Raphael Stevens

The Federal Aviation Administration may issue SpaceX its next Starship license in time for a Sunday launch attempt, CNBC has learned.
Despite previously expecting that its license review could take until “late November,” a person familiar with the matter told CNBC the FAA’s process has sped up, opening the door for earlier approval.
SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk have been vocally critical of the FAA in recent weeks, alleging the company faces difficulties from “the current regulatory environment.”

SpaceX’s next-generation Starship spacecraft, atop its powerful Super Heavy rocket, lifts off on its third launch from the company’s Boca Chica launchpad on an uncrewed test flight, near Brownsville, Texas, U.S. March 14, 2024. 
Cheney Orr | Reuters

The Federal Aviation Administration may issue SpaceX its next Starship license in time for a Sunday launch attempt, CNBC has learned.
SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk have been vocally critical of the FAA in recent weeks, urging the federal regulator to speed up its license review for Starship’s fifth test flight. As recently as last week, the FAA said it did not expect to issue the license before “late November.”

Despite the ongoing review, SpaceX issued a statement Monday saying that the fifth Starship spaceflight “could launch as soon as October 13, pending regulatory approval.” The company did not indicate whether it expected to receive its license by Sunday.
But a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday that SpaceX’s seemingly aggressive target is possible because the FAA’s review process has sped up.
The regulator and partner agencies involved in the process conducted assessments more quickly than anticipated, the person told CNBC, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the final stages of completing a review for the FAA. The person, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss the ongoing federal review, noted that it’s also possible any snags this week could take a Sunday attempt off the table and push approval to later this month. 
In an updated statement to CNBC on Tuesday, the FAA removed its prior November estimate.
“In mid-August, SpaceX submitted new information for its proposed Starship/ Super Heavy Flight 5 mission. The FAA is continuing to review this information. The FAA will make a licensing determination once SpaceX has met all licensing requirements,” the FAA said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service referred CNBC to the FAA in response to a request for comment.

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On Sept. 10, SpaceX issued a lengthy blog post saying the FAA was delaying Starship’s fifth launch over “superfluous environmental analysis,” alleging that the extended review was “for unreasonable and exasperating reasons” that represent difficulties in “the current regulatory environment” for companies seeking launch licenses.
The post in part criticized reports that SpaceX violated environmental regulations by using the Starship launchpad’s water deluge system in Texas without authorization. However, SpaceX settled fines levied by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the federal Environmental Protection Agency regarding unauthorized water discharge.
Reuters first reported the FAA may approve a license as soon as this month but did not specify whether that could come as soon as Sunday.

An ambitious fifth launch

The sun sets behind the SpaceX Starship ahead of its fourth flight test at Boca Chica beach on June 05, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. 
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

SpaceX aims to push development of its mammoth Starship rocket further with its fifth flight. It’s seeking to build on the progress of June’s fourth Starship test flight — which traveled halfway around the world for an intentional splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
As part of SpaceX’s effort to make Starship fully reusable, the company plans to attempt to return and catch the rocket’s 232-foot-tall booster.
After launching and separating from the upper Starship section of the rocket, the Super Heavy booster is expected to fly back to the launch site and land between a pair of so-called “chopsticks” on the tower. SpaceX emphasized that the catch attempt requires “thousands” of criteria to be met, or else the booster will divert from the return trajectory to instead splashdown off the coast in the Gulf of Mexico.
“We accept no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safety of the public and our team, and the return will only be attempted if conditions are right,” SpaceX said in a statement describing the flight.
The window on Sunday opens at 8 a.m. ET for the fifth Starship launch from the company’s facility near Brownsville, Texas.
Starship is both the tallest and most powerful rocket ever launched. Fully stacked on the Super Heavy booster, Starship stands 397 feet tall and is about 30 feet in diameter.
The Starship system is designed to be fully reusable and aims to become a new method of flying cargo and people beyond Earth. The rocket is also critical to NASA’s plan to return astronauts to the moon. SpaceX won a multibillion-dollar contract from the agency to use Starship as a crewed lunar lander as part of NASA’s Artemis moon program. More

Walmart is opening five more pet services centers over the next month.
It’s part of a bigger effort by the nation’s largest retailer to capitalize on a high-frequency category that’s popular across customer age groups and to step up competition with specialty retailers like Chewy.
The big-box retailer, however, shuttered all of its health clinics for people, after saying it couldn’t make the finances work.

