Raphael Stevens

Comcast reported earnings on Thursday. Investors will be listening for commentary about a potential deal for Warner Bros. Discovery or some of its assets.
Several analysts have said it’s unlikely a Trump administration would allow Comcast to acquire all of WBD.
Some Comcast executives think the regulatory concerns are either overblown or, at least, far too early to ascertain, according to people familiar with the matter.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts may be able to take certain actions or structure a deal specifically to gain regulatory approval.

Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast, attends the annual Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho on July 9th, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Comcast reported earnings Thursday, and it could shed light on how executives view regulators’ attitude toward a potential NBCUniversal-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
Warner Bros. Discovery, the owner of TNT Sports, CNN, HBO, Warner Bros. studio and other media assets, officially put itself up for sale after “receiving interest from multiple parties,” WBD CEO David Zaslav said in a statement last week. CNBC reported Comcast is among the interested parties.

Several pundits and analysts have posited that Comcast has little to no chance to do a deal from a regulatory perspective, given President Donald Trump’s pointed words for Comcast co-CEO and controlling shareholder Brian Roberts. Others say the path forward may not be doomed.
Trump in April called Comcast and Roberts “a disgrace to the integrity of Broadcasting” in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. Trump has also called Roberts a “lowlife” and has referred to Comcast as “Concast.”
Some equity research analysts have predicted that the Trump administration would block a Comcast acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. WBD is still moving toward a planned separation into two publicly traded entities while it expands its strategic review.
Paramount is trying to buy the whole company, before it could split, and WBD has thus far rejected three separate offers from the David Ellison-run company.
“It is almost certain that the Trump DOJ would not allow CMSCA to buy WBD and the result would be decided in court,” New Street Research analyst Blair Levin wrote in a note to clients, citing Trump’s public comments about Roberts.

“We along with our cable colleagues believe [Comcast’s] political standing in this administration is very low and believe CMCSA would think long and hard about whether a deal is worth the long, arduous process of creating enough goodwill to close the deal,” wrote Raymond James analyst Ric Prentiss.
Some Comcast executives think the regulatory concerns are either overblown or, at least, far too early to ascertain, according to people familiar with the matter, who have knowledge of Comcast’s strategy but spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal thinking. There’s some evidence suggesting Comcast’s executives may have a point.
A Comcast spokesperson declined to comment.

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If it pleases the president

Skydance Media received long-awaited Federal Communications Commission approval for its merger with Paramount after the CBS parent agreed to a $16 million settlement with Trump over a “60 Minutes” episode.
While a deal for WBD won’t require FCC review, because Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t own a broadcaster, a takeover of this size — WBD’s market capitalization is about $53 billion plus another $30 billion in debt — could still draw the scrutiny of Trump’s Department of Justice.
Trump’s reputation as a dealmaker suggests Comcast may be able to avoid any interference by endearing itself to the president.
Comcast is one of 37 companies donating to Trump’s efforts to build a $300 million ballroom for the White House through the Trust for the National Mall.
Trump’s public dislike toward Roberts and Comcast may be blovation linked to Trump’s assertions that MSNBC, owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal, is left-leaning. It’s unclear if Trump explicitly cares about Comcast or NBCUniversal owning any of the WBD assets other than CNN, which Trump has also routinely criticized.
If his primary issue with Comcast buying WBD is CNN, a divestiture or deal without the network could circumvent those issues. Comcast is in the process of spinning off MSNBC into Versant, which will also become the parent company of CNBC.
While Roberts will still be a shareholder of Versant, MSNBC will no longer be a part of Comcast once Versant becomes its own publicly traded company at the start of 2026.

Structuring a spin-merge

In a hypothetical situation in which Comcast were to spin off NBCUniversal, which is currently slated to remain with the company following the Versant transaction, and merge it with WBD, LightShed analyst Rich Greenfield predicted that deal could get through regulators.
Wolfe Research’s Peter Supino proposed a plan under which NBCUniversal would issue new stock to WBD at an exchange ratio (eliminating Roberts’ voting control over the new company) and appoint a chairman and CEO “not named Roberts.” That combination could lead to a deal, he wrote in a note to clients.
“The primary problems facing a Comcast bid — financing and politics — might be solvable,” Supino wrote.
While Comcast may shy away from pursuing a transaction that could be blocked by the Trump DOJ, even that may not be a dealbreaker.
In the first Trump term, his DOJ blocked AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, an earlier iteration of Warner Bros. Discovery. In June 2018, a U.S. District Court judge approved the $85.4 billion sale, ruling the government failed to prove the deal would harm consumers.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant. More

Chipotle met Wall Street’s quarterly earnings expectations but missed revenue estimates, as traffic dropped again.
Chipotle now expects full-year same-store sales to fall by a low-single digit percentage.

