Raphael Stevens

Starbucks Workers United says it is adding more than two dozen new cities and stores to its strike count, brining the total to 95 stores in 65 cities.
The union, which began organizing in 2021, has threatened the “largest, longest” strike in company history. It began on Nov. 13 and is open-ended.
Starbucks and the union entered into mediation in February, and hundreds of barista delegates voted down the economic package Starbucks proposed in April.
Both sides have pointed blame at the other for failure to reach a bargaining agreement, and say they’re ready to negotiate.

One week into what baristas have threatened to make the “largest, longest” strike in Starbucks’ history, the Workers United union said it is adding more than two dozen new cities and stores to its strike count. 
The union said Thursday it will now be striking at 95 stores in 65 cities, with some 2,000 baristas now engaged in the action. On Wednesday, baristas and allies also picketed and held a rally outside of the company’s distribution center in York, Pa. Starbucks said there were no disruptions to its operations in York.

Workers United said the majority of stores where strikes were held had to close down on the first day of the strike due to staffing issues, and the lack of workers impacted some 50 locations in the days to follow. Starbucks said stores that had issues were often able to reopen quickly and that less than 1% of its locations are experiencing disruption from the strike.
The strike has so far not appeared to dent foot traffic and sales, according to the company and data from Placer.ai. The location intelligence tracking firm’s data show foot traffic on Red Cup Day, when the strike was launched, was up 44.5% compared to the daily average between Jan. 1 and Nov. 14 this year.
In a memo to workers last week, CEO Brian Niccol touted the success of the holiday launch so far.
“Together, we set new records. Last Thursday’s Holiday launch was our biggest sales day ever in North America. Then yesterday, we had our strongest Reusable Red Cup day in company history,” the memo sent Friday said. 

Starbucks workers walk a picket line as they go on strike outside a Starbucks store on Nov. 13, 2025 in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

The union began organizing at Starbucks in 2021 and says it now represents more than 11,000 workers across more than 550 stores. This week, it said five non-union stores filed for union elections, including locations in the Baltimore, Md. area, Harrisonburg, Va., and Little Rock, Ark. The company last week told CNBC that the union only represents 9,500 workers.

Workers United is seeking new proposals that address its top issues to finalize a contract. Those include improved hours, higher wages and the resolution of hundreds of unfair labor practice charges levied against Starbucks. The two parties have not been in active negotiations to reach a contract after talks between them fell apart late last year. The strikes have not changed that fact so far.
Starbucks and the union entered into mediation in February, and hundreds of barista delegates voted down the economic package Starbucks proposed in April. Both sides have pointed blame at the other for failure to reach a bargaining agreement, and say they’re ready to negotiate.
The strike has threatened to hurt business during Starbucks’ busy holiday season, which typically provides a sales boost and will be key to the chain’s plan to turn around performance in the U.S. under Niccol. Starbucks broke a nearly two-year streak of same-store sales declines in its most recently reported quarter. Past strikes have impacted less than 1% of its stores, the company said.
Starbucks maintains it will be ready to serve customers across its stores this holiday season.
“As we’ve said, 99% of our 17,000 U.S. locations remain open and welcoming customers —including many the union publicly stated would strike but never closed or have since reopened,” Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson said in a statement regarding the strike escalation.
“Regardless of the union’s plans, we do not anticipate any meaningful disruption. When the union is ready to return to the bargaining table, we’re ready to talk,” Anderson said. “The facts are clear, Starbucks offers the best job in retail, with pay and benefits averaging $30 per hour for hourly partners. People choose to work here and stay here—our turnover is less than half the industry average, and we receive more than a million job applications every year.” More

Existing home sales in October were 1.7% higher year over year.
The median price of a home sold in October was $415,200, an increase of 2.1% from a year earlier.
Homes are staying on the market longer, at an average of 34 days.

Improvement in mortgage rates at the end of the summer boosted home sales, but that gain may be short-lived.
Sales of previously owned homes in October rose 1.2% from September to 4.1 million units on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were up 1.7% year over year.

This count is based on home closings, so contracts likely signed in August and September. While contract signings would not be impacted by the government shutdown that started in October, closings, especially those requiring flood insurance or government-backed rural home loans, could be.
During that contract-signing period, the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage came down for a bit but then moved up again. The popular 30-year rate started August at 6.63%, fell steadily to 6.13% by mid-September, and then came back up to 6.37% by the end of the month, according to Mortgage News Daily. It now stands at 6.36%.
The inventory of homes for sale has also come down. After gaining for much of this year, supply fell to 1.52 million units, down 0.7% from September, although still nearly 11% higher than a year earlier. At the current sales pace, there is a 4.4-month supply, still considered lean.

