Raphael Stevens

Restaurant executives are excited to put 2024 behind them and start the new year.
This year, restaurant bankruptcy filings soared, traffic declined and same-store sales disappointed.
But green shoots, like improving sales, have given executives hope that next year will be different.

A McDonald’s restaurant in El Sobrante, California, on Oct. 23, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

After a tough year for the restaurant industry, executives can’t wait for 2025 to start.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready for ’24 to be behind us, and I think ’25 is going to be a great year,” Kate Jaspon, CFO of Dunkin’ parent Inspire Brands, said at the Restaurant Finance and Development Conference in Las Vegas this week.

Restaurant bankruptcy filings have soared more than 50% so far in 2024, compared with the year-ago period. Traffic to restaurants open at least a year declined year over year in every month of 2024 through September, according to data from industry tracker Black Box Intelligence. And many of the nation’s largest restaurant chains, from McDonald’s to Starbucks, have disappointed investors with same-store sales declines for at least one quarter.
But green shoots have appeared, fueling tepid optimism for the future of the restaurant industry.
Sales are improving from this summer’s lows. Traffic to fast-food restaurants rose 2.8% in October compared with a year ago, according to data from Revenue Management Solutions. The firm’s data confirms anecdotal evidence from companies like Burger King owner Restaurant Brands International, which said earlier this month that its same-store sales grew in October.
Plus, interest rates are finally falling. Earlier in November, the Federal Reserve approved its second consecutive rate cut. For restaurants, lower interest rates mean that it’s cheaper to finance new locations, fueling growth. Previously, higher interest rates didn’t hurt development much because restaurants were still catching up from pandemic delays and riding the high of the post-Covid sales boom.

Shake Shack storefront with illuminated sign on a bustling street, New York City, New York, October 22, 2024.
Smith Collection | Gado | Archive Photos | Getty Images

At burger chain Shake Shack, higher interest rates in the last few years did not slow down development, according to CFO Katie Fogertey. But she’s expecting a “big boost” in consumer confidence as rates fall.

“If credit becomes cheaper, people feel like they can borrow more, even though it doesn’t make sense that it would necessarily drive a $5 burger spend. It’s just the psychology behind it,” Fogertey told CNBC.
Shake Shack has reported increasing same-store sales every quarter so far this year, even as consumers have been more cautious.
Restaurant valuations are also improving, prompting hope that the market for initial public offerings will finally defrost.
“We’re working with a number of different folks right now on getting ready,” said Piper Sandler managing director Damon Chandik at RFDC. “The window currently is not wide open … I think that just with the traffic pressure that we’ve been seeing across the industry, the bar is particularly high.”
He added that he expects to see some restaurant IPOs next year, hopefully in the first half.

A sign marks the location of a Cava restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, on May 28, 2024.
Scott Olson | Getty Images

No major restaurant company has gone public since Mediterranean restaurant chain Cava’s IPO in June of last year. While Cava’s stock has climbed more than 500% since its debut, its success hasn’t encouraged any other large private restaurant companies to take the plunge. Instead, the broader market conditions have scared off other contenders.
Nearly a year ago, Panera Bread confidentially filed to go public again, but an IPO hasn’t yet come to fruition. Inspire Brands, which is owned by private equity firm Roark Capital, is another likely candidate for a blockbuster IPO in the future. Inspire’s portfolio includes Dunkin’, Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John’s, Sonic, Arby’s and Baskin-Robbins.
Still, it’s not all optimism within the industry.
“I think we’ll still see headwinds next year within the macro and within the industry,” Portillo’s CFO Michelle Hook told CNBC.
The fast-casual chain, best known for its Italian beef sandwiches, has reported falling same-store sales for three straight quarters. Portillo’s has stayed away from some of the discounts offered by others in the restaurant industry, like McDonald’s and Chili’s.
The value wars will likely continue into 2025, pressuring restaurants’ profits and intensifying the competition between chains. For example, McDonald’s plans to unveil a broader value menu in the first quarter, after extending its $5 value meal through the summer and into the winter. For some restaurants, the looming threat of bankruptcy hasn’t disappeared, particularly for the chains that are leaning on discounts to win back customers.
And while a recession looks unlikely next year, the consumer might take longer to bounce back from years of high costs than anticipated. More

More than 70,000 people are expected to be in attendance for Friday’s fight.
The fight has brought in $17.8 million in revenue from ticket sales, according to Most Valuable Promotions.
It is the biggest gate outside of Las Vegas.

(L-R) Mike Tyson, Nakisa Bidarian and Jake Paul pose onstage during the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson Boxing match press conference at Texas Live! in Arlington, Texas, on May 16, 2024.
Cooper Neill | Getty Images

The highly anticipated boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson has already secured its place in the record books.
The fight’s promoter, Most Valuable Promotions, which is co-owned by Paul, told CNBC it expects more than 70,000 people to be in attendance to the Friday night bout at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Dallas Cowboys’ stadium has a seating capacity of 80,000.