A customer carries a Chipotle bag in San Francisco, California, US, on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Chipotle Mexican Grill on Wednesday reported quarterly revenue that fell short of expectations and cut its same-store sales forecast for the third straight quarter.
Shares of the company plunged 13% in extended trading.

Chipotle is expecting its full-year same-store sales to shrink by a low-single digit percentage in fiscal 2025. That’s a big change from February, when the burrito chain was projecting same-store sales would grow by a low- to mid-single digit percentage.
CEO Scott Boatwright said the company is seeing “consistent macroeconomic pressures.” Traffic fell by 0.8%, the third straight quarter of declines.
After the chain outperformed the broader restaurant industry in 2024, the sluggish consumer environment finally hit its restaurants this year. Chipotle’s customer base skews higher income, so it was insulated from the pullback in spending from low-income consumers that fast-food chains were reporting last year.
But now Chipotle is seeing consumers across all income cohorts visit less frequently. Consumers who make less than $100,000, who account for roughly 40% of the company’s customer base, have further pulled back their spending, Boatwright said. He added that the group is dining out less often due to concerns about the economy and inflation.
Customers between the ages of 25 and 35 years old are particularly challenged, he said on the company’s earnings call.

“We tend to skew younger and slightly over-indexed to this group relative to the broader restaurant industry,” Boatwright said.
He cited headwinds like unemployment, increased student loan repayments and slower real wage growth accounting for inflation, which are hurting that particular group of consumers.
“We’re not losing that customer. They’re just coming less often,” Boatwright said.

Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 29 cents adjusted, in line with expectations
Revenue: $3 billion vs. $3.03 billion expected

Shares of the restaurant chain fell about 5% in extended trading.
Chipotle reported third-quarter net income of $382.1 million, or 29 cents per share, down from $387.4 million, or 28 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding slight adjustments for stock-based compensation grants and other items, the burrito chain still earned 29 cents per share. 
Net sales rose 7.5% to $3 billion, fueled by new restaurants. The company opened 84 company-operated locations and two licensed international stores.
Chipotle’s same-store sales increased 0.3% in a reversal from last quarter’s decline. But the growth in sales at restaurants open at least a year came from a 1.1% bump in average check, as traffic dipped.
“While we did see encouraging results as we accelerated our marketing spend and rolled out carne asada and red chimichurri, our underlying trends remain challenged throughout the quarter and into October,” CFO Adam Rymer said.
Boatwright stood by the chain’s overall value proposition, saying that it would not turn to discounting to bring back customers. However, he acknowledged that consumers are lumping the chain in with other fast-casual competitors, whose average prices are closer to $15 per entree than Chipotle’s roughly $10 price point.
To revive traffic growth, Chipotle is focusing on its in-restaurant execution, marketing, digital experience and menu innovation, according to Boatwright.
Looking to 2026, Chipotle anticipates that it will open 350 to 370 new locations. That target includes 10 to 15 international restaurants operated by partners, as the company aims to expand globally.
Last month, Chipotle announced a joint venture with SPC Group, a Korea-based restaurant operator. It has also signed development deals with operators in the Middle East and Latin America. More

Starbucks’ coffee delivery business surpassed $1 billion in sales in fiscal 2025.
The company said delivery sales climbed almost 30% in its fiscal fourth quarter.
The typical Starbucks delivery order is nearly twice the size of an in-store transaction, according to the company.

Close-up of a Starbucks branded paper bag on a picnic table outdoors in a park, Walnut Creek, California, May 19, 2024.
Smith Collection/gado | Archive Photos | Getty Images

Coffee delivery has turned into a $1 billion business for Starbucks.
The coffee giant said on Wednesday that its annual delivery sales crossed the milestone in fiscal 2025, which ended on Sept. 30. In the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, delivery sales climbed almost 30% compared with the year-ago period, executives said.

