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CARS AREN’T what they used to be. This is not a petrolhead’s lament. It is a statement of technological fact. These days even automobiles powered by a growling V8 engine contain a few kilometres of electrical wires, up from a few hundred metres in the 1990s, plus a thousand semiconductor chips and millions of lines of computer code to control everything from locks and antilock brakes to infotainment. And that is before you get to the electric vehicles (EVs) that are set to one day hog the world’s roads, a recent slowdown in sales notwithstanding, let alone to Elon Musk’s self-driving Cybercabs. The battery and other electronics make up more than half the value of components in an EV, compared with a tenth in that V8. Now, 17 years after Apple gave the world the iPhone and 13 since Toyota somewhat prematurely coined the phrase “smartphone on wheels”, modern cars have a lot in common with consumer gadgets. More

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For years BHP and Rio Tinto, the world’s two most valuable miners, moved in lockstep. During the 2000s the twin Anglo-Australian giants rose on the back of China’s demand for commodities, particularly iron ore. In 2007 they even explored a merger (regulators rebuffed the idea). Then, when the commodity supercycle crashed in 2015, both landed in investors’ bad books, and were forced to shed assets and pay down their debts. Now, as the pair look to make the most of the energy transition, they are placing diverging bets on the future. More

The NFL is looking for further growth and it’s turning to Latino viewers as a potential new audience.
It’s ramping up its games that are broadcast in Spanish and has expanded its reach to non-Spanish-speaking Latino audiences by hosting a game in Brazil for the first time.
“It’s mathematically impossible for the league to grow without Latinos,” said Marissa Solis, the senior vice president of brand and consumer marketing at the NFL.

Isiah Pacheco #10 of the Kansas City Chiefs runs for a one yard touchdown during the third quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium on February 12, 2023 in Glendale, Arizona.
Rob Carr | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

Earlier this month a well-known musician showed up at a Kansas City Chiefs game as the National Football League continues its bid to reach a new audience.
But this time it wasn’t Taylor Swift cheering on Travis Kelce — as the pop star has done at Kansas City games, leading to a boost in viewership.

It was Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee, known for hits like “Gasolina” and “Rompe.” He attended a Monday Night Football game in Arrowhead Stadium and spent time with running back Isiah Pacheco of the Chiefs. Pacheco, who is of Puerto Rican descent, earlier let Daddy Yankee try on his two Super Bowl rings. 
The moment came as part of the NFL’s “Por La Cultura” campaign, which is in its fourth year and is a key element of the the league’s effort to grow its Latino and Spanish-speaking audiences. 
The NFL is known for its explosive ratings and is one of the most dominant sports when it comes to viewership on both traditional TV and streaming. A report from Nielsen earlier this week showed football drove ratings in September.
However, the league is still itching for further growth, both globally and within the U.S. A key aspect to that expansion is Hispanic viewership, league and media officials told CNBC.

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“I think when you have a successful product you’re a little bit bound to your success, right? I mean, there’s very little growth that [the NFL] can actually achieve within the regular American U.S. [English]-speaking population,” said Olek Loewenstein, global president of sports at TelevisaUnivision.

He noted that the Hispanic population “is one of the largest, if not the largest demographic, that’s growing and younger in the U.S.”

Critical audience

Marissa Solis, senior vice president of global brand and consumer marketing at the NFL, said she joined the league three years ago to “get momentum behind our growth audiences.” For the NFL, she said this means three groups: viewers 35 and younger, of which Solis notes a majority are Latino; women; and Latinos.
“It’s mathematically impossible for the league to grow without Latinos,” Solis said. “This audience is critical for our growth. And it’s critical for global growth, because there’s so much cross-border connection and pride, and the fandom crosses borders.”
When it comes to sports in the U.S., Hispanic audiences favor soccer, followed by baseball and boxing, said Loewenstein. The NFL is still working to build its brand in the global market, which is dominated by soccer and other sports.
“I do think the NFL is one of the sports that’s prime to grow and explode among Hispanics,” Loewenstein said.

