Raphael Stevens

The Yankees announced Friday that players can now grow “well-groomed beards.”
Since the 1970s, the team had forbidden long hair and facial hair other than mustaches.
The policy had received criticism for decades by players and fans.

Anthony Volpe, Jasson Domínguez and Paul Goldschmidt of the New York Yankees talk during spring training at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, on Feb. 19, 2025.
New York Yankees | Getty Images

Start spreading the news: For the first time in nearly 50 years, the New York Yankees are allowing players to grow beards.
In a statement Friday, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said he spoke to former and current players about the long-standing policy preventing most facial hair and has decided the team will now permit “well-groomed beards.”

“These most recent conversations are an extension of ongoing internal dialogue that dates back several years,” Steinbrenner wrote. “It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy.”
The news comes days after pitcher Devin Williams, whom the Yankees acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers during the offseason, sported some forbidden facial hair in an official team photo. Williams previously maintained a beard during his time with the Brewers.
The Yankees’ facial hair policy was first implemented by George Steinbrenner, the former Yankees owner and father of Hal Steinbrenner, in the 1970s. The policy banned any facial hair other than mustaches, with exceptions for religious reasons, and scalp hair below the collar for players, coaches and male executives.
George Steinbrenner, who died in 2010, justified the rule as a way of instilling discipline in the team, reportedly telling The New York Times in 1978 that he wanted to “to develop pride in the players as Yankees.”
Since then, all players have abided by the policy, though not without some resistance. Famously, Yankees captain Don Mattingly was benched in 1991 for refusing to get a haircut, an incident mocked on a 1992 episode of “The Simpsons.” Former Yankee Andrew McCutchen said in 2020 that it would have been difficult for him to join the team when he still had dreadlocks, which he wore during the early years of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and called on the franchise to change the rule.

The tradition has also turned some prospective Yankees away. General manager Brian Cashman said in 2013 that he ruled out trading for relief pitcher Brian Wilson because Wilson refused to shave his beard. Pitcher David Price said in 2013 that he did not want to play for the Yankees due to the policy.
Many past and present players got rid of their beards when they joined the Yankees from another team, including Gerrit Cole, Johnny Damon and current offseason acquisitions Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger. More

IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond expects $1.2 billion in box office receipts in 2025, fueled by a strong domestic movie slate and improved ticket sales in China.
Gelfond pointed to several blockbuster titles slated for release in the next 10 months, including a new “Mission Impossible,” a live-action “How to Train Your Dragon” film, another “Jurassic Park” installment, a sequel to “Zootopia” and a third “Avatar” release.
Aiding IMAX’s lofty box office goals is the Chinese title “Ne Zha 2,” which has already garnered $1.6 billion globally, $135 million of which came from IMAX screenings.

General atmosphere during an IMAX private screening for the movie “First Man” at an AMC theater in New York City on Oct. 10, 2018.
Lars Niki | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

An “embarrassment of riches” at the box office could fuel a $1.2 billion year for IMAX, CEO Rich Gelfond told CNBC on Friday.
That volume would mark the best box office haul for the company, which specializes in high-resolution cameras, film formats, projectors and theaters.

“I think it’s going to be a very strong year,” Gelfond said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “The first thing that drives that is the slate.”
Gelfond pointed to several blockbuster titles slated for release in the next 10 months, including a new “Mission Impossible,” a live-action “How to Train Your Dragon” film, another “Jurassic Park” installment, a sequel to “Zootopia” and a third “Avatar” release.

Hollywood production issues led to fewer theatrical releases and smaller ticket sales in 2024, with box office receipts down 3.4% from 2023 to $8.74 billion. Already, the 2025 slate appears more robust, with more titles and bigger franchise films.
Aiding IMAX’s lofty box office goals is the Chinese title “Ne Zha 2,” which has already garnered $1.6 billion globally. It is the first film to have topped $1 billion in a single country. Gelfond noted that IMAX accounted for $135 million of the film’s total box office.
“We’ve done more box office in China in the first six weeks of this year than we did the whole year last year,” he said.

He added that “Ne Zha 2” is doing “like $100 million a day,” and that IMAX has accounted for around 13% of the film’s box office receipts.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Jurassic World Rebirth.”