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And that’s why prices are still gaining. The median price of a home sold in October was $415,200, an increase of 2.1% from October 2024 and the 28th consecutive month of annual gains.
“Looking ahead, home shoppers in today’s market face some advantages from falling mortgage rates and seasonally slower competition,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, in a release. “At the same time, a lack of housing affordability continues to be a challenge keeping home sales in their historically low level.”

Homes are staying on the market longer, at an average of 34 days last month compared with 29 days last October.
First-time buyers made a comeback in the market, representing 32% of sales, up from 27% a year ago — but not all regions are equal.
“First-time homebuyers are facing headwinds in the Northeast due to a lack of supply and in the West because of high home prices,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors. “First-time buyers fared better in the Midwest because of the plentiful supply of affordable houses and in the South because there is sufficient inventory.”
Sales growth continues to be strongest on the high end of the market. Homes priced above $1 million saw sales up more than 16% from a year ago, and those priced between $750,000 and $1 million saw a gain of 10%. Meanwhile sales of homes priced between $100,000 and $250,000 were up just about 1%, and homes priced below $100,000 saw a drop in sales of nearly 3%. More

Walmart posted third-quarter earnings and revenue that beat expectations and raised its full-year forecast.
The retailer said it drew more shoppers across incomes but also saw some temporary slowness when Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits were paused during the government shutdown.
It’s the first report since Walmart announced John Furner, CEO of its U.S. business, would take over for retiring CEO Doug McMillon early next year.

A shopper pushes a cart outside a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Walmart raised its sales and earnings outlook Thursday as the retailer posted revenue gains in its fiscal third quarter, driven by double-digit e-commerce growth and new customers across incomes.
The retailer said it expects full-year net sales to climb between 4.8% and 5.1%, up from its previous expectations of 3.75% to 4.75%. It said it expects its adjusted earnings per share to range from $2.58 to $2.63, a slight raise from its prior range of $2.52 to $2.62.

It marked the second quarter in a row Walmart hiked its full-year forecast. 
Walmart’s earnings report is the first since the Arkansas-based company announced a leadership change. The big-box retailer said last week that John Furner, the CEO of its U.S. business, will succeed longtime CEO Doug McMillon on Feb. 1.
In an interview with CNBC, Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said consumer habits didn’t change during the quarter, as shoppers spent selectively and looked for deals. He said Walmart has gained those “value-seeking” customers across incomes, both because of the economic backdrop and its own strategic moves.
“Consumers are looking to do business with those companies that are providing value, that are delivering the convenience that they’ve come to know and expect, and that are executing consistently well,” he said.

He said Walmart saw an impact from the pause in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits, formerly known as food stamps, during the prolonged government shutdown. But he said “that’s starting to rebound now that people are receiving those funds again.”

Here is what the big-box retailer reported for the fiscal third quarter compared with Wall Street’s estimates, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 62 cents adjusted vs. 60 cents expected
Revenue: $179.50 billion vs. $177.43 billion expected

Walmart also said Thursday that it will transfer the listing of its common stock to the Nasdaq and will begin trading there on Dec. 9. It is currently traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It will have the same stock ticker symbol, “WMT.”
The company’s stock was up about 1% premarket trading Thursday. As of Wednesday’s close, shares of Walmart are up about 11% so far this year. That trails the S&P 500’s nearly 13% gains during the same period. 