Walmart is opening five more pet services centers after testing the first location near Atlanta. The centers offer vet visits and grooming.
Courtesy: Walmart

Walmart shut its doctor offices for people. But the nation’s largest retailer is expanding its pet care business.
On Tuesday, the company announced it will open five more pet services centers in October and early November. The new locations in Arizona and Georgia will include veterinary care and grooming. Walmart opened its first pet services center last year in the Atlanta area.

Walmart’s pet category is an attractive growth opportunity because it drives frequent purchases, resonates with customers across age groups and tends to hold up even when customers’ budgets are stretched, said Kaitlyn Shadiow, vice president of merchandising for pets for Walmart U.S.
Walmart’s pet services centers will have their own dedicated entrance next to a store. They will be under the Walmart name, but staffed by employees of vet care and pet product company PetIQ. The centers will offer routine vet care, such as wellness exams, vaccines and minor medical services, and grooming for cats and dogs.
Shadiow said Walmart decided to expand after seeing strong visits and repeat rates at its first pet services location. About 25% of customers had never shopped at Walmart for pet items before, she said. And when shoppers went to the store for vet or grooming services, Shadiow said it created a “halo effect” that lifted sales for pet food and other supplies, too.
“If you think about pet services, the business case is there,” she said. “We are already serving the needs of so many pet parents today, and it’s a great opportunity for us to help do that in one convenient location or trip.”
Other factors could be motivating Walmart. Chewy and Petco have expanded into pet services as well, with specialty retailer Petco using its stores to become a major vet provider. The services are higher margin than pet food, but are needed more often than other supplies like leashes, pet beds and crates.

Pet ownership spiked during the Covid pandemic, which led to more household spending on dogs, cats and other animals, and a bigger need for vets. Annual household spending on pets is expected to reach $1,445 per animal by 2026 and $1,733 by 2030, according to a recent survey by Morgan Stanley Research. That would represent a 113% jump in total industry spending from $122 billion in 2019 to $261 billion by 2030, the firm found.
Walmart has seen other signs of high demand. A subscription to veterinary telehealth provider Pawp was used more than any other limited-time offer for Walmart+, the retailer’s membership program and answer to Amazon Prime, according to Venessa Yates, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart+. Starting next week, it will turn that limited-time offer into a permanent benefit.
The pet category has also been a way to reach younger and more affluent shoppers, Shadiow said. Gen Z is the fastest-growing segment for Walmart’s pet category, as the group ages into pet ownership, she said. The number of customers shopping the pet category with a household income of over $100,000 grew by 36% year over year, as of the end of July, she said.

Walmart announces new pet service locations, online vet access and prescription delivery. 
Courtesy: Walmart

Walmart announced earlier this year that it would close all of its 51 health-care clinics for people — a sharp turnabout for the company, which it pinned on “the challenging reimbursement environment and escalating operating costs.” The clinics offered lower-priced doctor visits, dentist appointments and therapy sessions.
Walmart also closed its human telehealth provider, which it had acquired for an undisclosed amount in 2021. It has tested the pet services concept in Dallas, Georgia, where it opened its first health clinic for people in 2019.
Yet Shadiow said pet care is a simpler and more profitable business. Fewer people pay for pet care through insurance and the centers themselves can be smaller, she said. People want transparent pricing since they often pay out of pocket. Plus, she said, Walmart is a one-stop shop for customers who need related products, such as pet prescriptions or food.
“We feel a lot more confident in the ability for this to be successful over the long term,” she said.
— CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge contributed to this report.

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Florida’s sports betting market may be about to get a lot more interesting, with Hard Rock’s chairman opening the door to partnerships with commercial sportsbooks.
Hard Rock has the monopoly on sports betting in the state, winning the exclusive tribal gaming compact following a hard-fought battle against Flutter-owned FanDuel, DraftKings and Penn Entertainment.
“I would say whether it’s FanDuel or whether it’s DraftKings, we’ve actually developed a great relationship with them,” Hard Rock International Chairman and Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen said in an interview with CNBC at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.

Florida’s sports betting market may be about to get a lot more interesting, with Hard Rock’s chairman opening the door to partnerships with commercial sportsbooks.
Hard Rock has the monopoly on sports betting in the state, winning the exclusive tribal gaming compact following a hard-fought battle against Flutter-owned FanDuel, DraftKings and Penn Entertainment. The sportsbooks mounted a massive effort in 2021 to get sports betting legalized in the state, but failed.