The growth of Starbucks’ delivery initiative comes as the company’s broader U.S. business embarks on a turnaround. Starbucks reported flat U.S. same-store sales in the fiscal fourth quarter, reversing the previous seven quarters of domestic same-store sales declines as customers made their coffee at home or defected to rivals.
The coffee giant began testing delivery roughly a decade ago, but Starbucks has been slower to roll it out than many other restaurant companies. Nationwide delivery became available through Uber Eats in 2020, DoorDash in 2023 and Grubhub last year. Today, the vast majority of the coffee chain’s company-operated U.S. cafes offer delivery.
U.S. consumers have also been slower to embrace coffee delivery than other markets, like China. In Starbucks’ home market, drive-thru lanes and mobile order options offer similar convenience without the delivery fees.
Perhaps to justify the higher cost, the typical Starbucks delivery order is nearly twice the size of an in-store transaction, according to the company. More than 40% of the chain’s delivery orders include food.
Though broader restaurant spending has slowed as consumers face higher costs, food delivery hasn’t seen the same plummeting sales. Discounts and promotions have helped third-party apps hold onto customers, along with their moves to branch out into new categories, like alcohol and grocery delivery. More

The Food and Drug Administration said it will take steps to speed up the process of developing generic versions of complex biological drugs, in a bid to increase cheaper competition for expensive medicines and lower drug costs for Americans. 
It’s the Trump administration’s latest move to rein in high prescription drug costs in the U.S., and could be a blow to pharmaceutical companies.
The FDA’s new reforms “will take the five-to-eight year timeframe to bring a biosimilar to market and cut it in half,” said the agency’s commissioner, Marty Makary.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary speaks during a press conference alongside U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, discussing administration plans to lower drug costs, at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., U.S., Oct. 29, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon | Reuters

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday said it will take steps to speed up the process of developing generic versions of complex biological drugs, in a bid to increase cheaper competition for expensive medicines and lower drug costs for Americans. 
It’s the Trump administration’s latest move to rein in high prescription drug costs in the U.S., where medication prices are two-to-three times higher than those in other developed nations. 

The move to support the development and approval of so-called biosimilars could be a blow to pharmaceutical companies, whose most profitable products are often biological products that treat serious and chronic diseases. The exact impact will depend on the drugmaker and its products.
In a statement on Wednesday, a Health and Human Services Department spokesperson said the law gives manufacturers 12 years of exclusivity for biologic medicines, which is a “primary determining factor in drug development decision-making.”
“No manufacturer should anticipate a monopoly or anything else beyond what is legally granted,” the spokesperson said.
The FDA’s new reforms “will take the five-to-eight year timeframe to bring a biosimilar to market and cut it in half,” the agency’s Commissioner Marty Makary said during a press conference on Wednesday.
During the event, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the FDA has an “outdated and burdensome approval process that has slowed down the entry of biosimilars.” He said “even when [the drugs] do get approved, current laws often prevent pharmacists or patients from substituting them for patients who would benefit from a more affordable option.”

“That all ends today, a the FDA is taking bold, decisive action to break down these barriers and open the markets for real competition,” Kennedy said.
Biological products are engineered with living cells, which makes manufacturing more complex than for chemically derived drugs. Biologics have a special pathway to FDA approval, and it is harder for generic drug manufacturers to sell cheaper versions due to the high costs of development and difficult regulatory landscape. 
Biologic medications make up only 5% of prescriptions in the U.S., but account for 51% of total drug spending as of 2024, according to an FDA release. FDA-approved biosimilars are as safe and effective as their branded counterparts, yet their market share remains below 20%, the agency added. The FDA said it has so far approved 76 biosimilars, making up only a small fraction of approved biologic drugs.
Kennedy said biosimilars, on average, cost half the price of their branded counterparts. Their entry into the market drives down brand-name drug prices by another 25%, which is a “real relief for patients,” he added. 
Biosimilar generics saved $20 billion in U.S. health-care costs last year alone, the FDA said.
In a new draft guidance, the FDA proposed major updates to simplify biosimilar studies. For example, the agency recommended that human studies directly comparing the biosimilar to a branded product may not be necessary for drug companies to conduct. That research takes years and costs tens of millions of dollars. 
Biosimilars have historically struggled to gain market share from their branded counterparts compared to generic copies of small-molecule drugs, which are often delivered in pill form and can enter cells easily because it has a low molecular weight.
The difference is that many biosimilars aren’t identical copies of branded biologic drugs, while generics are. 
In many cases, pharmacists can’t directly substitute a branded biologic for a biosimilar when filling a prescription unless they are classified as “interchangeable” and it is permitted by state law. 
But the FDA on Wednesday said it generally recommends against requiring so-called “switching studies,” which determine whether biosimilars have that classification. That step is not required for generic copies of small-molecule drugs. 
“These additional studies can slow development and create public confusion about biosimilar safety,” the FDA said in a release. More