As a retail giant that draws shoppers across incomes, Walmart is closely watched as an indication of the health of the U.S. consumer and how President Donald Trump’s tariffs are affecting the prices shoppers pay. It can speak to consumer behavior across categories, since it sells discretionary items like makeup and clothes along with necessities like milk and toilet paper.
Walmart has gained more high-income customers as even affluent households sought relief from pricier grocery bills due to high inflation in recent years. That cohort also has responded to store remodels and faster deliveries. 
That growth continued in the most recent quarter, Rainey told CNBC. He said Walmart has gained market share across incomes, but “they’re more pronounced in the upper-income segment.”
Some of those shoppers have come to Walmart for speed, Rainey said. The retailer can now deliver to about 95% of U.S. households from stores in under three hours.
Customers now expedite about a third of its online orders from stores to arrive in one- or three-hour timeframes, he said. He said revenue related to those faster deliveries has increased 70% year over year. The company charges a fee for some speedier orders, and others are included as a benefit of its subscription-based membership program, Walmart+.
The expedited delivery service is popular, even with shoppers with lower incomes, he said. During the weeks of November when SNAP benefits were paused, Rainey said Walmart noticed a dip in that volume.
In the three-month period that ended Oct. 31, Walmart’s net income increased to $6.14 billion, or 77 cents per share, from $4.58 billion, or 57 cents per share, in the year-ago period.
Excluding one-time items, such as business reorganization charges, Walmart’s adjusted earnings per share was 62 cents.
Revenue rose from $169.59 billion in the year-ago quarter. 
Comparable sales for Walmart U.S. rose 4.5% in the third quarter, excluding fuel, compared with the year-ago period. That surpassed analysts’ expectations of 4% growth, according to StreetAccount. The industry metric, also called same-store sales, includes sales from stores and clubs open for at least a year.
At Sam’s Club, comparable sales rose 3.8%, excluding fuel. 
Walmart e-commerce sales grew by 27% globally, as all segments of the company posted sharp gains. In the U.S., e-commerce rose 28%, driven by increases in store-fulfilled delivery of online orders and growth of advertising and its third-party marketplace.
E-commerce sales internationally jumped 26% and at Sam’s Club in the U.S., they rose 22%.
In the U.S., shoppers made more trips to Walmart and spent more on those visits. Customer transactions rose 1.8% and average ticket increased by 2.7%.
As Walmart gains more digital traffic and adds more products to its third-party marketplace, advertising has been a meaningful growth area, too. In the quarter, its global advertising business increased by 53%, including Vizio, the smart TV maker it acquired last year for $2.3 billion. Its U.S. advertising business, Walmart Connect, grew 33% year over year. 
Walmart is mulling another acquisition after it expanded its third-party marketplace rapidly in recent years, as it is in talks to buy R&A Data, a startup that works to curb scams and counterfeits, CNBC reported Wednesday.
Like other retailers, Walmart has said it raised prices on some items to offset higher costs from tariffs. About a third of what Walmart sells in the U.S. comes from other parts of the world, with China, Mexico, Canada, Vietnam and India representing its largest markets for imports, Rainey told CNBC in May.
On a call on Thursday, Rainey said when it comes to higher tariff costs, “the pressure is real.” Yet, he said Walmart’s team has been able to reduce the impact on customers by finding ways to absorb some costs.
Walmart’s results on Thursday followed cautious updates from Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s. All three of those retailers lowered their full-year profit outlooks this week and referred to consumers who were hesitant to make big purchases and hungry for deals. 
T.J. Maxx and Marshalls parent company TJX, on the other hand, hiked its full-year forecast, saying it’s seeing a “strong start” to the holidays as it caters to value-conscious shoppers.
Rainey said Walmart is “going into the holiday pretty optimistic,” saying it’s prepared with competitive price points. More

Last quarter, the family offices of hedge-fund billionaires including David Tepper and Carl Icahn doubled down on home appliances, flavor ingredients and health insurance.
Private investment firms of the ultra-wealthy have the war chest for opportunistic and risky market moves.
Family offices are still buying the rally of some Magnificent Seven tech stocks.

Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper listens to a question during a press conference in 2022.
Alex Slitz | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Private investment firms of the ultra-wealthy bought beaten up stocks last quarter as AI enthusiasm boosted global markets to record highs, according to third-quarter securities filings analyzed by CNBC.

Hedge-fund billionaire David Tepper’s family office Appaloosa exited its entire stake in Oracle in the three months ended Sept. 30. During that period, shares of the software giant rallied by nearly 29%. Last quarter, Appaloosa locked in gains for “Magnificent Seven” stocks by closing its stake in Intel and trimming its Meta holdings by 8%.
Meanwhile, Appaloosa doubled down on tariff-beaten consumer stocks, increasing its stake in Whirlpool by 2,000%. Appaloosa’s 5.5 million shares in the home appliance company ranked as its third-largest holding at the quarter-end, worth $432 million. In the second half of the year, Whirlpool stock fallen by almost 31% thus far. Tepper’s firm also upped its stake in Goodyear Tire & Rubber, which is down 13% this year.