Jaire Alexander #23 of the Green Bay Packers runs onto the field with the Brazilian flag prior to a game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Arena Corinthians on September 06, 2024 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 
Wagner Meier | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

At the start of the season, the NFL expanded its reach to non-Spanish-speaking Latino audiences, hosting a game in Brazil for the first time as it brings more matchups to international locations. The game was streamed exclusively on Comcast’s Peacock and was the second-most watched live event for the streaming platform after a NFL postseason game earlier this year.
Solis said about 31 million Latinos in the U.S. considered themselves NFL fans four years ago, when the Por La Cultura effort began, and that has since increased to 40 million.

TV en Español

While the campaign has honed in on themes such as how the Latino community expresses their fandom and the stories of players like Pacheco and New England Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez, Solis said expanding broadcasts into Spanish language has been a big help.
The NFL has more than 75 broadcasts in Spanish language available this season, the league said.
“All of those efforts have been leading to a massive growth in fandom,” she said.

Guard Landon Dickerson #69 of the Philadelphia Eagles and quarterback Tanner McKee #16 enter the field during player introductions prior to an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers, at Arena Corinthians on September 6, 2024 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 
Brooke Sutton | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

Paramount Global’s CBS aired this year’s Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, but since the network doesn’t have a Spanish counterpart, it licensed those rights in the U.S. and Mexico to TelevisaUnivision.
The Super Bowl on TelevisaUnivision’s over-the-air broadcast network broke records, the company said, averaging 2.3 million viewers across all of its platforms, the largest audience for the Spanish language broadcast of a Super Bowl.
Still, it was a small contribution to the total 123.4 million viewers of the 2024 Super Bowl.
“Seventy percent of the people that had watched the Super Bowl had not watched any other playoff games that year,” TelevisaUnivision’s Lowenstein said.
The first Super Bowl that aired in Spanish was in 2015 on cable TV network Fox Deportes. In 2022, NBCUniversal’s Telemundo aired the Super Bowl for the first time on an over-the-air broadcast network in Spanish.
While having a Super Bowl broadcast in Spanish isn’t a component of the NFL’s media rights deals, it has become a significant priority as the NFL looks to expand availability, according to the league.

Fans arrive prior to a game between the Green Bay Packers and the Philadelphia Eagles at Arena Corinthians on September 06, 2024 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 
Pedro Vilela | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

That was underscored earlier this week when Fox Deportes and Telemundo announced both networks would air the Super Bowl in February. The two networks will “provide the broadest Spanish-language distribution” of the Super Bowl in the U.S. in history, and the networks will produce separate broadcasts.
Since the 2022 Super Bowl broadcast, Telemundo has experienced “significant growth in our viewership” of the NFL, said Joaquin Duro, executive vice president of sports at NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises.
Telemundo broadcasts each “Sunday Night Football” game in Spanish on both TV and Peacock. He noted that while the core audience still watches on traditional TV, streaming is becoming increasingly important. “This is helping us attract younger, more tech-savvy viewers,” Duro said.
Like the NFL, Telemundo Deportes highlights the stories of Hispanic players. It has also expanded its coverage around NFL events with an on-site presence at the games and a bigger lineup of interviews, Duro added.
“I love the change, the evolution, the expansion of the NFL,” said Rolando Cantú, a former NFL player and analyst on “TNF en Espanol” and Telemundo Deportes’ broadcast of “Sunday Night Football.”
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. More

IF A POLE runs out of milk on a Sunday morning, they will probably head to Zabka, a convenience store. It is rarely a long walk. Roughly 17m people, nearly half of Poland’s population, live within 500 metres of one of its more than 10,500 outlets. Some may now buy a slice of the retailer itself: on October 17th its owner, CVC, a European private-equity firm, listed a third of Zabka’s shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) at a valuation of 21.5bn zlotys ($5.5bn). The deal has brought a boost to Poland’s beleaguered bourse. More

General Motors has updated its highly profitable large SUVs for Chevrolet to defend the brand’s long-standing segment leadership.
The Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban have led the mainstream full-size SUV segment for more than 45 years, according to GM.

2025 Chevrolet Tahoe.

DETROIT — General Motors has updated its highly profitable large SUVs for Chevrolet for the 2025 model year to defend the brand’s long-standing segment leadership.
The Detroit automaker’s Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban have led the mainstream full-size SUV segment for more than 45 years, according to GM. But increased competition from automakers such as Ford Motor, Jeep and Nissan Motor has slowly eaten away at the automaker’s market share.

