EVEN HIS most ardent detractors would grant that Donald Trump is a masterful marketer. So it goes for the barrage of tariffs that he is set to unveil on April 2nd. The president has promised they will mark “Liberation Day” for America—a turning point when the country starts to claw back the respect and money that, he thinks, it has lost over the decades. More
Novo Nordisk said its diabetes pill Rybelsus showed cardiovascular benefits in a late-stage trial.
The pill lowered the risk of cardiovascular-related death, heart attack and stroke by 14% compared to a placebo after four years on average in patients with diabetes and established heart disease, with or without chronic kidney disease.
The results pave the way for it to become a new treatment option for people living with diabetes and established heart disease.
Flags with the logos of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, maker of the blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss treatments Ozempic and Wegovy are pictures while the company presents the annual report at Novo Nordisk in Bagsvaerd, Denmark, on February 5, 2025.
Mads Claus Rasmussen | Afp | Getty Images
Novo Nordisk on Saturday said its diabetes pill Rybelsus showed cardiovascular benefits in a late-stage trial, paving the way for it to become a new treatment option for people living with diabetes and heart disease.
The pill lowered the risk of cardiovascular-related death, heart attack and stroke by 14% compared to a placebo after four years on average in patients with diabetes and established heart disease, with or without chronic kidney disease. The Danish drugmaker presented the results on Rybelsus, which is already approved for Type 2 diabetes, at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session in Chicago.
Novo Nordisk has already applied in the U.S. and EU to expand the pill’s approval to include lowering the risk of serious cardiovascular complications, Stephen Gough, the company’s global chief medical officer, said in an interview.
Rybelsus is the once-daily oral formulation of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes injection Ozempic, which is taken once a week. Both treatments, as well as the company’s weekly weight loss injection Wegovy, contain the active ingredient semaglutide.
Wegovy in March 2024 won U.S. approval for slashing the risk of major cardiovascular events in adults with cardiovascular disease and who are obese or overweight. But the pill data presented on Saturday suggests that patients who are hesitant to take injections, such as those who are afraid of needles, could soon access treatment in a more convenient way.
“We know not everybody wants an injection, whether it is painful or not, they want the option of an oral medication,” Gough told CNBC. “We provide that option, that you can have one or the other, depending on what the patients and the healthcare professional think is right in that joint discussion.”
The data comes as a slate of other drugmakers, including Eli Lilly, work to develop oral GLP-1s for diabetes, weight loss and other conditions, such as sleep apnea.
The phase three trial examined just over 9,600 patients 50 years and older who received either Rybelsus or placebo, both on top of their standard treatment regimen, for an average of just under four years. Nearly half of all patients received medications called SGLT2 inhibitors, which are primarily used to lower blood sugar in adults with Type 2 diabetes, at some point during the trial.
By the end of the trial, 12% of people taking Rybelsus and 13.8% of those taking placebo experienced cardiovascular-related death, heart attack or stroke. That represents a 14% overall lower risk among those who took Rybelsus.
Researchers said that the reduced risk is in line with the cardiovascular benefits observed in eight previous trials involving injectable GLP-1s, which include semaglutide and other popular medications, according to a release from the American College of Cardiology. GLP-1s mimic certain gut hormones to tamp down appetite and regulate blood sugar, but also have other effects such as reducing inflammation.
Rybelsus helped lower the risk of non-fatal heart attacks by 26% compared to the placebo, which was “the primary driver” of the overall reduction of risk for cardiovascular complications in the trial, the release said. The pill also slashed the risk of non-fatal strokes by 12% and cardiovascular-related death by 7% compared to placebo.
There was no significant difference between the Rybelsus and placebo groups in outcomes related to kidney function, the release added. But the trial was “clearly” designed to examine the cardiovascular rather than kidney benefits of the pill, Gough said.
Ozempic is already approved to treat chronic kidney disease in diabetes patients.
The most common side effects reported in the study were gastrointestinal issues, such as nausea, diarrhea and constipation, which rarely led patients to stop taking Rybelsus, according to the release. Those symptoms are consistent with the side effects of injectable semaglutide.
Similar results were seen across all subgroups of patients – by age, sex and among people with different health conditions at the start of the trial, the release said.
