Raphael Stevens

Starbucks is adding two former Taco Bell alumni to its leadership team.
CEO Brian Niccol said the company is changing the operating model for its retail team, which led to the shake-up.
Starbucks announced the move hours before it announced fiscal first-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street’s expectations.

Brian Niccols, CEO of Starbucks, speaking with CNBC on Oct. 31, 2024.

Starbucks announced another stage in its leadership shake-up on Tuesday, as CEO Brian Niccol will bring in two more executives who spent time at his former employer Taco Bell while dividing key leadership roles.
“As we focus on our ‘Back to Starbucks’ plan, we need a new operating model for our retail team, with clear ownership and accountability and an appropriate scope for each role,” Niccol said in a letter to employees shared on the company’s website.

Starbucks announced the move hours before it reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue that topped analyst expectations. As the company tries to mount a turnaround, same-stores sales declined for the fourth straight quarter, but not as badly as Wall Street expected.
Before spending six years at Chipotle, Niccol served as CEO of Yum Brands’ Taco Bell. Since starting at Starbucks in September, he has already poached some of his former colleagues to help with his transformation of the coffee giant. For example, he tapped Chipotle and Yum Brands alum Tressie Lieberman as Starbucks’ global chief brand officer in the fall.
The newest changes to the Starbucks organization include splitting the role of North American president into two jobs. The company’s current North American president, Sara Trilling, will depart the company. Trilling has been with Starbucks since 2002.
Starting in February, Meredith Sandland will hold the role of chief store development officer. Sandland is currently CEO of Empower Delivery, a restaurant software company. Previously, she served as chief operating officer of Kitchen United and as Taco Bell’s chief development officer.
Additionally, Mike Grams will join the company in February as North America chief stores officer. Grams has been with Taco Bell for more than 30 years, starting as a restaurant general manager and working his way up to become the chain’s global chief operating officer, according to his LinkedIn.

Both Sandland and Grams will be tasked with implementing Niccol’s vision to go “back to Starbucks.” The strategy includes decreasing service times to four minutes per order, making its stores more welcoming and cozy, as well as slashing the menu.
Arthur Valdez, Starbucks’ chief supply officer, also plans to leave the company. He joined in 2023 after seven years at Target. Starbucks has already identified his replacement and will share that news in the coming weeks, Niccol said in the letter.

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JetBlue’s outlook disappointed investors.
The airline is in the middle of a cost-cutting program that includes culling unprofitable flying.
It lost two antitrust cases that blocked its planned acquisition of Spirit Airlines last year and a regional partnership with American in 2023.

A JetBlue Airways plane prepares to take off from the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on January 31, 2024 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

JetBlue Airways shares fell more than 25% on Tuesday, the biggest one-day percentage loss since the company went public more than two decades ago, after the carrier’s financial outlook disappointed investors.
The New York-based airline forecast its unit costs, excluding fuel, will rise as much as 7% this year from 2024. In the first quarter, it said it expected this metric to rise as much as 10% this quarter year-over-year.

It estimated revenue could come in up to 0.5% lower to as much as 3.5% higher this quarter over 2024. Larger competitors Delta and United have been forecasting higher revenue growth, a sign of those airlines’ strengthening pricing power.
JetBlue is in the middle of a plan to reduce costs by culling unprofitable routes, deferring new aircraft and drumming up revenue with higher-priced seats. CNBC reported Friday that JetBlue has offered senior pilots voluntary early retirement packages. JetBlue cut costs by $190 million last year, the company said Tuesday.
“This is a multiyear strategy, and it’s not linear, and we’re focused on the long term here in getting JetBlue back to sustained profitability,” CEO Joanna Geraghty, who took the top job last year, said during an earnings call on Tuesday. “So it’s going to take a little time.”
Geraghty added she was pleased with the carrier’s progress, which puts it on track to add up to $900 million to pretax profit 2027.
The carrier expects its 2025 revenue to rise between 3% and 6% on flat capacity. The impact of a Pratt & Whitney engine recall will be worse this year, grounding a number of the company’s Airbus jets in the “mid- to high teens, up from 11 grounded aircraft last year,” CFO Ursula Hurley said on the earnings call Tuesday.