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Sales of previously-owned homes fell 4.9% in January from the prior month, according to the National Association of Realtors.
There were 1.18 million homes for sale at the end of January, an increase of 3.5% from December and 17% from January 2024.
The median price of a home sold in January was $396,900, up 4.8% from the year before and the highest price ever for the month of January.

A “For Sale” sign on a house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024. 
Joe Lamberti | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The U.S. housing market continues to weaken, as potential buyers face stubbornly high mortgage rates, elevated prices and limited supply of listings.
Sales of previously owned homes fell 4.9% in January from the prior month to 4.08 million units on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. Analysts were expecting a 2.6% decline.

Sales were 2% higher than January 2024, but are still running at a roughly 15-year low.
This read is based on closings, so contracts likely signed in November and December when mortgage rates came down from over 7% to the 6% range.
“Mortgage rates have refused to budge for several months despite multiple rounds of short-term interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR. “When combined with elevated home prices, housing affordability remains a major challenge.”
There were 1.18 million homes for sale at the end of January, an increase of 3.5% from December and 17% from January 2024. Although inventory is gaining, it is still at a 3.5-month supply at the current sales pace. A six-month supply is considered balanced between buyer and seller.
The average home for sale last month spent 41 days on the market. That is the longest since January 2020, pre-Covid.

Tight supply continues to pressure prices. The median price of a home sold in January was $396,900, up 4.8% from the year before and the highest price ever for the month of January. All four regions tracked by NAR saw price gains. About 15% of homes sold above list price, virtually unchanged from 16% in both the pervious month and the year-earlier period.
“More housing supply allows strongly qualified buyers to enter the market,” Yun added. “But for many consumers, both increased inventory and lower mortgage rates are necessary for them to purchase a different home or become first-time homeowners.”
All-cash offers made up 29% of sales, which is historically high but down from 32% the year before. First-time buyers are still struggling, accounting for 28% of sales. That share is unchanged from a year ago, but is well below historical averages of about 40%.
Home sales are faring significantly better at higher price points and falling at lower price points. For example, sales of homes priced between $100,000 and $250,000 dropped 1.2% year over year, while homes priced over $1 million rose nearly 27% from the year before.
Realtors are reporting that buyer traffic in January was weak.
“Realtors are putting more signs up, but the buyers are not coming,” said Yun.

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As the rich have gotten richer, family offices have exploded in popularity and influence.
There has been a surge in events to reach this coveted clientele, with 244 family-office conferences scheduled this year alone, according to Dakota Marketplace.
Amid this gold rush, one event organizer has seemingly made a comeback after a fall from grace.

From left, the Trump Royale, The Trump Palace and the Trump International Beach Resort are shown in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, U.S. March 13, 2017.
Joe Skipper | Reuters

As the rich have gotten richer, family offices have exploded in popularity, numbering 8,000 worldwide and managing some $3.1 trillion in assets, according to Deloitte. Family office-tailored events and conferences have followed. 
There were 123 such family-office conferences in 2024, and nearly twice as many — 244 — are scheduled for this year, according to Dakota Marketplace, a research firm for investment sales professionals. 

“People are interested in this world because it’s growing so fast, and it’s a pool of capital,” said Paul Carbone, co-founder and vice chairman of Pritzker Private Capital and a member of the steering committee for a family-office initiative at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The initiative hosts gatherings for family offices and said it’s seen an uptick in demand.  
“One of the things that was clear was that families are interested in having a dialogue among themselves, where there’s shared experiences, shared challenges, shared opportunities, where they can compare notes,” Carbone said.  
Carbone divides these events into four categories: commercial conferences, events sponsored by major institutions such as banks, gatherings organized by families, and academic family gatherings.
“There’s trillions of dollars in the family space, and relatively little directly goes into the private equity world,” he added. “If users of capital can tap into that sizable pool of capital, it can behoove them and benefit them.” 

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Raphael “Raffi” Amit, professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, has witnessed the momentum firsthand. The Wharton Global Family Alliance, founded and led by Amit, has hosted family-office gatherings for more than two decades.  

