ethnic group, agency data shows.
    As the population of Hispanic consumers grows, so does their purchasing power — and their contribution to companies’ bottom lines. According to the latest data from economic think tank Latino Donor Collaborative, the U.S. Latino economy grew to $3.6 trillion in 2022, up from $3.2 trillion the prior year. And when it comes to shopping, Hispanic Americans overall spend more on consumer packaged goods and outpace non-Hispanic consumers, according to market research firm Circana.
    But the White House’s hard-line immigration stance and broader economic concerns have led some Hispanic consumers to pull back their spending.
    Hispanic consumers drove a sharp decline in consumer net purchase intent in January, although the trend moderated in February, according to a research note from Goldman Sachs, citing HundredX data. The metric refers to the ratio of customers who intend to buy more from a brand subtracted from those who plan to buy less.
    A contributing factor to the dip, some experts say, is fear around stricter immigration policy.

    While the Trump administration has deported fewer people than President Joe Biden’s administration during the year-ago period, reports from Immigration and Customs Enforcement show it is holding 10% more detainees than it was under Biden.

    Fewer occasions to spend

    Hispanic consumers helped Constellation Brands’ Modelo Especial overtake Bud Light as the nation’s top-selling beer. More than 50% of Modelo drinkers are Hispanic, according to CEO Bill Newlands.
    But Constellation provided a weaker-than-expected outlook for its fiscal 2026, citing both tariffs and diminished spending from Hispanic consumers.
    “The fact is, a lot of consumers in the Hispanic community are concerned right now. … Over half are concerned relative to immigration issues and how those impact [them]. A number of them are concerned about job losses in industries that have a high Latino employment base,” Newlands said on the company’s conference call in early April.
    The Latino unemployment rate ticked up to a seasonally adjusted 5.2% in April, from 4.8% a year earlier and 5.1% in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    “Things like social gatherings, an area where the Hispanic consumer often consumes beer, are declining today,” Newlands added.

    Corona and Modelo beers from Mexico are displayed for sale at a Whole Foods store on Feb. 3, 2025 in New York City. 
    Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    Constellation, which also owns Corona, has repeatedly self-reported that Hispanic Americans make up roughly half of the company’s overall beer business. Hispanic- and Latino-identifying customers accounted for 32.5% of Constellation Brands’ sales in 2023, according to data from consumer research firm Numerator and investment bank Jefferies.
    And Constellation isn’t the only brewer seeing a downturn. Sam Adams’ owner Boston Beer referred to a similar decline in its quarterly report.
    “The macroeconomic winds are obviously the consumer confidence, the fear of inflation; there is also some pullback from the Hispanic consumers that they’re just not going out as much,” said Boston Beer CEO Michael Spillane.
    Hispanic consumers are also pulling back on their non-alcoholic beverage purchases.
    Spending by Hispanic consumers has softened over the last couple of months, Keurig Dr Pepper CEO Tim Cofer said on the company’s conference call in late April.
    “When you dig into that, you see that manifesting both in terms of fewer trips and lower spend per trip,” he told analysts.
    Hispanic consumers make up “a meaningful percentage” of Keurig Dr Pepper’s business and broader consumer packaged goods category, according to Cofer. The company owns brands popular with Hispanic consumers like Squirt soda, Peñafiel mineral water and Clamato, which can be mixed with beer to make micheladas.
    Still, the slowdown was not enough to cause Keurig Dr Pepper to lower its full-year outlook.
    Rival Coca-Cola also didn’t trim its forecast, but it is prioritizing winning back Hispanic consumers next quarter.
    For years, the company has targeted Latinos through advertising and acquisitions, like the 2017 purchase of Mexico’s Topo Chico. Mexico is also a top market for its namesake beverage. But this quarter, executives said weaker traffic from Hispanic shoppers weighed on its North American volume, fueled in part by a boycott.
    In February, rumors spread on social media that Coke had reported undocumented workers to U.S. immigration authorities. Coke denied the accusations, but CEO James Quincey said last week that the “completely false” videos hurt traffic, particularly in Southern states.
    And Coke is seeing additional fallout south of the border from the tensions around the Trump administration’s policies.
    “Some of the geopolitical tension and Hispanic pullback also affected the Mexican [market], particularly the border region, which is very connected to the U.S.,” Quincey told analysts on the company’s conference call.