When asked about comments made by FanDuel CEO Amy Howe on trying again to get into the Florida market, Hard Rock International Chairman and Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen said he’s open to it.
“I would say whether it’s FanDuel or whether it’s DraftKings, we’ve actually developed a great relationship with them,” he said in an interview with CNBC at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.
Allen says he’s met with both companies over the past two days.
“We do recognize that long term, some type of strategic relationship with some of the brands that really have marquee value could be helpful to both of us, and we are receptive to those conversations,” he said.
At Flutter’s investor day two weeks ago, Howe said she’s focused on three key super states: California, Florida and New York.

FanDuel and DraftKings declined to comment on the possibility of entering into a deal with Hard Rock.
Operators have been eyeing the Sunshine State for years. Florida has a bigger population than New York state, which brings in the most sports betting revenue, according to the American Gaming Association. And it has more than 20 professional and Division 1 college sports teams in the state.
Last December at Seminole Hard Rock, the company marked what it called “a new chapter in Florida gaming,” when it launched sports betting and expanded the casino table games across six Seminole Casinos in Florida.
Allen declined to give specifics on sports gaming revenue in Florida on the basis that the tribe is a sovereign nation. More

Airlines canceled hundreds of flights before Hurricane Milton was expected to make landfall in Florida on Wednesday.
Tampa International Airport closed Tuesday morning.
Theme park operators also said they would temporarily shut some facilities and cruise lines shifted routes ahead of the storm.

A message board at the Tampa International Airport shows all American Airlines departing flight canceled Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Tampa, Fla., due to the possible arrival of Hurricane Milton.
Chris O’Meara | AP

Airlines canceled hundreds of flights, theme parks prepared to close and cruise lines shifted routes as Floridians braced for Hurricane Milton’s landfall.
The Category 4 storm has top sustained winds near 145 mph and is expected to strike Florida’s west coast on Wednesday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More than 50 Florida counties are under a state of emergency.

Tampa International Airport suspended operations at 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday and said it would “repoen when safe to do so.”

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Orlando International Airport will close at 8 a.m. on Wednesday. Southwest Airlines, which has about a fifth of the market share in Orlando, has struck 402 flights from its total Wednesday schedule, according to FlightAware data.
More than 750 Orlando flights, over 85% of the Wednesday schedule, were canceled, according to FlightAware. Most of the flights in and out of Tampa and Southwest Florida International Airport, which serves Fort Myers, were also canceled for Wednesday.
Carriers waived change fees and fare differences for affected customers. American Airlines and United Airlines added extra flights out of Florida ahead of Milton’s expected landfall.

Southwest Airlines employees cover the ticket counters with plastic wrap just before Tampa International Airport was closing due to the possible arrival of Hurricane Milton Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Tampa, Fla.
Chris O’Meara | AP

Disney said Tuesday that it will close its Orlando-area theme parks on Wednesday starting at 1 p.m. ET and they will likely remain closed on Thursday.

“We will consider opening Disney Springs on Thursday in the late afternoon, with limited offerings,” the company said.
Universal Orlando Resort said Tuesday that Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure and Universal CityWalk will close at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday and remain closed on Thursday.
Busch Gardens Tampa will be closed Tuesday through Thursday, while SeaWorld Orlando will close Wednesday and Thursday, United Parks said.
Carnival warned customers that ports in Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami were likely to close and that it would change some routes and destinations to avoid the storm.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of Universal Studios and CNBC.

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GM will drop the name “Ultium” for its electric vehicle batteries and supporting technologies after spending years promoting the brand.
The company said the batteries and technologies will remain but the name “Ultium” will not.
GM spent millions of dollars in marketing and advertising Ultium, including back-to-back years of Super Bowl ads in 2021 and 2022.

General Motors revealed its all-new modular platform and battery system, Ultium, on March 4, 2020 at its Tech Center campus in Warren, Michigan.
Photo by Steve Fecht for General Motors

DETROIT — General Motors will drop the name “Ultium” for its electric vehicle batteries and supporting technologies after spending years promoting the brand as it rethinks its EV and battery operations.
The Detroit automaker confirmed the switch Tuesday ahead of an investor event. Executives used the day to discuss lowering battery costs and tout efforts to diversify battery chemistries.

