Business

Carvana’s first-quarter results easily topped Wall Street’s expectations as the company reported record sales.
The 46% year-over-year sales increase helped Carvana report other quarterly records in net income and adjusted earnings.
Carvana, which doesn’t typically provide detailed annual guidance targets, on Wednesday also updated its long-term objectives and quarterly guidance.

Vehicles are seen on display at a Carvana dealership in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 20, 2023.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

DETROIT — Carvana’s first-quarter results easily topped Wall Street’s expectations as the company reported record sales driven by higher-than-expected industry demand amid fears of price increases due to automotive tariffs.
Carvana CEO and co-founder Ernie Garcia loosely addressed potential impacts of tariffs on the business, saying the company experienced “little gyrations” of demand that have since leveled off. He downplayed the idea that the levies would have any material impact on its business that the company can’t handle.

“I don’t think we have too much interesting there,” Garcia said Wednesday during the company’s quarterly call, adding that pricing may increase and could potentially be beneficial for used car sales.
While the tariffs of 25% on new imported vehicles and many parts do not directly impact used car sales, changes in new vehicle prices, production and demand affect the used car market.
A closely watched barometer for used vehicle pricing jumped last month to its highest level since October 2023 as dealers and consumers rushed purchases amid fears of price hikes due to auto tariffs, Cox Automotive reported earlier Wednesday.
Here’s how the company performed in the first quarter, compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $1.51 vs. 67 cents expected
Revenue: $4.23 billion vs. $3.98 billion expected

The online used vehicle retailer reported a 46% increase in year-over-year sales during the first three months of the year to nearly 134,000 units. Carvana also reported records of net income of $373 million; adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, of $488 million; and operating income of $394 million.

The company said its net income benefitted from roughly from $158 million associated with positive changes in the fair value of its warrants to acquire common stock of Carvana partner Root auto insurance.
Revenue of $4.23 billion was up 38% year over year from $3.06 billion.

Stock chart icon

Carvana vs. other auto retailer shares

Carvana, which doesn’t typically provide detailed annual targets, on Wednesday also updated its long-term objectives and quarterly guidance.
Its second-quarter guidance includes a “sequential increase in both retail units sold and adjusted EBITDA,” while the new “management objective” is to sell 3 million retail units per year at an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.5% within five to 10 years.
“We are incredibly well positioned for the path ahead and have very clear visibility to even stronger financial performance, much larger scales, and even better customer experiences,” Garcia said in a release.
Garcia told investors the goal is “very exciting and very achievable,” while noting that the company will prioritize “growth over margin within reasonable margin ranges.”
The company’s return to growth comes several years after concerns that Carvana was close to bankruptcy as it focused on growth and mismanaged inventories during the coronavirus pandemic in 2021 to 2022.
Since then, the company has benefitted from a years-long restructuring to lower costs and increase efficiency, including shares of the company increasing roughly 27% this year. More

The Saudi Public Investment Fund is investing in women’s professional golf.
PIF will become a title sponsor of five events and will put more money into the prize pools.
Saudi Arabia has been spending big money on sports to diversify its economy.

PIF will become the title sponsor of revamped golf series.
Severn Images

Saudi Arabia is deepening its investment in women’s professional golf.
The Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, announced on Wednesday that it will become the title partner of five events that will take place on the the Ladies European Tour.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
As part of this latest deal, the tour will revamp the five events, which will be collectively rebranded as the PIF Global Series. The events take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Seoul, South Korea; London; Houston; and Shenzhen, China.
“PIF continues to be a catalyst for the growth of women’s sports, committed to delivering long-term transformative impact by inspiring and empowering female athletes at every level,” Alanoud Althonayan, head of events and sponsorships at PIF, said in a statement.
The revamped tournament format will feature team and individual competitions happening simultaneously.
The Saudis are also injecting additional money into the prize pools, with a collective purse of $13 million across the five events.

Alexandra Armas, CEO of the Ladies European Tour, said the partnership with PIF has helped raise the level of competition in the women’s game and gives players more opportunities to succeed on the world stage.
Saudi Arabia has been aggressively investing in professional sports in recent years as part of its vision to diversify the country’s economy away from oil. Despite the fact that Saudi Arabia has been slow to give Saudi women rights, those investments have included spending big money on international women’s sports.
Last May, the fund signed a multi-year partnership with the WTA Tour, the women’s professional tennis organization, to grow the game and improve women’s benefits in the league.
And in March, PIF announced it will fully fund the tour’s maternity fund, which would allow women to take up to a year of leave fully paid.
However, PIF’s foray into men’s golf has been more complicated.
Nearly two years ago, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan appeared on CNBC, announcing a merger between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. But that deal has yet to happen, despite the latest push by President Donald Trump to bring the two parties together.
The Aramco Korea Championship kicks off Friday in Seoul. More

Flutter CEO Peter Jackson told CNBC customer-friendly results in the NCAA’s college basketball tournament weighed on overall first-quarter results for FanDuel’s parent company. 
The global sports and online gambling platform missed on the top and bottom lines for the first quarter.