    Beyond the beverage aisle

    The pullback from Hispanic consumers didn’t just hit the beverage aisle. Other parts of the grocery store are feeling the heat, too.
    Associated British Foods saw the pullback hit U.S. sales of its Mazola cooking oils, which is the country’s top-selling oil brand.
    “It’s a bit miserable at the moment because our key customer is Hispanic and is feeling nervous and fearful, and they’re cutting back on expenditure. It feels really recessionary in parts of the U.S. market,” CEO George Weston said on the company’s conference call on Thursday.
    Colgate-Palmolive also saw lower traffic from Hispanic consumers all across the business, the company’s chief investor relations officer, John Faucher, said at the UBS Global Consumer and Retail Conference in March. The company on April 25 reported a 2.3% decline in North American volume for the first quarter.
    Still, Walmart, the nation’s largest grocer, said the Trump’s administration’s immigration policy hasn’t resulted in anything worth sharing yet.
    “It’s a nonevent for us so far,” CEO Doug McMillon said on the company’s earnings call in mid-February. More

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    Newark air traffic controllers couldn’t see or talk to planes, leading to last week’s airport meltdown

    Air traffic controllers responsible for overseeing airspace in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport lost communication with aircraft last week in an outage that prompted massive delays.
    The FAA said some controllers took time off to recover from the stress of the incidents.
    United said it will cut 35 flights from its daily schedule to avoid future disruptions at its major hub.

    People wait in line for a delayed flight at Newark International Airport on May 5, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey.
    Spencer Platt | Getty Images

    Air traffic controllers lost contact with aircraft heading to and from Newark Liberty International Airport last week, their union said, detailing an equipment failure that led to massive flight delays and raised more concerns about aging U.S. aviation infrastructure and staffing shortages.
    The controllers who guide flights in and out of the New Jersey airport on April 28 “temporarily lost radar and communications with the aircraft under their control, unable to see, hear, or talk to them,” the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, their union, said in a statement.

    Staffing shortages followed the incident, which was so severe that some of the controllers involved “have taken time off to recover from the stress of multiple recent outages,” the Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday.

    There were more than 1,500 delays in the New Jersey airport last week, according to flight-tracker site FlightAware, as disruptions piled up because of shortages of air traffic controllers.
    “Our antiquated air traffic control system is affecting our workforce,” the FAA said. “We are working to ensure the current telecommunications equipment is more reliable in the New York area by establishing a more resilient and redundant configuration with the local exchange carriers.”
    The FAA and union did not say how long the outage lasted, but Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that it was nearly 90 seconds.
    United Airlines said Friday that it will cut 35 flights a day from its New York City area hub at Newark because of the delays, in hopes of putting more slack into the system and ease disruptions.

    In a note to customers, CEO Scott Kirby said Friday that last week’s “technology issues were compounded as over 20% of the FAA controllers for EWR walked off the job.”
    “This particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it’s now clear — and the FAA tells us — that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead,” Kirby said in his note.
    The union denied that the controllers walked off the job and explained that workers took time off under the Federal Employees Compensation Act, which “covers all federal employees that are physically injured or experience a traumatic event on the job.”