Starbucks reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings, but the company saw same-store sales grow for the first time in nearly two years.
Its U.S. same-store sales were flat for the quarter but turned positive in September.
CEO Brian Niccol is carrying out a turnaround strategy after struggles in the company’s two biggest markets, the U.S. and China.

The American multinational chain Starbucks Coffee store and logo seen displayed.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Starbucks on Wednesday reported that its quarterly same-store sales returned to growth for the first time in nearly two years, showing that its turnaround strategy is winning over lapsed customers.
The coffee chain’s global same-store sales rose 1%, lifted by international markets. Its U.S. same-store sales were flat for the quarter but turned positive in September. Wall Street was projecting global same-store sales declines of 0.3% and a 0.9% decrease in U.S. same-store sales.

“We’re a year into our ‘Back to Starbucks’ strategy, and it’s clear that our turnaround is taking hold,” CEO Brian Niccol said in a statement.
Domestic same-store sales turned positive in September, and the company has held onto that momentum through October, Niccol said on the company’s conference call. However, CFO Cathy Smith cautioned analysts against cheering too soon.
“Turnarounds are difficult to forecast, and while we have good reason to believe that our U.S. company-operated [same-store sales] should build through the year, we also know that recoveries are not always linear,” she said.
The company suspended its annual forecast a year ago, and it is not expecting to release a near- or long-term outlook until an investor day slated for late January.
Shares of Starbucks rose 2% in extended trading.

Here’s what the company reported for the quarter ended Sept. 28 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 52 cents adjusted vs. 56 cents expected
Revenue: $9.57 billion vs. $9.35 billion expected

The coffee giant reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income attributable to Starbucks of $133.1 million, or 12 cents per share, down from $909.3 million, or 80 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding restructuring costs, litigation settlements and other items, Starbucks earned 52 cents per share. During the quarter, the company closed 627 locations and laid off roughly 900 nonretail employees as part of a restructuring plan.
In addition to the restructuring plan, Starbucks has been investing heavily in labor, including adding assistant store managers to many North American cafes. The added labor costs weighed on its operating margin this quarter.
Net sales rose 5% to $9.57 billion.
To revive U.S. sales, Starbucks has focused on improving the in-store experience for customers and cutting service times to under four minutes per order. More than 80% of company-operated locations have an average service time of four minutes or less, even as the chain saw a rise in traffic after it launched its fall menu, according to Niccol.
The company’s marketing efforts have switched from promotions and limited-time items to highlighting its coffee and trendy innovation, like protein-packed cold foam.
The strategy has succeeded in winning back some U.S. customers. Smith said that the number of 90-day active Starbucks Rewards members grew 1% both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year.
Outside Starbucks’ home market, same-store sales increased 3%, fueled by a 6% jump in traffic.
In China, the company’s second-largest market, same-store sales rose 2%, boosted by a 9% climb in traffic. Under pressure in the country from home-grown rivals with cheaper beverages, Starbucks has lowered prices on many of its iced drinks to bring back customers.
The company is also exploring selling a stake in its China business after years of sales declines in the competitive market. Niccol previously told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that the company values the China business at more than $10 billion.
“On the strategic front, we have had very strong interest from multiple high quality partners, all of whom see significant value in the Starbucks brand and team,” Niccol said on Wednesday. “We expect to retain a meaningful stake in Starbucks China and remain confident in the long term growth potential in the region.” More