Unlike its injectable counterparts, Rybelsus must be taken on an empty stomach at least 30 minutes before breakfast with a small amount of water. Despite those requirements, the study offers “reassurance that patients were able to take the drug as directed and reap cardiovascular health benefits from it,” said Dr. Darren McGuire, professor of medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the study’s first author. More
An expired patent — previously held by Vanguard — may spark a shake-up in the exchange-traded fund industry.
Wall Street saw the patent as critical to Vanguard’s success because it saved an enormous amount of money in taxes. Now, the firm’s ETF competitors could get a chance to use it, too.
“It’s really a game changer,” BNY Mellon’s global head of ETFs’ Ben Slavin told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.
Vanguard’s patent expired in 2023. How it works: Investors can access the same portfolio of stocks through two different formats: a mutual fund and an ETF. The portfolio has the same managers and the same holdings. “ETF Edge” host Bob Pisani notes the advantage is that it reduces taxable events in a (shared) portfolio.
Ben Johnson of Morningstar contends the structure could help millions of investors reduce tax burdens. His research firm describes it as a way for ETFs to exist as a separate share class within a mutual fund.
“ETF share classes appended to the mutual fund would help improve the tax efficiency of the fund to the benefit of everybody,” said Johnson, the firm’s head of client solutions.
It will ultimately come down to approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“My thesis has been that it’s a matter of when, and not if,” said Johnson, who added the ETF industry thinks it could happen as soon as this summer.
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Trips from Canada to the U.S. are dropping, threatening to widen the United States’ $50 billion travel and tourism deficit.
Canada is the top source of international visitors to the United States.
The White House said Friday that Canadians “will no longer have to endure the inconveniences of international travel when Canada becomes our 51st state.”
Several other countries have issued travel warnings for travelers considering going to the U.S.
Canadians hold an “Elbows Up” protest against U.S. tariffs and other policies by U.S. President Donald Trump, at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto, Ontario, Canada March 22, 2025.
Carlos Osorio | Reuters
Canadians are skipping trips to the U.S. and visitors from other countries could soon follow threatening to deepen the United States’ $50 billion travel deficit.
Experts say they’re pulling back for a variety of reasons, ranging from an unfavorable currency exchange rate to the U.S. political climate given President Donald Trump’s trade policies and his public statements on annexing Canada, as well as high-profile detainments of people who already had visas to be in the U.S., long wait visa times and other policies that have added to tensions with longtime close allies.
Reached for comment Friday, a White House spokesperson said by email that “everybody wants to come to President Trump’s America.”
Canadians “will no longer have to endure the inconveniences of international travel when Canada becomes our 51st state” and that “Europeans are eager to enjoy the Golden Age of America if they so choose to,” the spokesperson said.
In response to President Trump’s tariff plans at the time, former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month urged Canadians to “choose Canada” and suggested “changing your summer vacation plans to stay here in Canada and explore the many national and provincial parks, historical sites and tourist destinations our great country has to offer.”
The cross-border travel trends and Trump administration’s policies are worrying some in the United States’ travel industry, which draws in more than $1 trillion in direct spending a year.
The U.S. Travel Association said in a statement to CNBC that there is a “a question of America’s welcomeness, a slowing U.S. economy and recent safety concerns.
“These challenges are real and demand decisive action,” the organization, whose members include large hotel groups, airlines and other major travel companies, said, adding that is “actively working with the White House and Congress to advance policies that drive economic expansion and keep the U.S. competitive on the global stage.”
There are billions of dollars on the line. People from the United States already travel abroad and spend more in other countries than the U.S. brings in from foreign travelers.
Last year, the United States’ travel deficit was more than $51 billion, meaning Americans spent that much more abroad than foreigners visiting the U.S. spent, stripping out spending for medical and educational purposes, which still showed a deficit, according to Commerce Department data.
The U.S. brought in more than 72 million visitors last year, still below pre-Covid levels, according to a report from Jefferies. Visitors from Canada were the largest group, accounting for 28%, followed by Mexico at 23%, the bank said in a note this month.
Travel and tourism of inbound visitors are counted as U.S. exports, and they accounted for about 8% of U.S. exports of goods and services, according to the Commerce Department.
International visitors from overseas are especially important because they tend to stay longer and spend more money than local tourists, according to the U.S. Travel Association.