Flutter CEO Peter Jackson told CNBC customer-friendly results in the NCAA’s college basketball tournament weighed on overall first-quarter results for FanDuel’s parent company. 
The global sports and online gambling platform reported first-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.59, missing Wall Street consensus of $1.89 per share, according to LSEG. Revenue for the period also missed Wall Street expectations, at $3.67 billion versus LSEG estimates of $3.84 billion.

The company lowered its full-year U.S. guidance as a result of the unfavorable sports results, but raised its outlook for global performance based on currency adjustments and international acquisitions.
Jackson said he anticipates customers will maintain their spending on online sports and casino games amid global economic concerns that seem to be weighing on consumer sentiment more broadly. More

Cox Automotive’s Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index — which tracks prices of used vehicles sold at its U.S. wholesale auctions — increased 4.9% from a year ago.
It marked a 2.7% increased from March and a significant increase compared to a typical month-to-month index move of 0.2%, according to the auto data and logistics firm.
While the tariffs of 25% on new imported vehicles and many parts do not directly impact used car sales, changes in new vehicle prices, production and demand affect the used car market.

A Ford mustang is seen at a used car dealership in Montebello, California on May 5, 2025.
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

DETROIT — A closely watched barometer for used vehicle pricing jumped last month to its highest level since October 2023 as consumers rushed purchases amid fears of price hikes due to auto tariffs.
Cox Automotive’s Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index — which tracks prices of used vehicles sold at its U.S. wholesale auctions — increased 4.9% last month compared with a year earlier to a level of 208.2.

It also marked a 2.7% increase from March. That’s a significant rise compared with a historically typical month-to-month index move of 0.2%, according to the auto data and logistics firm.
“The ‘spring bounce’ normally ends the second week of April, but this year, wholesale appreciation trends continued for the entire month and were much stronger than we typically observe,” said Jeremy Robb, Cox Automotive senior director of economic and industry insights. “We expected to see strong price appreciation in response to the tariffs, and that’s exactly what came.”

While the tariffs of 25% on new imported vehicles and many parts do not directly impact used car sales, changes in new vehicle prices, production and demand affect the used car market, which is how the majority of Americans purchase a vehicle.
Retail prices for consumers traditionally follow changes in wholesale prices, but they have not fallen as quickly as wholesale prices in recent years.
Cox reports retail used vehicle sales in April were down 1.7% compared with March but higher year over year by 13%. Over the last four weeks, the average retail listing price for a used vehicle increased by 2% to more than $25,000, Cox said. That compares with a new vehicle at nearly $48,000.

The Manheim index remains off the record highs it hit during the Covid pandemic but is still relatively high compared with historic levels before the onset of the global health crisis in 2020.
Cox previously said it was seeing used vehicle prices continue to stabilize after swinging wildly for several years before starting to calm down in 2024.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More

Being first to market with a drug can be crucial. Eli Lilly is proving that being second but better can also pay. Zepbound, the American firm’s weight-loss jab, was approved in its home country in November 2023, more than two years after Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk, a Danish rival. Yet in 2024 Zepbound yielded $4.9bn in revenue, more than half of Wegovy’s $8.2bn. On May 7th Novo cut its sales forecast for 2025, citing “lower-than-planned” growth in weight-loss drugs. S&P Global, a financial-data firm, expects sales of Lilly’s obesity drugs to overtake Novo’s by 2027 (see chart 1). More

Netflix is rolling out a revamped homepage and an updated mobile experience that will include an AI search tool as well as a TikTok-style vertical video feed.
The new features will include more visible shortcuts to finding content and real-time recommendations that respond to viewers’ moods and interests.
Netflix has instituted a series of changes to its business — launching a cheaper, ad-supported option and a crackdown on password sharing — following a brief period of customer growth stagnation.

Netflix launching an innovative new TV experience featuring enhanced design, responsive recommendations and a new way to search.
Courtesy: Netflix

Netflix unveiled a redesigned homepage experience on Wednesday with the aim of making searching for shows and movies easier for its members.
The user experience revamp goes beyond the TV screen. Netflix is also making changes to include a vertical video feed that the company says better suits the mobile watching and sharing experience. In addition, executives announced the company is exploring ways to integrate generative artificial intelligence into the experience in partnership with OpenAI.