JetBlue is in the middle of a plan to reduce costs by culling unprofitable routes, deferring new aircraft and drumming up revenue with higher-priced seats. CNBC reported Friday that JetBlue has offered senior pilots voluntary early retirement packages.
JetBlue lost two antitrust cases that blocked two of its growth strategies. In 2024, a federal judge blocked JetBlue’s planned acquisition of Spirit Airlines, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November, and in 2023, JetBlue lost a case over its regional partnership with American Airlines.
“We would note that the current management team has hit their numbers, but in a market where airlines are seeing solid earnings growth, JetBlue hasn’t been able to keep pace,” wrote Melius Research analyst Conor Cunningham. “JetBlue still needs to aggressively ramp unit revenue throughout the year to get to sustained operating profit – all possible, it just is hard to underwrite given the drag in 1Q.”
JetBlue’s fourth-quarter loss narrowed to $44 million, or a loss of 13 cents per share, down from a loss of $104 million, or a loss of 31 cents a share, in the same period in 2023. The carrier reported revenue of $2.28 billion, down 2.1% from a year earlier. More

The Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic for patients with both chronic kidney disease and diabetes, expanding the use of the wildly popular injection in the U.S. 
The FDA’s decision means Ozempic can be used to reduce the risk of kidney disease worsening, kidney failure and death from cardiovascular disease in patients with chronic kidney disease and diabetes.
The decision could transform how doctors treat patients with the condition, which involves a gradual loss of kidney function and is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. 

A box of Ozempic made by Novo Nordisk is seen at a pharmacy in London, Britain March 8, 2024.
Hollie Adams | Reuters

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic to treat chronic kidney disease in patients who also have Type 2 diabetes, expanding the use of the wildly popular injection in the U.S. 
The drug is already widely used and covered to treat Type 2 diabetes. The FDA’s decision means Ozempic can now be used to reduce the risk of kidney disease worsening, kidney failure, and death from cardiovascular disease in patients with both chronic kidney disease and diabetes.

The decision could transform how doctors treat patients with chronic kidney disease, which involves a gradual loss of kidney function and is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Around 37 million American adults are living with chronic kidney disease, according to Novo Nordisk.
Diabetes is a key risk factor for kidney disease. Roughly 40% of Type 2 diabetes patients have the condition, which can cause additional sickness such as increased risk of cardiovascular problems and death, Novo Nordisk said.
“All chronic kidney disease is progressive. It’s a year-on-year, relentless decline in renal function,” Stephen Gough, Novo Nordisk’s global chief medical officer, said in an interview, referring to the kidney’s ability to filter waste from the blood.
He noted that when the condition progresses to the point of kidney failure — also known as end-stage kidney disease — patients require long-term dialysis treatments to remove waste from the blood, or a kidney transplant. Both are burdensome, and death among patients with end-stage kidney disease is “very high,” particularly from cardiovascular disease, according to Gough.
The approval also demonstrates that a blockbuster class of diabetes and weight loss drugs called GLP-1s have significant health benefits beyond regulating blood sugar and suppressing appetite. 

Ozempic reduced the risk of severe kidney outcomes — including kidney failure, reduction in kidney function, or death from kidney or heart causes — by 24% in diabetic patients with chronic kidney disease compared with a placebo, according to results of a late-stage trial that the approval was based on.
In patients who took Ozempic, kidney function declined more slowly, the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack dropped 18% and the risk of death from any cause fell 20% compared with the placebo. Ozempic also cut the risk of cardiovascular-related deaths by 29%.
“We know that, unfortunately, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease just go hand in hand,” Gough said.
He added that the major treatments patients typically receive when they have the earliest signs of chronic kidney disease aim to reduce cardiovascular risk factors by paying attention to blood pressure.
The rate of serious adverse side effects was 49.6% in patients who took Ozempic, lower than the 53.8% seen in the group that received a placebo. There was a slightly higher rate of discontinuations among Ozempic patients due to gastrointestinal side effects commonly seen with GLP-1s, such as nausea and vomiting.
EU regulators approved Ozempic for the same use in December. 
Novo Nordisk ended the phase three trial in October, a year earlier than expected, in response to positive results. At the time, the Danish company’s announcement caused shares of kidney dialysis companies to plummet about 20% in a single day. 
The trial, called FLOW, started in 2019 and followed roughly 3,500 patients with diabetes and moderate to severe chronic kidney disease.
“From my point of view as a doctor, you don’t get [diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease] in isolation,” Gough said. “These illnesses, unfortunately, co-segregate. They cluster within the same individuals. So if you have a medicine that can target each of these co-morbidities in one injection, then you’re addressing what really matters to the patient.”
The approval comes after the Biden administration selected three of Novo Nordisk’s drugs with the active ingredient semaglutide for the second cycle of Medicare drug price negotiations. That includes Ozempic, its weight loss counterpart Wegovy and another diabetes treatment called Rybelsus.  
The FDA’s decision also comes as Novo Nordisk faces increased competition from Eli Lilly and tries to win expanded insurance coverage for Wegovy.
Last year, Wegovy won approval in the U.S. for use in slashing the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes. Novo Nordisk is also studying Wegovy as a potential treatment for fatty liver disease. More