Wharton’s gatherings are intimate, capped at 60 participants from family offices, and not sponsored. But the lion’s share of family-office conferences is dominated by sponsors and vendors, he said. 
“Families hate — according to our survey — when they go to these conferences and all these vendors bombard them with all sorts of offers,” Amit said. “We organize it for families, by families, and so as a result, the content is very, very different.” 
All the same, event sponsors are eager to get the attention of this elite clientele.  
This week marked the return of Anthony Ritossa, a well-known figure in European and Middle East family-office circles. The former hedge-fund salesman was behind the 24th Annual Global Family Office Investment Summit in Miami, a two-day bash Feb. 18-19 at the Trump International Beach Resort. 
Ritossa, who for many years went by “Sir Anthony,” built a name hosting conferences for family offices and investors eager to court them. He has since dropped the “Sir” and was the subject of a yearlong investigation and 2022 article by Vanity Fair, which raised questions about the legitimacy of his credentials and business practices.  
Vanity Fair, citing past attendees of the conferences, reported that Ritossa had misrepresented his background and charged sponsors between $18,000 and $200,000 on hopes of landing family-office investments that rarely materialized. 
Ritossa described the Vanity Fair reporting as “inaccurate” but declined to comment to CNBC on any specifics. When reached for comment by CNBC, he repeatedly offered invitations to the Miami conference with a ticket “provided gratis” to “experience it firsthand,” which CNBC did not accept. 
After the Vanity Fair article, Ritossa hosted another family-office summit in February 2023 and then largely stepped back from the spotlight. He sold one of his limited liability companies to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, according to the American think tank’s chairman, Lakshmi Narayanan.
Ritossa did not address questions from CNBC about the sale of his business. 
His latest summit series kicked off in Dubai with events in October and December 2024 emceed by an anchor for Dubai-based CNBC Arabia, a licensee of CNBC that operates the Arabic language business news channel. Attendees included sheikhs and the CEO of the Raffles Family Office, Chi-man Kwan. 
The impression, at least on the surface, is that Ritossa has mounted a comeback. 
The Miami event invitation said the summit would bring together a coterie of more than 250 high-net-worth individuals, family offices, members of Middle East royalty, and others, representing more than $1 trillion in investable assets. The list of 148 speakers and honored guests included some family-office principals and staff but was a largely disparate cohort, with speakers representing various industries, from crypto to medical tourism. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez was interviewed for a fireside chat. 
For some attendees, the reputation of conference guests, not the hosts, is most important.  
“Within the family-office community, events are more about which families show up than who organized it,” said Jonathan Zaback, co-founder of public relations firm Impact Partners, which represents several summit speakers. “People still attend because of who they know will be there. Families go where they feel they will meet other people and friends. For some, these events are one of the few times a year they get to see each other.”   More

Rivian beat Wall Street’s fourth-quarter earnings expectations and achieved its first gross quarterly profit — a target closely watched by investors — but is forecasting lower sales in 2025.
For 2025, Rivian also expects to narrow its adjusted losses to a range of $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion, down from a loss of $2.69 billion in 2024.
Rivian’s quarterly gross profit and revenue, as expected, were assisted by $299 million in the sale of regulatory credits, as well as $214 million in software and services.

2025 Rivian R1S.

Rivian Automotive beat Wall Street’s fourth-quarter earnings expectations and achieved its first gross quarterly profit — a target closely watched by investors — but is forecasting lower sales in 2025.
The electric vehicle maker reported a gross profit, which includes production and sales but does not factor in other expenses, of $170 million during the final quarter of last year. Rivian said it plans to achieve another “modest gross profit” in 2025. It has not said when it expects to be profitable on a bottom-line basis.

For 2025, Rivian also expects to narrow its adjusted losses to a range of $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion, down from a loss of $2.69 billion in 2024. The company forecast deliveries of 46,000 units to 51,000 units for 2025, compared with 51,579 vehicles delivered last year.
Shares of Rivian were up about 7% during after-hours trading Thursday before leveling off during the company’s quarterly earnings call. The stock closed at $13.61 a share, down 2.3%.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told CNBC that there is “a lot of uncertainty” surrounding the automotive industry, specifically the potential removal of federal incentives for EVs and tariff policies that could affect the company.

Stock chart icon

Shares of Rivian, Tesla and Lucid in 2025.

“We believe external factors could impact our 2025 expectations, including changes to government policies and regulations, and a challenging demand environment. While uncertainties persist, we remain focused on executing against our key value drivers and are confident in electrifying the world in the long term,” Rivian said Thursday in a shareholder letter.
For its 2025 guidance, Rivian Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough said the company took into account “hundreds of millions” of dollars in expected hits to its EBITDA as a result of less sales due to an expected removal of tax credits.