The new features, such as more visible shortcuts to finding content, will include real-time recommendations that respond to viewers’ “moods and interests in the moment,” Netflix said in a news release.
The updates will be made available globally to members in the coming months.
The overhaul of Netflix’s user experience, which is intended to allow members to discover more content in Netflix’s massive library of series and films, comes as competition among streamers remains stiff. Competing platforms like Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max and Disney’s portfolio of streamers are looking to increase revenue and profitability by not only nabbing new customers, but retaining them.
Netflix has instituted a series of changes to its business — launching a cheaper, ad-supported option and a crackdown on password sharing — following a brief period of customer growth stagnation in 2022.
Since then Netflix member additions have been on the rise. Netflix reported 300 million paid memberships in January, up a record 19 million from the previous quarter.

While the streamer stopped reporting quarterly subscriber numbers beginning in the first fiscal quarter of 2025, revenue grew 13% during the period. 

Netflix launching an innovative new TV experience featuring enhanced design, responsive recommendations and a new way to search.
Courtesy: Netflix

Netflix has made various updates to the consumer experience in recent years, but not a major overhaul such as this in quite some time.
The TikTok-style vertical video feed will allow users to save or share clips with friends.
“We know that swiping through a vertical feed on social media apps is an easy way to browse video content, and we also know that our members love to browse our clips and trailers to find their next obsession,” Netflix Chief Product Officer Eunice Kim said during a presentation for media this week.
The AI enhancements will allow members to use specific phrases when searching for what they want to watch, Chief Technology Officer Elizabeth Stone said during the presentation. Those features will be powered by OpenAI, although the models will be trained by a team at Netflix in order to tailor to member needs, Netflix said Wednesday.
With the update, Netflix will put all the information members need to make an informed choice about what to watch “front and center,” Kim said during the call with reporters.
“Our members do a lot of eye gymnastics when they’re scrolling down and right and going back and forth between rows and title details on the homepage,” Kim said. More

Air traffic controllers lost radio and radar contact with planes heading to Newark Liberty International Airport due to an equipment outage on April 28.
The outage exposed years of underinvestment and staffing shortages in air traffic control, despite increased demand for air travel.
The Trump administration laid out new plans to improve staffing shortfalls and decades-old technology.

An airport control tower is seen at Newark Liberty International Airport, on May 6, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey.
Andres Kudacki | Getty Images

Air traffic controllers have been under strain for years, but a 90-second equipment failure last week exposed how decades of staffing shortages, underinvestment and patchwork solutions for those who guide planes through some of the world’s most congested airspace are taking their toll.
The outage also sparked hundreds of flight delays, disrupting travel for thousands of travelers for days — again.

What happened?

On the afternoon of April 28, air traffic controllers at a facility in Philadelphia who are responsible for guiding planes to and from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey faced dark radar screens and were unable to talk to planes for more than a minute.
The outage lasted about 30 seconds. It took another 30 to 60 seconds for aircraft to reappear on radarscopes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

United Airlines’ Captain Deon Byrne check her phone as she arrives at Terminal C in Newark Liberty International Airport, on May 6, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey.
Andres Kudacki | Getty Images

Pilots for major U.S. airlines say they are specially trained to handle such outages.
But an outage of even a few seconds “is an eternity for air traffic controllers,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a retired air safety investigator for the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA.
The incident, which was not the first time equipment outages hit the facility, was so jarring some have “taken time off to recover from the stress of multiple recent outages,” the FAA said.

Read more CNBC airline news

More than 1,500 Newark flights were delayed last week, according to FlightAware. United Airlines, which runs a hub out of Newark, said it was cutting 35 flights a day from its schedule to ease strain on its operation and customers.
A Newark runway has also been closed for construction, adding to disruptions.

New steps

On Wednesday, the FAA said it would beef up staffing at the Philadelphia facility and work to fix communication lines that feed data to controllers there for Newark flights. It said it plans to install a temporary backup system there to “provide redundancy during the switch to a more reliable fiberoptic network.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is set to announce a major upgrade plan for the U.S. air traffic control system on Thursday, which could require Congress to approve billions in additional funding.
“We have computers, and I kid you not, today in 2025, that are based on Windows 95 and floppy disks,” Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said in an interview in March.
The FAA last year said that the average age of its towers is 40 and that most radar systems are approaching 40 years old. “Aging facilities add risk to the system, including risk of service disruptions,” it said.