Boeing’s Air Force One program is more than $2 billion over budget and the aircraft have been delayed.
President Donald Trump struck a deal for the replacement aircraft during his first term.

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

Boeing is working with Trump advisor Elon Musk on ways to deliver delayed, overbudget Air Force One replacements sooner, CEO Kelly Ortberg said Tuesday.
The pair of Boeing 747s that will serve as the next Air Force One aircraft are more than $2 billion over budget and years late, which the company has attributed to design changes, labor constraints and supply chain problems. President Donald Trump struck a deal for the aircraft during his first term, after threatening to “cancel order!” before he took office in 2017, complaining about high costs.

“We’ve been engaged with Elon” on the Air Force One program to eliminate costs and deliver the aircraft earlier, Ortberg said in an interview with CNBC’s Phil Lebeau on “Squawk on the Street” on Tuesday, after Boeing released full-year results and its 2025 outlook.
It is not clear whether the aircraft will be delivered before Trump’s current term is up. An Air Force spokesperson told CNBC that an updated delivery schedule from Boeing is expected in the spring.
Trump cut a cake adorned with a model of Air Force One — in a new paint scheme — with a sword at his Jan. 20 inaugural ball.

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Musk, whose company SpaceX competes with Boeing’s space unit, has worked closely with Trump in recent months. The billionaire is also heading Trump’s commission that he tasked with reducing government spending.
Musk and the White House didn’t immediately comment.

“The president wants those planes sooner so we’re working with Elon to see what can we do to pull up the schedule of those programs,” Ortberg said.
Boeing in the last quarter took $1.7 billion in pretax charges in its defense and space unit, including for the Air Force One program. Ortberg, who became CEO in August, replaced the head of that business in September with an internal, interim leader. More

Startups focused on food as medicine see Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a skeptic of vaccines and pharmaceuticals who if confirmed by the Senate would lead Health and Human Services, as a potential ally.
Kennedy has said he would make nutritious food, rather than drugs, central to combating chronic disease, and the companies hope he would expand Medicaid coverage for their nutrition-based services.
Food-as-medicine companies have attracted over $2 billion in funding from venture capital and enterprise investors over the last four years, according to Rock Health Advisory.

Robert Kennedy Jr., U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, arrives at the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 16, 2024. 
Benoit Tessier | Reuters

As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faces two days of Senate confirmation hearings this week in his quest to become secretary of Health and Human Services, a niche group of startups will be watching closely.
Kennedy, a divisive pick to join President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, will first go before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday. As HHS secretary, he would oversee a budget of more than $2 trillion, covering everything from drug research and approvals to the Medicare and Medicaid health programs.

Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccines, and filings that show he benefited from anti-vaccine lawsuits, will likely be a central area of questioning; both sides of the political aisle have criticized the nominee for his stance.
Kennedy has pledged to make nutritious food, rather than drugs, central to combating chronic disease in the U.S. As Republicans target the federal-state Medicaid program for funding cuts, some investors and startups in nutrition-based services covered by Medicaid are hoping Kennedy’s vow to “Make America Healthy Again” will boost the food-as-medicine sector and keep the growing programs off the Trump administration’s chopping block.
“I actually think all signs are pointing to — with this administration — we are going to take a look finally at the reasons … why individuals are as sick as they are,” said Ashley Tyrner-Dolce, CEO of FarmBoxRx, a start-up that works with Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans to provide nutritious food shipments to engage patients to improve their health conditions.
As obesity and Type 2 diabetes rates climb in the U.S., state Medicaid programs have looked to provide active nutritional counseling to help members combat chronic conditions, much as large employers and commercial insurance plans have been doing for the last decade.
During the first Trump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services spurred states to address social needs such as food insecurity and health disparities. A handful of states received what’s known as an 1115 Medicaid demonstration waiver to provide nutritional programs as a form of preventive care — sparking major investment in the space along the way.