“We’re playing a little offense here with what we’re doing today,” Chevrolet Vice President Scott Bell said Tuesday during a media event in suburban Detroit. “We certainly have a response for our competitors from multiple segments.”

2025 GMC Yukon AT4 Ultimate.

Chevrolet’s retail market share of full-size SUVs is about 34.2%. Adding in its GMC sibling Yukon and Yukon XL SUVs, GM’s share is at 64% of the industry, according to the automaker. That is down from more than 70% when the vehicles were last fully redesigned for the 2020 model year.
The large SUVs for GMC have also been updated for the 2025 model year. Both Ford and Nissan have updated their large three-row SUVs that are on sale this year.
Updates to the vehicles in general include new styling, larger interior screens, enhanced performance and, in some cases, the addition of new high-end models to boost profits.

For Chevrolet, the 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban check many of those boxes and include the addition of GM’s hands-free Super Cruise advanced driver-assistance system.
“Overall, they’re critical in our portfolio,” Bell told CNBC. “They’re very important to us from a profitability perspective, and they have been for four years.”
Starting pricing for the 2025 Tahoe will range from about $60,000 for a Tahoe LS to more than $83,000 for the top-end High Country. 2025 Suburban pricing will start between about $63,000 and more than $86,000. Prices include mandatory $1,995 destination charges.
The updated SUVs are expected to begin arriving in U.S. dealerships in the coming weeks, the company said.
Edmunds.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of CarMax, reports the mainstream full-size SUV segment has grown to represent 2.7% of the U.S. market this year, up from 2% in 2017. Segment sales totaled roughly 312,500 units through September of this year.

2025 Chevrolet Tahoe.

GM said sales of the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban are significantly lower this year due to the model-year changeover and reduction in fleet sales, but the brand continues to easily lead the segment.
Combined sales of the Chevy SUVs, which are essentially the same vehicle but in different sizes, were off 19.3% through September compared to a year earlier to 102,292 units.
Sales of the Ford Expedition — the closest competitor to Chevy’s SUVs — totaled 73,396 units in 2023. Sales of that vehicle were up 3% through September of this year to more than 58,000 units.

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GM has agreed to establish a joint venture with Lithium Americas Corp. that includes the automaker supplying $625 million in cash and credit to the company.
The deal is centered on the development, construction and operation of a lithium carbonate mining operation called Thacker Pass in Humboldt County, Nevada.

The clay mixture from which lithium will be extracted is held by Tim Crowley, spokesman for Lithium Americas Corp. 
Carolyn Cole | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

DETROIT — General Motors has agreed to establish a joint venture with Lithium Americas Corp. that includes the automaker supplying $625 million in cash and credit to the Canadian mining business, the companies announced Wednesday.
The deal is centered on the development, construction and operation of a lithium carbonate mining operation called Thacker Pass in Humboldt County, Nevada. Lithium is a key component for batteries that power electric vehicles.

The joint venture agreement replaces a previously announced, planned equity investment by GM into the Vancouver, Canada-based company.
Securing raw materials such as lithium from the U.S. is crucial to GM’s plans to profitably grow its all-electric vehicle business and meet tightening federal requirements for incentives to produce and sell the vehicles and the large batteries needed to power them.
“We’re pleased with the significant progress Lithium Americas is making to help GM achieve our goal to develop a resilient EV material supply chain,” Jeff Morrison, GM senior vice president of global purchasing and supply chain, said in a release. “Sourcing critical EV raw materials, like lithium, from suppliers in the U.S., is expected to help us manage battery cell costs, deliver value to our customers and investors, and create jobs.”

Stock chart icon

GM and Lithia Americas stocks

The announcement sent shares of Lithium Americas higher by 23% in trading Wednesday to close at $3.29. The company’s market cap is $532.9 million.