People wait in line for a delayed flight at Newark International Airport on May 5, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Accident draws urgency

The April 28 incident and previous outages didn’t cause any accidents but the failures raised more worries about an outmoded system and chronic shortages of air traffic controllers, particularly in the busy airspace around New York City.
U.S. air traffic controllers handle about 45,000 flights a day overall, according to the FAA.
The urgency to fix lingering problems reached a new level after a Black Hawk Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines regional jet on Jan. 29, killing all 67 people on board the aircraft. It was the deadliest air crash in the United States since 2001.
“It took a fatal midair airline accident to occur to get everybody’s attention,” Guzzetti said.

Why is Newark such a problem?

Newark is already dealing with space constraints to begin with.
It handled around 414,000 flights last year, 11% fewer than John F. Kennedy International Airport, in Queens, New York, according to data from their operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. But Newark is about half JFK’s size.
Technology glitches and staffing shortfalls have been especially hard on Newark in recent days. Last year, the FAA moved controllers who handle Newark from a facility on Long Island, New York — where planes are also sequenced to and from LaGuardia Airport and JFK in Queens — to a remote station in Philadelphia. The move was meant to ease congestion and strain on the Long Island facility, but there are still issues.

An inside view of Newark Airport as travelers are facing eight straight days of massive delays, United Airlines canceling routes and staffing shortages in Newark, New Jersey, United States, on May 06, 202
Mostafa Bassim | Anadolu | Getty Images

Air traffic staffing shortages have vexed airline executives who are eager to capitalize on strong demand but are constrained and face high costs due to a lack of controllers.
“Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it’s now clear — and the FAA tells us — that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead,” United CEO Scott Kirby told customers on Friday, announcing schedule cuts.
Before April 26, four flights a day were canceled at Newark in April, on average, but that rose to 39 a day through Monday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. About 80% of flights were on schedule in April before that date, but dropped to 63%, “far below industry norms,” Cirium said.

Slowing it down

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks to the media outside the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 6, 2025.
Kent Nishimura | Reuters

Duffy has said air travel is safe. After a visit to the Philadelphia facility last week, he said that the FAA will slow, if not halt, arrivals altogether if there is a shortage of air traffic controllers.
United’s CEO, Kirby, told employees in a memo Wednesday that flying to and from Newark is safe. He said the carrier’s pilots have thousands of hours of experience and training on procedures to “follow to re-establish communication if controllers lose radio contact to navigate the airplane safely to its destination.”
Airlines have sought capacity limits to help the congestion, and the last disruption was no exception.
“United has been urging the US government for *years* to use its authority to effectively limit the number of flights to what the airport can realistically handle,” Kirby said in a note to employees on Friday. “Past failure to make those changes had led to the circumstances that United and, most importantly, our customers now face.”  
In 2016, the FAA eased flight restrictions at the airport and Kirby said the FAA should return to prior rules.
“It’s long past time to treat EWR like the crown jewel that it is,” he told employees in the Wednesday, using the airport’s code. “We’ll continue to work closely with the FAA and [Transportation Department] to get EWR fixed once and for all and deliver the country the first-class air traffic system it deserves.”

Adding air traffic controllers

The U.S. has around 10,800 air traffic controllers, well short of its full staffing goal by 3,000, according to the controllers’ union, the NATCA.
“Over the last eight years, we’ve had 146,000 applicants and we’ve hired 7,905 of those,” Chris Wilbanks, vice president of mission support at the FAA who is in charge of controller hiring and training, said in interview in March. “Less than 10% of the people that apply for the job actually make it to the [Oklahoma training] academy and then graduate to go out into the field.”

In the previous fiscal year, the FAA’s goal was to hire 1,800 controllers.
“We’ll lose 35% of those at the academy. We’ll lose another 20% once they get in the field, on the job training. So we don’t net 1,800 controllers,” Wilbanks said.
The grueling job requires air traffic controllers to retire at age 56, and applicants to the academy can be no older than 30. Many are forced to work six-day workweeks because of the shortages.
Duffy has recently moved to increase financial incentives, like higher pay for air traffic controllers. Starting pay is around $45,000, the union’s Daniels said, though the median pay for a U.S. air traffic controller is $144,580 a year, according to the U.S. Labor Department. More

PEER INTO a Bloomberg screen and the parallels between the past month and the spring of 2020 draw themselves. Then as now the VIX index, which tracks share-price volatility, spiked above 40, a level reached only a handful of periods in American stockmarket history. Uncannily, both in 2020 and 2025 the S&P 500 index of America’s biggest companies peaked on the same day, February 19th, before declining and then collapsing by more than 10% in a matter of days. The oil price plunged. Sentiment among American consumers was and is down the tubes. More