Some Canadians travel elsewhere
Both air travel and land crossings between the United States and Canada are down.
In February, Canadians’ return flights to Canada fell 13% over last year while return trips by car dropped 23% according to Statistics Canada.
Hotel demand in some area along the Canada-U.S. border are also down. As of March 15, they were off 8% in Bellingham, Washington, and 3.5% in the Niagara Falls area, according to hotel data firm STR. However, demand throughout Florida, a top destination for Canadian travelers, is up 3% over last year, the firm said.
Canadian airlines are cutting some routes and flights to the U.S.
Canadian airline Flair, for example, said it canceled its planned Toronto to Nashville, Tennessee, route.
“Our network decisions are driven solely by consumer demand—we deploy our aircraft where demand is strongest to provide the lowest fares to the most travellers,” a spokeswoman for the airline said by email.
Canadian airline WestJet said it has seen Canadian customers shift bookings from the U.S. to other popular sunseeker destinations like Mexico and the Caribbean.
“The airline remains focused on knowing where people want to go, and we will continue to fly where there is demand,” a spokeswoman said.
Read more CNBC airline news
The shift comes as travel executives have warned about weaker-than-expected bookings for domestic U.S. trips, meaning more local tourism might not be able to make up for the drop in trans-border travel. While U.S. household credit and debit card spending overall was up 1.5% over last year as of March 22, spending on airlines dropped 7.2%, according to a Bank of America report this week.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, for example, said at an investor conference earlier this month that the carrier is trimming routes in part because it’s seeing “a lot of it trans-border, big drop in Canadian traffic to go into the U.S.,” as well as a sharp drop in flights that had previously catered to U.S. government-tied travel.
Lara Harbachian, who works for a digital printing company in Montreal, and eight friends (so far) had been considering several U.S. destinations this year to celebrate their 40th birthdays: San Diego; Palm Springs, Calif.; Savannah, Georgia; or Nashville. The winner was farther east: Barcelona, Spain.
While the flights to Europe were more expensive than the ones to the U.S. destinations, Harbachian said it will be cheaper for her and her friends to visit the popular Spanish city, where they won’t need to rent a car and high-end meals and hotels are cheaper, especially with a weaker Canadian dollar over the greenback.
“I can get a 15 euro meal but I can’t get a $15 meal” in the U.S., she said.
Trump earlier this month created a task force for the 2026 FIFA World Cup that the U.S. is co-hosting with Mexico and Canada to “showcase the Nation’s pride and hospitality while promoting economic growth and tourism through sport.”
Travel warnings about the U.S. grow
Another challenge for the U.S. travel industry this year is a growing number of travel warnings about the visiting the United States. So far, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Denmark and Finland have issued travel warnings for their citizens who are planning to go to the United States.
Those were prompted by detentions even of individuals who had visas to be in the United States as well as Trump’s executive order that the country would only recognize two biological sexes, prompting concerns from governments in Europe about travelers whose passports state a different gender than the one they were born with.
For example, Germany said that “travelers with the gender entry “X” or whose current gender entry differs from their birth date should contact the responsible U.S. diplomatic mission in Germany before entering the country to find out about the applicable entry requirements.”
Travel warnings “could deter international visitors, especially first-time travelers,” said Carolin Lusby, assistant professor in tourism at the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Florida International University.
She said there is often a rebound after an incident or tragedy occurs, such as after the Paris terror attacks in 2015. “But a lot of times is we know that once a destination image changes, it takes a lot of effort to bring back the trust,” she said.
“In terms of the economic consequences, that could turn into billions of lost dollars,” she added. More
The Federal Communications Commission has alerted the Walt Disney Company and its ABC unit that it will begin an investigation into the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the media giant.
The FCC said in a letter that it wants to “ensure that Disney and ABC have not been violating FCC equal employment opportunity regulations by promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who was recently appointed by President Donald Trump, began a similar investigation into Comcast and NBCUniversal in early February.
The main gate at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, on Sept. 25, 2023.
Mario Anzuoni | Reuters
The Federal Communications Commission has alerted the Walt Disney Company and its ABC unit that it will begin an investigation into the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the media giant.
The FCC, the agency that regulates the media and telecommunications industry, said in a letter dated Friday that it wants to “ensure that Disney and ABC have not been violating FCC equal employment opportunity regulations by promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination.”