Rivian said it expects capital expenditures this year to be between $1.6 billion and $1.7 billion, up from $1.41 billion last year as it prepares to launch its new “R2” midsize vehicles in 2026. The company said it expects to idle its sole auto plant in Normal, Illinois, during the second half of the year to retool for the new vehicles.
“We believe R2 will be truly transformative for our growth and profitability,” McDonough told investors during the earnings call.
Here’s how the company performed in the fourth quarter, compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG:

Loss per share: 46 cents vs. a loss of 65 cents expected
Revenue: $1.73 billion vs. $1.4 billion expected

Beginning this quarterly report, Rivian is breaking out its “Automotive” and “Software and Services” units for additional transparency for investors. The automaker has plans to continue to grow its software business, including a new joint venture with German automaker Volkswagen.
Rivian’s quarterly gross profit and revenue were helped by $299 million from the sale of regulatory credits, as well as $214 million in software and services revenue. Rivian sells regulatory credits to other automakers to help them meet emissions standards, however future sales could be affected by changes to such regulations by the Trump administration.
The company’s net loss for the fourth quarter was $743 million, or 70 cents per share, compared to a loss of $1.52 billion, or $1.58 per share, during the same period a year earlier.
For the full year, Rivian lost $4.75 billion, or $4.69 per share.
Rivian’s 2024 revenue was $4.97 billion, up roughly 12% from $4.43 billion in 2023. Fourth-quarter revenue was up more than 31% from the prior-year period.

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President Donald Trump has expressed frustration about delays of the specially outfitted pair of 747s that will serve as the next Air Force One aircraft.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg has said the company is working with Trump’s advisor, Elon Musk, to deliver the aircraft faster.
Southwest and United executives have turned upbeat on Boeing’s turnaround after a series of manufacturing and safety crises.

Boeing 737s on the ground in Renton, Washington.
Leslie Josephs | CNBC

President Donald Trump expressed frustration in recent days about the long wait for a pair of Boeing 747s that will serve as the new Air Force One planes.
The jets are years behind schedule. Trump negotiated the $4 billion contract for the aircraft during his first term, and it isn’t clear whether they’ll be ready during his current one. Cost overruns have totaled more than $2 billion to date.

Trump advisor Elon Musk is working with Boeing in hopes of delivering the aircraft faster, the manufacturer’s chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, reiterated on Thursday.
“The president’s clearly not happy with the delivery timing. I think he’s made that well known,” Ortberg said at a Barclays industrials conference. “Elon Musk is actually helping us a lot in working through the requirements … to help us get the things that are non-value-added constraints out of the way so that we can move faster and get the president those airplanes delivered.”
Ortberg called Musk, CEO of SpaceX, which competes with Boeing’s defense and space unit, a “brilliant guy” who can “pretty quickly ascertain the difference between technical requirement and things that we can move out of the way.”
Aboard one of the current presidential 747s, Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he is considering alternatives.
“We may buy a plane or get a plane, or something,” he said, according to Reuters. Trump toured a 747 that was parked at Florida’s Palm Beach International Airport over the weekend, the outlet reported.

First Lady Melania Trump laughs as she watches US President Donald Trump cut with a saber into a cake representation of the new Air Force One design during the Commander-In-Chief inaugural ball at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20, 2025.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Frustration is nothing new for Boeing’s airline customers who faced long delays for aircraft just as the post-pandemic travel boom was taking hold. A near-catastrophic door-plug blow out in January 2024 further slowed Boeing deliveries and prompted a leadership change.
Now some customers are growing more upbeat. Executives told CNBC that it appears the manufacturer has turned a corner under Ortberg, who took the helm in August.
“Boeing is doing a pretty miraculous job of turning around and becoming more reliable as a supplier,” United Airlines CFO Mike Leskinen said Wednesday at the same Barclays conference. “Our confidence that our MAX aircraft are going to be delivered on schedule has never been greater at my tenure at United Airlines.”
Bob Jordan, CEO of all-Boeing 737 carrier Southwest Airlines, said on a Jan. 30 earnings call: “While they still have much work to do, they appear to be on a good path, and we are feeling more optimistic.”
Speaking at the Barclays conference on Thursday, Boeing’s Ortberg said he doesn’t see any supply chain problems that would prevent the manufacturer from ramping up production of its cash-cow 737 Max planes, its bestseller, to 38 per month in the coming months.

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