In windswept, remote Thacker Pass in the far northern reaches of Nevada permits approved for a massive lithium mine, proposed by Lithium Americas Corp., are drawing impassioned protest from the local indigenous population, ranchers, and environmentalists. 
Carolyn Cole | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

GM will have a 38% interest in Thacker Pass, according to the release. The joint venture investment is expected to include $330 million cash to be contributed on the date of its closing; $100 million cash to be contributed at a “final investment decision” for a phase of the project; and a $195 million letter of credit facility prior to first draw on the $2.3 billion Department of Energy Loan.

“Our relationship with GM has been significantly strengthened with this joint venture as we continue to pursue a mutual goal to develop a robust domestic lithium supply chain by advancing the development of Thacker Pass,” Lithium Americas CEO Jonathan Evans said in a release.

June 7, 2021Jonathan Evans is President and CEO of Lithium Americas Corp. He holds the clay mixture from which lithium will be extracted. 
Carolyn Cole | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

The joint venture is in addition to GM’s $320 million investment into Lithium Americas in February 2023. The investment included GM acquiring approximately 15 million common shares of Lithium Americas.
In August, GM and Lithium Americas agreed to delay a second tranche investment worth $330 million in the miner to explore alternative structures for the investment.

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Ulta Beauty shares ticked up slightly on Wednesday, as the company stuck by its current forecast and shared its longer-term financial targets.
The beauty retailer’s CEO Dave Kimbell said the company is facing stiffer competition and a more dynamic consumer backdrop.
The company missed Wall Street’s earnings expectations and cut its full-year forecast in August.

An Ulta Beauty store in New York on Aug. 19, 2024.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Ulta Beauty shares ticked up slightly on Wednesday, despite the company saying it sees “headwinds” and tougher competition in the beauty industry.
As it hosted its investor day near its Chicago headquarters on Wednesday, the specialty retailer stuck by its forecast for this fiscal year. Ulta said it anticipates net sales will range between $11 billion and $11.2 billion and comparable sales will range from a decline of 2% to roughly flat. It said earnings per share will range between $22.60 and $23.50.

For 2026 and beyond, Ulta said its financial targets will be 4% to 6% net sales growth and low double-digit diluted earnings per share growth. It said it expects mid-single-digit operating profit growth and operating margins around 12% of net sales.
Yet, it did not provide a specific outlook for the 2025 fiscal year. The updates come after the company missed Wall Street’s earnings expectations and cut its full-year 2024 forecast in August.
Ulta’s stock closed the day at $373.21, up about 1%. As of Wednesday’s close, Ulta’s shares have fallen about 24% so far this year. The company’s stock had dropped early in the day before recovering.
In his opening remarks at the investor day on Wednesday morning, CEO Dave Kimbell said this year “has been more challenging than planned.” Kimbell said the beauty category has normalized to more modest historic growth levels, the consumer backdrop is more volatile and more competition has emerged, especially in the prestige category.
He said the company is taking action to boost its sales by striking partnerships with new brands, expanding its loyalty program and personalizing promotions to engage customers.

Plus, he said demographic trends will drive growth for Ulta. More men are buying beauty products, including fragrances and self-care items.
Younger generations, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, are more interested in spending on beauty than prior generations, particularly on skin care or as a form of self-expression, Kimbell said. He added that Hispanic customers, who tend to be more engaged in the category, are becoming a larger portion of the U.S. population.
“While we anticipate that some of these headwinds will persist in the near term, we are confident in our ability to deliver on our plans and set ourselves up for long term growth,” he said.
In her presentation on Wednesday, Chief Merchandising Officer Monica Arnaudo said Ulta will step up its emphasis on exclusive products, lead on beauty trends and carry a mix of trusted, well-loved brands as well as promising up-and-comers.
“We are experts in identifying [and] bringing key trends to the market with our brand partners,” she said. “This will be more critical than ever as the market become increasingly competitive.”
In makeup, for example, more shoppers seek multiuse products and want to get supplies for glamorous looks. In skin care, customers want to know more about items’ ingredients and want dermatologist-recommended brands as they grow more health conscious, she said. In hair care, shoppers are thinking beyond shampoo and conditioner and adding on products such as scalp treatments or items designed for curly and textured hair.
Already, Arnaudo said, the company has more than 40 exclusive brands and upward of 65 brands with some exclusive products.

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