“We are reviewing the Federal Communications Commission’s letter, and we look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions,” a Disney spokesperson told CNBC.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who was recently appointed by President Donald Trump, began a similar investigation into Comcast and NBCUniversal in early February. The inquiry comes after Trump signed an executive order looking to end DEI practices at U.S. corporations in January. The order calls for each federal agency to “identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations” among publicly traded companies, as well as nonprofits and other institutions.
“For decades, Disney focused on churning out box office and programming successes,” Carr wrote in the letter to CEO Bob Iger. “But then something changed. Disney has now been embroiled in rounds of controversy surrounding its DEI policies.”
An FCC spokesperson didn’t comment beyond the letter.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. More
A federal judge on Friday ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s leadership, appointed by President Donald Trump, to halt its campaign to hobble the agency.
Berman ordered Vought to reinstate all probationary and term employees fired after Vought took over at the CFPB, said that he shouldn’t “delete, destroy, remove, or impair agency data,” and struck down Vought’s February stop-work order.
“To ensure that employees can perform their statutorily mandated functions, the defendants must provide them with either fully-equipped office space, or permission to work remotely” Berman wrote.
FILE PHOTO: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Russell Vought testifies before House Budget Committee on 2020 Budget on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 12, 2019.
Yuri Gripas | Reuters
A federal judge on Friday ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s leadership, appointed by President Donald Trump, to halt its campaign to dismantle the agency.
In a filing, Judge Amy Berman Jackson sided with the CFPB employee union that sued acting director Russell Vought last month to prevent him from laying off nearly all the regulator’s staff. Operatives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have also been involved in efforts to fire employees.
“Defendants shall not terminate any CFPB employee, except for cause related to the individual employee’s performance or conduct; and defendants shall not issue any notice of reduction-in-force to any CFPB employee,” Berman said.
The order is the latest example in which a federal judge has pushed back against moves by the Trump administration to lay off federal employees and hobble disfavored agencies. It breathes new life into the only federal agency tasked specifically with consumer protection of nonbank financial players, but one that the industry has accused of operating outside its authority under former director Rohit Chopra.
Berman ordered Vought to reinstate all probationary and term employees fired after Vought took over at the CFPB, said that he shouldn’t “delete, destroy, remove, or impair agency data,” and struck down Vought’s February stop-work order.
“To ensure that employees can perform their statutorily mandated functions, the defendants must provide them with either fully-equipped office space, or permission to work remotely” Berman wrote.
In the sweeping document, Berman also said that the CFPB needed to ensure its consumer complaint portal worked and it responded to those complaints; told the CFPB to reverse contract terminations undertaken by Vought, and ordered him to file a report by April 4 confirming compliance with the edicts.
She specifically said the order applied to all CFPB leaders as well as “any other persons who are in active concert or participation with them, such as personnel from the Department of Government Efficiency.”
A spokesperson for Vought didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.
‘Cannot look away’
In a separate, 112-page opinion that cited Musk’s Feb. 7 social media post declaring “CFPB RIP,” Berman explained her rationale in granting the union’s request for a preliminary injunction.
“The Court cannot look away or the CFPB will be dissolved and dismantled completely in approximately thirty days, well before this lawsuit has come to its conclusion,” she wrote.
The injunction “maintains the agency’s existence until this case has been resolved on the merits, reinstating and preserving the agency’s contracts, work force, data, and operational capacity, and protecting and facilitating the employees’ ability to perform statutorily required activities,” she wrote. More
Charlie Javice, founder of a startup purchased by JPMorgan Chase in 2021, was convicted in federal court Friday of defrauding the bank by vastly overstating the company’s customer list.
The jury decision comes after weeks of testimony in New York over who was to blame for the flameout of a once-promising startup. Frank, founded by Javice in 2016, aimed to help users apply for college financial aid.
JPMorgan has accused Javice, 32, of duping the bank into paying $175 million for a company that had more than 4 million customers, when in reality it had fewer than 300,000.
Charlie Javice, who is charged with defrauding JPMorgan Chase & Co into buying her now-shuttered college financial aid startup Frank for $175 million in 2021, arrives at United States Court in Manhattan in New York City, June 6, 2023.