GM also confirmed it is on pace to produce and wholesale about 200,000 EVs for North America this year, achieving profitability on a production, or contribution-margin basis, by the end of this year.
Aside from EVs, GM touted its lowering capital costs and the company’s flexibility to produce both traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines and EVs. Its commitment to EVs comes amid slower-than-expected adoption of electric vehicles.
Shares of GM were roughly level aside from a roughly 3% increase during the beginning of the event.

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The change to Ultium comes after GM spent billions of dollars to develop in-house “Ultium” batteries and technologies that the automaker previously touted as “revolutionary” and the ultimate technologies to be able to build a profitable EV business.
The company said the batteries and the technologies will remain, but the name “Ultium” will not, other than production operations such as its “Ultium Cells” joint venture plants with LG Energy Solution.

“As GM continues to expand its EV business, the company is no longer branding its electric vehicle architecture, battery and cells, or EV components with the Ultium name, starting in North America,” the company said in a statement.
GM has been rethinking its EV battery strategy amid changing market conditions and an influx of new, outside executives, including Tesla veterans JP Clausen, who now leads GM manufacturing, and Kurt Kelty, GM’s vice president of battery.

The automaker’s EV sales are growing, but not at the pace the company wanted. It reported a roughly 60% year-over-year increase in EVs during the third quarter, to roughly 32,100 units sold. Still, EVs made up only 4.9% of the company’s total third-quarter sales.
The 200,00 EV target reconfirmed by GM CEO Mary Barra on Tuesday is down from a previous guidance of 200,00 to 250,000 EVs, which had been trimmed from as high as 300,000 units.
GM has already started moving away from its original Ultium pouch cells, produced with LG with nickel manganese cobalt, to other battery types and chemistries.
GM earlier this year announced a more than $3 billion deal to manufacture hard-can batteries, known as prismatic cells, with South Korea’s Samsung SDI, a rival of LG.
“We’re moving from a single-source, single-form factor, single-chemistry to a multi-chemistry, multi-form factor, multi-supplier strategy,” Kelty told The Information in a report published Monday. “What we’re going to do going forward is really optimize for each vehicle.”

Will Ferrell will star in GM’s upcoming Super Bowl commercial, an extension of the company’s “Everybody In” ad campaign for EVs.

The automaker is turning to that optimization strategy after spending millions of dollars in marketing and advertising, including back-to-back years of star-studded Super Bowl ads in 2021 and 2022 for Ultium in vehicles that weren’t available yet for customers to purchase.
GM is rethinking other areas as well. Rory Harvey, GM president of global markets, including North America, in September confirmed to CNBC that the company was completely rethinking its plans for a second all-electric vehicle plant in Orion Township, Michigan — from production down through the entire supply chain.
“We always get lessons. We always get learning,” he said in September. “The reason that we’re doing what we’re doing with Orion is the fact that, you know, if you looked at the original gradient of EV adoption, there’s no doubt that, both in the industry and from ours, it was slightly more aggressive than it is.”
“This gives us the ability to do a stop breath and refocus and say what is appropriate for the customer demands that are out there today?” he said.
GM currently has one plant in the U.S. that exclusively produces EVs, called Factory Zero in Detroit. The Orion plant was expected to be the second by the end of 2024 before the company delayed those plans by at least a year. More

BetMGM is trying to regain market share after losing ground in sports betting and online casino games.
It’s banking on technology like modeling and predictive AI features, and a digital wallet that allows people to take home what they win in Nevada.
CEO Adam Greenblatt told CNBC the company has had a 125% increase in first-time depositors in Las Vegas so far this NFL season.

As BetMGM tries to regain momentum in the gaming market, it’s banking in part on gains in NFL betting and the draw of new technology.
The company is the third largest U.S. sportsbook by market share, but has lost ground in recent years in both sports gambling and igaming, or online casino gambling, where it once held the number one position.