Over the last four years, more than four dozen food-as-medicine companies have raised over $2 billion from venture capital firms, including Khosla Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, along with health-care players such as CVS Health, according to data tracking by Rock Health Advisory.
Funding for food-as-medicine deals topped $483 million in 2024, a 175% increase from the prior year, according to Rock Health Advisory data. In one of the biggest deals of the year, telenutrition startup FoodSmart secured $200 million in venture funding led by TPG’s Rise Fund.
Food-as-medicine companies now see Kennedy as a potential ally.
In an interview with NPR, Kennedy said Trump has given him “three instructions” on his role as HHS secretary: end corruption and conflicts in regulatory agencies, return health agencies to the “gold standard” of evidence-based science, and tackle chronic conditions.”He wants to end the chronic disease epidemic with measurable impacts on a diminishment of chronic disease within two years,” Kennedy said.

Robert Kennedy Jr., U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, walks through the Dirksen Senate Office Building between meetings with senators on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 17, 2024. 
Benoit Tessier | Reuters

Growth of food programs in Medicaid

Demand for food and nutrition programs grew substantially over the last five years, with 20 states and Washington, D.C., approved for waivers by the end of the Biden administration, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That has helped drive the growth of startups focused on serving government health plans.
“There’s significantly more interest by payers, in terms of how they can use food interventions to both improve patient lives and then reduce cost,” than there was a decade ago, said Sanjeev Krishnan, managing partner at S2G Ventures, a venture capital fund founded by Walmart heir Lukas Walton.
S2G has funded five food-as-medicine startups, including NourishedRx, a five-year-old digital nutrition company which combines food deliveries with health coaching for patients in Medicaid and Medicare plans.
“To really be able to help the people who need it the most, those who are socially vulnerable, nutrition insecure, who also have diet-related disease, we had to work through the [government] payers,” said NourishedRx founder and CEO Lauren Driscoll, adding that it has taken time to build momentum.
“We had to do pilots and drive proof points, and now we are entering into recurring revenue, renewable and expanding contracts,” she said.

Reaching an inflection point

Kennedy’s support for focusing on diet, rather than medicine, to treat chronic conditions may only fuel more investor enthusiasm about the growing space.
“Proposals from the incoming HHS administration to expand coverage of healthy foods and nutrition services as medical benefits and increase research funding for medical nutrition are likely to continue propelling investor enthusiasm in the space,” said Chris Lew, a principal with Rock Health’s consulting team.
FoodSmart CEO Dr. Jason Langheier said the high cost of diabetes and weight loss drugs is helping fuel interest in food programs, as much as Medicaid waivers and policy initiatives that have increased coverage of nutrition aid.
“Food care providers will now have … an opportunity to work with the state, to create a program that’s driven off a return on investment for the state and the health plans, to actually help people at scale — especially because of the pressure being put on them for their spending on GLP-1s, which has grown to astronomical levels,” said Langheier.

Boxes of Wegovy made by Novo Nordisk are seen at a pharmacy in London, Britain March 8, 2024. 
Hollie Adams | Reuters

In late November, the Biden administration proposed extending coverage of breakthrough anti-obesity drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound to Medicaid and Medicare patients.
If confirmed, Kennedy will likely oppose GLP-1 coverage expansion, given his vocal criticism of the pricey weight loss drugs. The proposal will also likely be a nonstarter for the Trump administration because of its cost, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates would be $35 billion from 2026 to 2034.
Whether or not Kennedy is confirmed, S2G’s Krishnan said the U.S. is heading toward a fiscal reckoning on health-care spending, and food programs can play a pivotal role by reducing preventable disease.
“We’re going to have a real sort of conversation on health care, and how do we get ideal outcomes for patients, but also not have the entire budget or significant portion of the U.S. budget focused on health care,” he said. More

Boeing posted a nearly $4 billion loss for the fourth quarter.
The company has taken charges that span its defense and commercial airplane units.
CEO Kelly Ortberg said the company is making progress on stabilizing the manufacturer.