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Carl Icahn’s namesake family office is also betting on a turnaround for a consumer stock, increasing its holdings of International Flavors & Fragrances by 27% to $292 million. IFF, which is down 23% for the year, produces ingredients for a wide array of consumer products from potato chips to deodorant. Icahn, a longtime activist investor, first built his IFF stake in 2022, and his son Brett joined the firm’s board in late October per a prior agreement between IFF and Icahn Capital.
Omega Advisors, Leon Cooperman’s hedge-fund-turned-family-office, leaned into health insurance stocks, increasing its Cigna stake by 53% to 325,000 shares. Cooperman’s firm also widened its position in Elevance Health by 21%, making it Omega Advisor’s eighth-largest holding with a quarter-end value of $110.2 million. Shares of Cigna and Elevance are both down about 18% for the second half of the year, pressured by rising medical costs and anticipated government cuts to healthcare funding.
These bold bets aside, family offices are still buying the rally of some Mag 7 stocks. Soros Fund Management increased its stakes in Apple and Amazon by 2,000% and 481%, respectively. Amazon shares make up the firm’s largest holding with a quarter-end value of $489 million.

Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office initiated positions in Amazon and Meta of $96 million and $56 million, respectively, after exiting them in the prior quarter.
Even Appaloosa, having whittled down its positions in several tech giants, upped its Nvidia holdings by 9%. More

NBC will now have Sunday Night Baseball from 2026 to 2028.
ESPN opted out of its Sunday Night Baseball rights earlier this year. It had been paying $550 million for the deal.
MLB is receiving about $250 million for the same games previously paid for by ESPN, representing a haircut of about $300 million.
ESPN has a new deal to sell and distribute MLB.TV as well as a new 30-game midweek package. ESPN is paying $550 million for its new bundle of rights and games.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani (17) throws a pitch during the MLB game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 16, 2025 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA.
Brian Rothmuller | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

Major League Baseball officially announced a new three-year media rights agreement with NBC, Netflix and ESPN on Wednesday, foreshadowing the league’s more significant TV deal to come in 2028.
The new deal stems from ESPN’s decision to opt out of its “Sunday Night Baseball” package earlier this year. ESPN struck a new deal with MLB, acquiring the rights to MLB.TV and a midweek game package. NBC Sports will take over the Sunday Night games, and Netflix will be the new home for the next three Home Run Derbies. All the deals begin with the 2026 season.

CNBC previously reported most of the details of the agreement in August.
“Our new media rights agreements with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix provide us with a great opportunity to expand our reach to fans through three powerful destinations for live sports, entertainment, and marquee events,” said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred in a statement.

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The new deal foreshadows MLB’s quest to raise TV revenue at the end of the 2028 season, when it will get these rights back plus existing broadcast rights from Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery.
While it’s not an exact apples-to-apples comparison, MLB had to take a haircut of about $300 million per year relative to what ESPN had been paying before opting out earlier this year. NBC is paying about $200 million a year for its new package, and Netflix is paying about $50 million annually for the Derby, CNBC reported in August. The two packages, together, roughly make up what ESPN had been paying for.
Even so, MLB has a chance to expand its reach through the new and streaming-exclusive partners.

The average ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game averaged 1.8 million viewers this past season.
The loss in revenue for the Sunday Night package suggests MLB may have to get creative with the way it carves up new packages of games in 2028 to ensure it continues to grow media revenue. In aggregate, the league is now making more in overall media revenue, but it needed to sell ESPN rights and games it hadn’t previously offered. ESPN is paying about $550 million for its new package, CNBC reported in August.
The NBA nearly tripled its national media revenue in its most recent rights deal, and the NFL is so confident it can generate a huge increase on the deal it signed in 2021 that it’s open to accelerating talks with its current media partners as early as next year, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC in September.

New deal details

ESPN’s new deal allows it sell and distribute MLB.TV, the league’s out of market streaming service, through the ESPN app. ESPN will also receive a new 30-game midweek package of live games on ESPN’s linear networks and the ESPN app.
ESPN also will sell and distribute MLB Network and in-market games for select MLB teams via the ESPN app. Those teams are the Cleveland Guardians, San Diego Padres, Minnesota Twins, Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies — franchises whose games have been produced and distributed by MLB after the collapse of regional sports networks that carried those teams.
NBC will now have MLB, NBA and NFL on Sunday for its broadcast network, its new cable sports channel, and its Peacock streaming service. NBC will also carry MLB’s entire Wild Card round, ranging from eight to 12 games each season. 
In addition to three years of the Home Run Derby, Netflix will own the rights to a singular game on Opening Night for the next three seasons. Netflix will also exclusively deliver all 47 games of the 2026 World Baseball Classic to its audience in Japan. 
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC. More