CEO Adam Greenblatt is counting on newly launched technology to woo customers, he told CNBC on Tuesday at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.
He cited the company’s integration this year of Angstrom, which uses modeling and predictive AI for data analytics, risk and pricing. During the spring baseball season, BetMGM credited the new tech for powering a 209% increase in MLB home run betting over the same time frame a year earlier.
BetMGM in August launched a single, digital wallet for betting in Nevada. It means customers can take home what they win in the same app, which reduces friction. And Greenblatt said it’s already boosting results this football season.
“What we are seeing now, year on year, season to date for NFL, 125% increase in first-time depositors in Vegas. And what’s particularly exciting is that more than 50% of those players who signed up for the first time with BetMGM in Nevada are playing when they get to their home states,” Greenblatt told CNBC.
Though BetMGM fell from first to third place in the lucrative igaming segment, where margins are higher and the potential total addressable market is greater, the company’s chief executive is optimistic he has a winning formula.
“Our players are coming back from week to week in a way, in a more engaged way than in prior periods,” he said. More

Spirit Halloween will open locations through the holiday season as “Spirit Christmas,” a spokesperson confirmed with CNBC.
Each store will feature a wide variety of holiday decorations and gifts, along with a real-life Santa and a life-sized gingerbread village.
The company’s flagship store in May’s Landing, NJ, will open on Oct. 18, while the other nine locations will open in early November.

A family exits a Spirit Halloween store operating in a former Best Buy. 
Paul Weaver | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Some Spirit Halloween locations will be busy for longer than usual this year.
Spirit Halloween will operate 10 stores through the entire holiday season as “Spirit Christmas,” a spokesperson confirmed with CNBC.

Instead of the company’s usual strategy of renting abandoned storefronts only long enough to host the Halloween-specific retailer, 10 stores around the Northeast will open through the end of the year. The company’s flagship store in Mays Landing, N.J., will open on Oct. 18, while the other nine locations will open in early November, the spokesperson said. Not all stores will be converted from existing Spirit Halloween locations.
“Spirit Christmas is a new concept for us, and we’re hopeful it will resonate with our customers,” a spokesperson for Spirit Halloween told CNBC. “Our goal is to create a festive retail experience that captures the spirit of the season, much like we do for Halloween.”
Each store will have holiday inflatables and decor, but they will not all have the same experiences. The new stores won’t just replace fake skulls and costumes with wrapping paper and stockings, they will also have activities like photographs with a real-life Santa and letter writing to the North Pole.
The first 10 locations will act as a test to see whether customers will stay invested through the holiday season.
Holiday sales are a lucrative space, but not certain bet for the company. Spending grew 3.8% year over year to $964.4 billion in 2023, according to the National Retail Federation.

Deloitte estimates that holiday retail sales will increase 2.3% to 3.3% in 2024, but expects a higher jump of 7% to 9% for e-commerce, which the Spirit Christmas test stores will not support. Amazon is already sizing up for the holidays with plans to hire 250,000 workers for the season, the same number as last year.
Holiday spending could also be affected by a tense presidential election in November and a historically tumultuous season of hurricanes in progress. More

Boeing’s deliveries are down year over year through September.
The company handed over 27 of its bestselling 737 Max aircraft last month.
A machinist strike is now in its fourth week, halting work at Boeing’s factories in the Seattle area.

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

Boeing delivered 33 airplanes in September, six more than during the same period a year earlier, as the company and its customers keep an eye on the impact of a machinist strike, now in its fourth week.
Through September, Boeing has handed over 291 aircraft, well below the 371 it had delivered in the first nine months of 2023. Rival Airbus has delivered 447 airplanes this year through August,

Last month’s deliveries were led by 27 of Boeing’s bestselling 737 Max aircraft to customers including United Airlines, which received five, and Ryanair and Southwest Airlines, which each each took three. Deliveries are key to Boeing. It’s already burned through more than $8 billion this year since customers pay the bulk of the price when they receive the airplane.
The aircraft are produced in Renton, Washington, one of the factories where machinists walked off the job on Sept. 13 after workers overwhelmingly voted down a tentative agreement the company had reached with their union. The two sides are back at the negotiating table this week, though the union dismissed a sweetened offer from Boeing last month.

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All but 10 of the 27 Maxes were handed over before the strike began, according to Jefferies aerospace analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu. In a note Monday, she forecast that Boeing will be producing 25 Max aircraft per month if the strike ends in October but the company’s planned ramp-up to 38 Maxes a month will be delayed by a year.
Boeing is scheduled to report quarterly results on Oct. 23, when it will detail the financial impact of the strike.
September deliveries also included four 787 Dreamliner planes, which are made in Boeing’s nonunion factory in South Carolina. For the month, Boeing logged 66 gross orders for new aircraft.

Boeing has spent much of this year dealing with fallout after a near catastrophe on one of its new 737 Max 9s in January, when a door plug that was missing key bolts blew out.
The company’s backlog is 5,456 aircraft.

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