    Read more CNBC airline news

    The U.S. has faced a shortage of air traffic controllers for years. The Trump administration recently rolled out new incentives to hire and retain controllers, who are required to retire at age 56.
    The FAA last year moved controllers who are responsible for aircraft arriving and departing from Newark from a facility on Long Island in New York to a different facility in Philadelphia, in hopes of reducing overloaded controllers who were also handling traffic for New York City’s major airports.
    The airspace is some of the most congested in the world.
    “The Port Authority has invested billions to modernize Newark Liberty, but those improvements depend on a fully staffed and modern federal air traffic system,” the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the major airports in the New York City area, said in a statement Monday. “We continue to urge the FAA to address ongoing staffing shortages and accelerate long-overdue technology upgrades that continue to cause delays in the nation’s busiest air corridor.”
    U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy last week visited the Philadelphia facility and said he will unveil plans for an “brand new air traffic control system” this week.
    “The system that we’re using is not effective to control the traffic that we have today,” he told reporters last week.
    Despite the aging technology, Duffy stressed that the system is safe because the FAA will slow, if not ground, airplanes altogether if air traffic controllers have capacity constraints.
    New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday urged Duffy to address the staffing shortfalls in the Philadelphia facility that oversees Newark as well as the New York facility that controls traffic in and out of LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport, both in Queens. Of the Philadelphia move and service reductions Murphy wrote: “It is apparent neither effort has led to the desired outcome.”
    Murphy asked Duffy to prioritize the region in future investments.
    “We expect millions of additional passengers next year as we prepare to host the World Cup Finals and must avoid additional disruptions or strains on the system,” Murphy said in his letter.
    Runway construction and bad weather added to Newark travel snarls in recent days. More

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    Ford suspends 2025 guidance amid $2.5 billion tariff impact

    Ford Motor beat Wall Street’s first-quarter expectations, but suspended its 2025 financial guidance
    The automaker expects to see a $2.5 billion impact from tariffs this year, though it expects to offset $1 billion of those costs.

    The Ford display is seen at the New York International Auto Show on April 16, 2025.
    Danielle DeVries | CNBC

    DETROIT — Ford Motor beat Wall Street’s first-quarter expectations, but suspended its 2025 financial guidance amid an expected $2.5 billion impact this year from President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
    The Detroit automaker said it expects to offset $1 billion of those costs through remediation actions as well as volume and pricing expectations for a total impact of $1.5 billion in 2025.

    Ford cited “near-term risks, especially the potential for industrywide supply chain disruption impacting production” and the potential for future or increased tariffs in the U.S., among other potential impacts such as retaliatory tariffs, as reasons for pulling its guidance.
    The tariff impact is notably less than the $4 billion to $5 billion that General Motors said it expected to incur as a result of Trump’s tariffs, as Ford imports fewer vehicles than its crosstown rival. GM, which last week lowered its 2025 guidance, said it expected to offset at least 30% of those expenses.
    The automotive industry is grappling with 25% tariffs on imported vehicles that went into effect in early April, as well as 25% levies on auto parts that are not compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which took effect Saturday.

    Stock chart icon

    Ford stock

    Without the tariffs, Ford said it was “tracking” toward its initial guidance that included adjusted earnings before interest and taxes, or EBIT, of $7 billion to $8.5 billion; adjusted free cash flow of $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion; and capital expenditures between $8 billion and $9 billion.
    “Our results in the first quarter show that the Ford+ [turnaround] plan is working,” Ford Chief Financial Officer Sherry House told media during a call. “We are transforming this company into a higher growth, higher margin, more capital efficient and more durable business.”

    The tariff impact is split between imported vehicles and automotive parts, House said. The company expects U.S. industry sales to be roughly 15.5 million, down 500,000 units compared with its initial expectations prior to tariffs.
    Ford has not publicly announced any significant changes to its North American manufacturing plans, but it has taken some actions to mitigate tariff costs. They have included ceasing U.S. exports to China, adjusting China-made imports and other logistical changes.
    The automaker said such adjustments lowered its first-quarter tariff impact of roughly $200 million by 35%.
    Here’s how Ford did, based on average analysts’ estimates compiled by LSEG:

    Earnings per share: 14 cents adjusted vs. 2 cents expected
    Automotive revenue: $37.42 billion vs. $36.21 billion expected