The gate receipts alone have brought in $17.8 million in revenue, the promoter said.
That makes it the biggest boxing gate in history outside of Nevada. The previous record was $9 million in gate receipts for the 2021 fight between Canelo Álvarez and Billy Joe Saunders at AT&T Stadium.
MVP said the gate is also higher than any non-Las Vegas UFC fight, other than Conor McGregor versus Eddie Alvarez in New York City in 2016.
Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of MVP, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” that both Tyson and Paul will be making eight figures from this fight and Taylor and Serrano will also be having record paydays for women’s boxing.
The fight between Paul, a 27-year-old YouTube influencer-turned-boxer and Tyson, a 58-year-old boxing legend, will air Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Netflix, free to subscribers.

The event will also feature one of the most anticipated women’s boxing rematches in history: undisputed super lightweight champion Katie Taylor versus unified featherweight champion Amanda Serrano.
Netflix has upward of 283 million paid memberships in more than 190 countries. The bout will also be a test for the streamer as it ventures deeper into the sports space and as boxing sidesteps the pay-per-view model.
“Numbers don’t lie,” Paul said Wednesday at a press conference for the fight. “People want to see this and that’s an amazing accomplishment. … This is a statement that we had the biggest live gate outside of Vegas in U.S. boxing history.”
Tickets for the fight on Friday range on StubHub from about $58 to $1,500. MVP has also sold higher-end packages, including a $2 million VIP experience that comes with ringside seats. The promotions company says its 375 VIP seats have officially sold out.
For comparison, Vegas’ biggest fight in history took place in 2015 between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. That fight took in more than $72 million in tickets, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. More

Several pure-play space stocks rallied 20% or more this week, in part driven by what sector analysts called a “Trump-Elon trade.”
Just this week saw Rocket Lab up 41%, Intuitive Machines up 28%, Spire Global up 26%, Planet Labs up 16%, Redwire up 15% and AST SpaceMobile up 10%.
So far in 2024, “space has been one of the best outperformers in the market,” Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Sheppard told CNBC.

A hot fire test of an Archimedes engine, which powers the company’s Neutron rocket.
Rocket Lab

This past week saw several pure-play space stocks rally, with leaders up as much as 20% or more, in part driven by what sector analysts said is a “Trump-Elon trade,” a nod to the relationship between President-elect Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
“I don’t think anyone can underplay the potential catalyst that I don’t think many people were talking about before: the most important human in the history of the space industry having the ear of the president-elect, who in his past term found space important enough to create a separate branch of the military,” Andrew Chanin, CEO of ProcureAM, which runs the UFO space-focused ETF, told CNBC.

Just this week saw Rocket Lab up 41%, Intuitive Machines up 28%, Spire Global up 26%, Planet Labs up 16%, Redwire up 15% and AST SpaceMobile up 10%.
Those gains were partly catalyzed by third-quarter results and individual updates, such as Rocket Lab’s progress on Neutron and Spire’s sale of its maritime business to remove debt.
But there is a broader market sentiment that is driving these stocks, too, said Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Sheppard, who has buy ratings on Rocket Lab, Redwire and Intuitive Machines.
“I think there’s definitely a risk-on, post-Trump-win rally that’s being reflected in this industry,” Sheppard told CNBC.
Back out even further to take a year-to-date perspective, and this week’s top-performing space stocks have broken out of a post-SPAC malaise to triple or even quadruple in 2024.

“Space has been one of the best outperformers in the market this year for a handful of these names,” Sheppard said.
“We’re seeing a big increase in investor inbounds,” he continued. “We’re getting calls and emails from institutional investors, which are finally starting to realize that this market is only going to continue to accelerate. It’s only going to continue to proliferate because of national security, because of the Artemis program to get the U.S. astronauts back on the moon, because of Elon [Musk]’s ambitious goals of getting to Mars.”

Read more CNBC space news

Sheppard emphasized that Musk’s company SpaceX being privately held means investors are turning to other companies to get exposure to the space sector. Similarly, ProcureAM’s Chanin believes SpaceX’s dominant position in rocket launches and satellite broadband actually helps companies that have spacecraft looking for a ride to orbit.
“They all benefit from the lower cost of accessing space,” Chanin said.
Notably, this week has also seen a bifurcation between pure-play space stocks. Newer companies that have gone public over the past few years climbed while older “legacy” players slid, such as EchoStar and Viasat, both down more than 10% this week.
Alex King, CEO of Cestrian Capital Research, said that gap represents a changing of the guard between the generations of space companies.
“The need for any of those legacy businesses is declining. … What you’re seeing in space, I think, is a slower evolution of what happens in tech, where it happens really quickly, which is low cost always wins in the end,” King said.
“I think there’s an element of the market working out which of these companies are here to stay and which aren’t,” King added.