Kelly Ortberg speaks at the 14th annual U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Foundation Aviation Summit in downtown Washington, D.C.
Kris Tripplaar | SIPPL Sipa USA | AP

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg on Tuesday laid out a recovery plan for the company that includes focusing on core businesses as he faces investors antsy for answers after the plane maker posted its sixth consecutive annual loss.
Boeing lost $3.86 billion in the last three months of 2024, taking about $3 billion in charges in its commercial aircraft unit and its defense and space business spanning aircraft from the Boeing 767 to the KC-46 tanker to the long-delayed pair of 747s that are set to serve as new Air Force One planes.

Boeing’s results were impacted, as expected, by a nearly two-month machinist strike that idled work on most of its aircraft and lengthened delivery delays to customers, which pay for the bulk of their planes when they’re received. Boeing said it burned through $3.5 billion in the fourth quarter, a difficult end to what was supposed to be a turnaround year. The company burned through $14.31 billion in 2024.
Boeing’s shares were little changed on Tuesday. The company released preliminary results last week showing a bigger loss and lower revenue than analysts expected.
The company’s annual loss totaled $11.83 billion, its largest since 2020, when it was grappling with a grounding of its best-selling plane, the 737 Max, after two fatal crashes and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“While it was a challenging year, we are seeing encouraging signs of progress as we work together to turn around our company,” Ortberg said in a staff memo.
Ortberg, a longtime aerospace executive whom Boeing hired out of retirement over the summer, said the company is focused on stabilizing output, fixing the company’s culture and refocusing on its main businesses.

“We are also preparing for the path ahead by continuing to make investments in our core businesses while streamlining our portfolio in areas that are not core to our future,” Ortberg said.
He is likely going to face questions during the company’s earnings call later Tuesday on Boeing’s progress with potentially spinning off units like its Jeppesen navigation unit.

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Boeing didn’t provide financial targets for 2025 on Tuesday, but executives will face questions about their production rate expectations.
Its defense unit’s revenue fell 20% to $5.4 billion for the quarter, and it took $1.7 billion in pretax charges.
“While charges for the quarter in BDS are disappointing, we have completed deep dives on all of our challenging fixed-price development programs,” Ortberg said. “We are now more proactive and clear-eyed on the risks.”
The commercial aircraft unit revenue fell 55% to $4.76 billion.
Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street analysts surveyed by LSEG were expecting:

Loss per share: $5.90 adjusted vs. $3.00 expected
Revenue: $15.24 billion vs. expected $16.21 billion

The company last posted a profit in 2018. In addition to the crashes and Covid, it has faced a host of manufacturing defects and cost overruns, and early last year, a near-catastrophic midair blowout of a door panel on a nearly new Max 9 jetliner as it climbed out of Portland, Oregon.
After the strike ended in November, Boeing resumed production of its 737 Max aircraft in December, and earlier this month, it restarted test flights of its 777X aircraft, which haven’t yet been certified by the FAA. Boeing is also working to certify the Max 7 and Max 10 aircraft, the smallest and largest models in the single-aisle Max family.

A Boeing banner and an F-15EX jet fighter during the Farnborough International Airshow, on 22nd July 2024, at Farnborough, England. 
Richard Baker | In Pictures | Getty Images

While airline CEOs have largely supported Ortberg, key Boeing customers are still logging the effects of the delivery delays.
American Airlines said over the weekend it made further cuts to its schedule because of late deliveries of new Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which it also planned to use to launch a premium-seat-heavy configuration to capitalize on a consumer shift toward pricier, roomier seats.
It plans to suspend service between Miami and Paris in June and July, and cut down on frequencies between Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy International to London in May, as well as from Dallas to Honolulu in June.
“We’ll be proactively reaching out to our impacted customers to offer alternate travel arrangements and remain committed to mitigating the impact of these Boeing delays while continuing to offer a comprehensive global network,” American said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the CEO of European budget airline Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, said Monday that the company had to cut its passenger traffic goal for the year because of “frustrating” Boeing delivery delays.
Ortberg and other Boeing leaders are likely to face questions during the 10 a.m. ET analyst call about cost overruns and delays in the company’s defense division, including for the Air Force One aircraft, as well as potential tariffs and other policies of the new Trump administration. More