    Ford said it will update investors on the status of its 2025 guidance when the automaker reports second-quarter results.
    For the first quarter, Ford reported a 5% decline in total revenue compared with a year earlier to $40.7 billion, adjusted EBIT results of $1.02 billion and net income of $471 million. That compares to Ford’s first quarter of 2024 that included revenue of $42.8 billion, including $39.89 billion in automotive revenue, net income of $1.33 billion and adjusted EBIT of $2.76 billion.
    Ford’s traditional “Blue” operations reported only a 3% decline in revenue but a nearly 90% plummet in EBIT results to $96 million during the first quarter. Its “Pro” commercial business reported a 16% decline in revenue to $15.2 billion and EBIT results of $1.31 billion, down from more than $3 billion from a year earlier.
    Ford’s “Model e” electric vehicle business narrowed its losses from $1.33 billion a year ago to $849 million during the first quarter of this year.
    The automaker said it continues to make inroads regarding its quality and previously announced cost reductions, including a $1 billion reduction this year. That excludes any impacts of tariffs.

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    Trump signs order to boost domestic drug manufacturing as pharma tariffs loom

    President Donald Trump signed an executive order to incentivize drug manufacturing in the U.S.
    The order comes ahead of Trump’s planned tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S.
    U.S. production in the pharmaceutical industry has shrunk significantly in recent decades due to lower costs for labor and other parts of the process in countries like China and some European nations.

    U.S. President Donald Trump speaks before signing executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 5, 2025.
    Leah Millis | Reuters

    President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to incentivize prescription drug manufacturing in the U.S., streamlining the path for pharmaceutical companies to build new production sites stateside as potential tariffs on imported medicines loom.
    The order directs the Food and Drug Administration to reduce the amount of time it takes to approve manufacturing plants in the U.S. by eliminating unnecessary requirements, streamlining reviews and working with domestic drugmakers to “provide early support before facilities come online,” according to a White House fact sheet.

    It also directs the agency to raise inspection fees for foreign manufacturing plants, improve the enforcement of active-ingredient source reporting by overseas producers and consider publicly listing facilities that don’t comply.
    The White House estimates that it can currently take five to 10 years to build new manufacturing capacity for pharmaceuticals, which it called “unacceptable from a national-security standpoint.”
    “We don’t want to be buying our pharmaceuticals from other countries because if we’re in a war, we’re in a problem, we want to be able to make our own,” Trump said in the fact sheet. “As we invest in the future, we will permanently bring our medical supply chains back home. We will produce our medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, and treatments right here in the United States.”
    The order will allow the FDA to conduct more inspections of new manufacturing sites with the same resources, the agency’s commissioner, Marty Makary, told reporters on Monday. The FDA will also ramp up inspections of foreign drug facilities, switching from announced to “surprise” visits overseas, he said.
    “We had this crazy system in the United States where American pharma manufacturers … are put through the ringer with inspections, and the foreign sites get a lot easier with scheduled visits, while we have surprise visits,” Makary said.

    Trump’s order also directs the Environmental Protection Agency to “accelerate the construction of facilities” related to manufacturing drugs and their ingredients. And, it ensures that federal agencies issuing permits for a domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing facility designate a single point-of-contact to coordinate applications, along with support from the White House Office of Management and Budget.
    The order comes ahead of Trump’s planned tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S. Those potential levies – and efforts to build goodwill with the President – have already fueled a fresh wave of domestic manufacturing investments from drugmakers such as Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and AbbVie. 
    Trump on Monday told reporters he will announce pharmaceutical-specific tariffs within the next two weeks. His administration disclosed in April that it had opened a so-called Section 232 investigation into how importing certain pharmaceuticals affects national security — a move widely seen as a prelude to initiating tariffs on drugs. 
    Some pharmaceutical companies are starting to push back on Trump’s plans. For example, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said last week that the tariff threat is deterring the company from making further U.S. investments in research and development and manufacturing.
    U.S. manufacturing in the pharmaceutical industry has shrunk significantly in recent decades. Production of most of the so-called active ingredients in medicines has moved to China and other countries, largely due to lower costs for labor and other parts of the process, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
    The U.S. imported $203 billion in pharmaceutical products in 2023 alone, with 73% coming from Europe, primarily Ireland, Germany and Switzerland, according to analysis conducted by consulting firm EY. 
    Reshoring manufacturing can help make the drug supply chain more robust, decreasing the risk of disruptions, according to an April release from GlobalData, a data and analytics company. Still, it could elevate production costs and drug prices, raising affordability concerns, GlobalData said. More

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    FanDuel Sports Network touts streaming subscriber growth for regional games

    FanDuel Sports Network, the company behind regional channels for 30 NBA, NHL and MLB teams, now counts 650,000 paid streaming subscribers.
    The company said it is on track to reach one million direct-to-consumer customers by the end of the year.
    The FanDuel-branded networks are owned by Main Street Sports Group, which recently emerged from bankruptcy protection and rebranded from Diamond Sports Group.