Despite the huge year-to-date gains by the top space performers, Sheppard does not see the sector slowing down any time soon.
“The overall sentiment has been very bullish and continues to be bullish, despite the outperformance,” Sheppard said.
That aligns with the views of Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck, who said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call this week that he expects the incoming Trump administration’s “very strong focus on space” to keep up the industry’s momentum.
“When space wins, Rocket Lab wins,” Beck said. More

McDonald’s will invest more than $100 million to boost restaurant sales and speed up the recovery after last month’s E. coli outbreak.
Of that total, $65 million will be invested into supporting owners who have lost business, targeting those in the hardest-hit states.
Approximately $35 million will be invested in traffic-driving programs, including marketing efforts.
This week, the company completed the return of Quarter Pounder burgers, with slivered onions, to all restaurant menus nationwide.

A Quarter Pounder with cheese, fries and a drink arranged at a McDonald’s restaurant in El Sobrante, California, on Oct. 23, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

In the wake of last month’s E. coli outbreak tied to McDonald’s slivered onions, the fast-food giant said it will invest more than $100 million to boost restaurant sales and speed up the recovery at affected franchisees.
Of that total, $65 million will be invested into supporting owners who have lost business, targeting those in the hardest-hit states. Approximately $35 million will be invested in traffic-driving programs, including marketing efforts, according to a memo to owners and employees viewed by CNBC.

McDonald’s will also be driving “local recovery plans for highly impacted markets” with more details to come in the weeks ahead, the memo said.
“We have navigated a complex and fast changing situation, moved at an unmatched pace, and showed the true character of our brand through unwavering dedication to the safety and well-being of our customers. As we enter the ‘Recovery’ phase, we will continue to uphold our commitment to do the right thing,” said the memo from McDonald’s Chief Impact Officer Michael Gonda and Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer Tariq Hassan.
The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg earlier reported the recovery investments.
During the company’s most-recent earnings call last month, Chief Financial Officer Ian Borden told investors that daily sales and traffic turned negative immediately following a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announcement that linked the E. coli outbreak to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. But the company does not expect the situation to have a material effect on its business, executives said.
This week, the company completed the return of Quarter Pounder burgers, with slivered onions, to all restaurant menus nationwide after temporarily removing the menu item from some locations, according to the memo to franchisees.

On Wednesday, the CDC issued its latest update on the outbreak, which now includes a total of 104 cases, 37 hospitalizations and one death across 14 states.
The same day, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement that “there does not appear to be a continued food safety concern related to this outbreak at McDonald’s restaurants.” 

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GM laid off roughly 1,000 employees on Friday as the automaker attempts to cut costs and realign priorities amid changing market conditions, according to a person familiar with the decision.
The layoffs, which were announced Friday morning via email to those impacted, were across the business.

The GM logo is seen on the facade of the General Motors headquarters in Detroit on March 16, 2021.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters

DETROIT – General Motors laid off roughly 1,000 employees on Friday as the automaker attempts to cut costs and realign priorities amid changing market conditions, according to a person familiar with the decision.
The layoffs, which were announced Friday morning to those impacted, were across the business. Some were due to poor performance, while others were part of a review to reorganize priorities by the automaker, according to the person, who agreed to speak about the decision on the condition of anonymity.

A majority of the employees impacted were salaried workers in suburban Detroit at the automaker’s global technical center in Warren, Michigan, the person said. The United Auto Workers said about 50 union members were included in the layoffs.
The company is targeting $2 billion in fixed cost reductions this year as it deals with slowing U.S. sales, business deterioration in China and a shift in its “all-in” strategy for electric vehicles amid slower-than-expected consumer adoption.

Stock chart icon

GM, Ford and Stellantis stocks.

A spokesman for GM confirmed the layoffs but declined to disclose the total amount.
“In order to win in this competitive market, we need to optimize for speed and excellence,” GM spokesperson Kevin Kelly said in an emailed statement. “This includes operating with efficiency, ensuring we have the right team structure, and focusing on our top priorities as a business. As part of this continuous effort, we’ve made a small number of team reductions.  We are grateful to those who helped establish a strong foundation that positions GM to lead in the industry moving forward.” 
UAW Vice President Mike Booth, who oversees the union’s GM unit, condemned the layoffs. “GM is trying to cut around 50 UAW jobs, when they’re making record profits. We will fight for our laid off members with the full force of our contract,” he said in an emailed statement.

Friday’s layoffs follow more than 1,000 salaried employees working in GM’s software and services organization being let go in August.
GM’s global salaried workforce was 76,000 as of the end of last year. That included about 53,000 U.S. salaried employees.

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