Mike Segar | Reuters
Charlie Javice, founder of a startup purchased by JPMorgan Chase in 2021, was convicted in federal court Friday of defrauding the bank by vastly overstating the company’s customer list.
The jury decision comes after weeks of testimony in New York over who was to blame for the flameout of a once-promising startup. Frank, founded by Javice in 2016, aimed to help users apply for college financial aid.
JPMorgan has accused Javice, 32, of duping the bank into paying $175 million for a company that had more than 4 million customers, when in reality it had fewer than 300,000.
The largest U.S. bank by assets sued Javice in late 2022 after attempting to send marketing emails to some of the thousands of “customers” it thought Frank had. In its suit, JPMorgan released emails in which Javice hired a data scientist to generate a fake roster of customers.
Then, in April 2023, the Justice Department charged Javice with four crimes including wire and bank fraud, counts which carry multi-decade maximum sentences. Javice was arrested at Newark Airport on April 3 of that year and had been out on bail.
Javice had pleaded not guilty and said she was innocent throughout the trial; her lawyers blamed JPMorgan for rushing to close the Frank acquisition because it feared that other suitors would emerge.
Sentencing will happen in August, CNBC’s Leslie Picker reported.
A spokesman for New York-based JPMorgan declined to comment on Friday, while the office of a lawyer representing Javice didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. More
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with foreign executives on Friday in Beijing and emphasized that the country was a safe and stable place for companies.
Business leaders Xi met included Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio, Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters and Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwartzman.
“To invest in China is to invest in tomorrow,” Xi said in Mandarin translated by CNBC.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with global executives on Friday, March 28, 2025.
CNBC | Evelyn Cheng
BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday met with global executives and made a case for investing in the country, as Beijing focuses on reaching out to businesses amid escalating trade tensions with the U.S.
He said multinational companies had a big responsibility to “uphold global order” and that they needed to work hand in hand with China.
Xi emphasized that China was a safe and stable place for foreign companies. “To invest in China is to invest in tomorrow,” he said in Mandarin translated by CNBC.
Echoing recent policy plans, Xi said that China would ensure fair opportunities for foreign businesses to participate in government procurement bids.
More than 40 people, mostly foreign executives and business officials, attended the roundtable meeting with Xi, including Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio, Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters and Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwartzman.
U.S. President Donald Trump has raised tariffs by 20% on China since January over its alleged role in the U.S. fentanyl crisis, and threatened a swath of new duties on major trading partners starting early April. Trump this week said he might reduce China tariffs to help close a deal that forces Beijing-based ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations.
The U.S. this week also added dozens of Chinese tech companies to its export blacklist, the first such restrictions under the Trump administration.
China has increased its trade with Southeast Asian countries and the European Union, but the U.S. remains Beijing’s largest trading partner on a single-country basis.
Xi said U.S.-China trade tensions should be resolved through negotiations. “We need to work for the stability of global supply chains,” he added, noting there was no way out under decoupling.
Politburo standing committee member Cai Qi, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and Vice Premier He Lifeng also attended the meeting along with the heads of China’s economic planning agency, finance ministry and commerce ministry.
Seven foreign executives spoke at the event before Xi gave closing remarks, according to an agenda seen by CNBC.
Xi gave individualized comments on the speaker’s remarks based on past history with the person or the company, according to Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on US-China Relations.
Orlins pointed out that the companies present at the meeting already had interests in China.
Beijing has sought to offset trade pressures, rather than retaliate forcefully. It courted the executives of major U.S. businesses at a state-backed annual conference that ran from Sunday to Monday. Apple CEO Tim Cook was among those who attended the conference, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk was conspicuous by his absence. Neither were at Friday’s meeting with Xi.
Also on Sunday, U.S. Republican Senator Steve Daines met Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing — the first time a U.S. politician has visited China since Trump began his latest term in January.
“This was the first step to an important next step, which will be a meeting between President Xi and President Trump,” Daines told the Wall Street Journal. “When that occurs and where it occurs is to be determined.”
The White House did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Li urged cooperation and said no one could gain from a trade war, according to state media.
Top executives of major firms including FedEx, Pfizer, Cargill, Qualcomm and Boeing as well as U.S.-China Business Council President Sean Stein were also present at Daines’ meeting with Li, according to a foreign media pool report. More
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