    A detailed view of a hand holding a Fanduel Sports Network branded microphone during an interview after the Detroit Pistons defeated the Boston Celtics at Little Caesars Arena on February 26, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan.
    Nic Antaya | Getty Images

    The regional sports networks owned by Main Street Sports Group are winning over streaming subscribers.
    FanDuel Sports Network, the recently rebranded portfolio of regional channels, said Monday its paid subscribers doubled to nearly 650,000 over a period of eight weeks. The company expects to reach one million direct-to-consumer customers by the end of the year.

    The update comes months after Main Street Sports Group emerged from bankruptcy protection, having significantly trimmed its debt load and scaled back on the number of teams in its portfolio after reworking its agreements with lenders, teams and leagues.
    There are 15 owned and operated networks under the FanDuel Sports Network banner — known as Bally Sports until recently — airing coverage of 30 Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League teams across the U.S.
    On Monday, the company said that since the start of the 2025 MLB season, the streaming platform has been averaging 250,000 unique daily users and about one million unique monthly users. In addition, the average watch time per game is up 9% year over year to 92.5 minutes, according to the company.
    The numbers have been buoyed by new ways to stream the networks. As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, Main Street Sports inked a deal with Amazon’s Prime Video to make the networks available on the streaming platform, in addition to their own direct-to-consumer apps.
    The deal with Amazon is nonexclusive, giving Main Street the ability to pursue streaming rights deals with other partners, CNBC previously reported.

    In March, the company struck another partnership with SB Nation and Yahoo Sports with the goal of “accelerating subscriber growth and expanding awareness” of the streaming app ahead of the start of the MLB season. That partnership integrates affiliate links and tune-in messaging within SB Nation’s content. It also ties the networks to Yahoo’s Sports fantasy community, and offers free trials periodically.
    Michael Schneider, chief operating officer and general manager of direct-to-consumer at Main Street Sports Group, credited the growth to FanDuel Sports Network’s various partners, as well as what he called an “efficient acquisition program” for capturing new customers.
    He added that team partners have been helping, too, with promotional offers for fans on social and digital platforms helping to drive subscriptions.
    “We’re progressing on our mission to reinvent the local sports media landscape by delivering a new standard for teams and their hometown fans, while also elevating the visibility of our team partners,” said David Preschlack, CEO of Main Street Sports Group, in a news release.
    The various streaming and digital partnerships come as regional sports networks like those owned by Main Street Sports are weighed down by substantial losses among pay-TV subscribers.
    For years, regional sports networks had proved to be a lucrative business model for teams and leagues. But the fleeing of pay-TV subscribers to streaming options have left the networks needing to adapt and facing pushback from pay-TV distributors about their contracts.
    Recently, MSG Networks went dark for customers of Altice USA’s pay-TV bundle before the two reached a deal that gave Altice more flexibility. MSG Sports, which airs local New York Knicks and other teams’ games on pay TV and its Gotham Sports streaming app, has faced financial turmoil as the regional sports network model evolves.
    FanDuel Sports Network starts at $19.99 a month for access to one network and gets more expensive for broader access depending on the region. The relatively expensive price point for streaming regional sports networks is due to contracts with pay TV providers. Preschlack told CNBC Sport in an interview earlier this year the company will test out lower price points.
    Schneider said pricing is uniform in most regions.
    “Teams have provided specific offers to their fan base and we’re learning by constantly testing what the optimal price point and offers are to bring in maximum subs,” he said.

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