Business

General Motors beat earnings expectations on the top and bottom lines.
The automaker also raised its guidance for the year and said it was expecting a smaller tariff impact than previously forecast.

A General Motors Co. Chevrolet Silverado truck at a dealership in Upland, California, US, on Wednesday, Oct 15, 2025.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images

DETROIT — General Motors raised its 2025 financial guidance Tuesday after beating Wall Street’s top- and bottom-line earnings expectations for the third quarter, while lowering its expected impact from tariffs.
Shares of GM swung from down by 2.4% to up by more than 11% during premarket trading Tuesday. The stock, which closed Monday at $58 per share, is on pace for its best day in more than five years.

Here’s how the company performed in the third quarter, compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $2.80 adjusted vs. $2.31 expected
Revenue: $48.59 billion vs. $45.27 billion expected
Adjusted EBIT: $3.38 billion vs. $2.72 billion expected

GM’s third-quarter revenue of $48.59 billion was down less than 1% from $48.76 billion in the same period last year.
GM’s new outlook signals strength for the automaker heading into the fourth quarter and beats Wall Street analysts’ current expectations for the last three months of the year.
The updated guidance includes adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of between $12 billion and $13 billion, or $9.75 to $10.50 adjusted EPS, up from $10 billion to $12.5 billion, or $8.25 to $10 adjusted EPS, and adjusted automotive free cash flow of $10 billion to $11 billion, up from $7.5 billion to $10 billion.

Stock chart icon

GM stock in 2025

The automaker’s new EPS target suggests fourth-quarter adjusted EPS of between $1.64 and $2.39, with a midpoint around $2.02, which is above current consensus of $1.94.

“Thanks to the collective efforts of our team, and our compelling vehicle portfolio, GM delivered another very good quarter of earnings and free cash flow,” GM CEO Mary Barra said Tuesday in a shareholder letter. “Based on our performance, we are raising our full-year guidance, underscoring our confidence in the company’s trajectory.”
GM also reduced the expected impact of tariffs this year to between $3.5 billion and $4.5 billion, down from $4 billion to $5 billion. The automaker expects to offset about 35% of that impact.
Barra on Tuesday thanked President Donald Trump for “the important tariff updates” Friday that included imposing levies on imported medium- and heavy-duty trucks and parts as well as extending a tariff offset worth 3.75% of the value of American-made vehicles.

EV impact

GM’s adjusted results do not include $1.6 billion in special charges reported by the automaker last week due to its pullback in all-electric vehicles, which more than halved its net income attributable to stockholders compared with the third quarter of 2024.
The company’s net income attributable to stockholders was $1.3 billion during the just-reported period, down 57% from roughly $3.1 billion a year earlier. Its net income margin also plummeted to 2.7%, down from 6.3% a year earlier.
GM CFO Paul Jacobson on Tuesday said only about 40% of the company’s EVs were profitable on a production, or contribution-margin basis. He signaled that the company expects profitability for EVs to take longer than previously expected amid an expected slowdown in adoption.
“We continue to believe that there is a strong future for electric vehicles, and we’ve got a great portfolio to be competitive, but we do have some structural changes that we need to do to make sure that we lower the cost of producing those vehicles,” he told CNBC’s Phil LeBeau during “Squawk Box.”
GM has made significant gains in EV sales this year. Motor Intelligence reported that the Detroit automaker went from an 8.7% market share to begin this year to 13.8% through the third quarter – topping Hyundai Motor, including Kia, at 8.6% through September. GM still trails U.S. EV leader Tesla by a wide margin.

NA business down

GM’s North American business, which has driven its profits this decade, earned more than $2.5 billion during the third quarter, on an adjusted basis. Its adjusted profit margin declined from 9.7% a year earlier to 6.2% during the most recent quarter.
Barra said in Tuesday’s letter that the automaker’s “top priority” is to return to 8% to 10% adjusted profit margins in North America through “driving EV profitability, maintaining production and pricing discipline, managing fixed costs, and further reducing tariff exposure.”
Gains in the company’s China operations, up $217 million from a year earlier, as well as its international markets, up $184 million, helped offset the lower North American earnings during the third quarter.
GM Financial, the automaker’s lending arm, also reported adjusted earnings of $804 million, up 17% from the third quarter of 2024. More

Coca-Cola beat Wall Street’s expectations for its third-quarter earnings and revenue.
The beverage company also reiterated its full-year forecast.
The company’s unit case volume rose 1%, a reversal from last quarter’s decline.

Sina Schuldt | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Coca-Cola reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped expectations, but the beverage giant said that demand for its drinks is still soft.
Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street analysts surveyed by LSEG were expecting:

Earnings per share: 82 cents adjusted vs. 78 cents expected
Revenue: $12.41 billion adjusted vs. $12.39 billion expected

Coke reported third-quarter net income attributable to shareholders of $3.7 billion, or 86 cents per share, up from $2.85 billion, or 66 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding restructuring charges and other items, Coke earned 82 cents per share.
Net sales rose 5% to $12.46 billion. Coke’s organic revenue, which strips out acquisitions, divestitures and foreign currency, increased 6%.
Shares climbed nearly 3% in premarket trading.
The company’s unit case volume rose 1%, a reversal from last quarter’s decline. The metric excludes the impact of pricing and foreign currency to reflect demand.

But volume in both Latin America and North America, two key markets, was flat for the quarter. Coke executives have previously said that low-income consumers in the U.S. have been buying fewer of its products, although the company is trying to target them with affordable options.
Worldwide, Coke saw the largest volume growth from its water, sports, coffee and tea segment. Its bottled water and sports drinks both saw volume increase 3%, while coffee and tea reported volume growth of 2%. The company’s sparkling soft drinks volume was flat for the quarter, while its juice, value-added dairy and plant-based beverage segment reported that volume shrank 3%.
The company reiterated its full-year forecast. Coke is expecting comparable earnings per share to rise 3% and organic revenue to increase 5% to 6%.
Looking ahead to 2026, Coke is projecting a slight tailwind to both its revenue and comparable earnings from currency fluctuations. The company will provide a full forecast for the upcoming year in its fourth-quarter earnings report. More

The Lucky Saint in central London looks like any other pub. Big wooden barrels double as tables. Bartenders pull pints. But this isn’t a regular watering-hole. Though booze is on offer, about 15% of sales are of Lucky Saint, the non-alcoholic beer brand that owns the place. Other patrons merrily sip alcohol-free cocktails and sparkling wine. “Go back a couple of years and people used to cleanse in January,” says Nate Roberts, one of the managers, “but now we see this 365 days per year.” More

Airline websites including Delta and United were among those hit by the Amazon Web Services disruption on Monday.
Customers complained they couldn’t check in for flights, while others saw reservations and seat assignments missing.
At about 5:30 a.m. ET, Amazon said it was “seeing significant signs of recovery” and half an hour later reported additional progress.

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, 2025.
Mostafa Bassim | Anadolu | Getty Images

Airline websites, including those for Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, were affected during Monday’s hourslong disruption of Amazon Web Services, the massive cloud computing provider, with some customers complaining they were unable to access flight check-in functions or their reservations.
At 5:27 a.m. ET, Amazon said: “We are seeing significant signs of recovery. Most requests should now be succeeding. We continue to work through a backlog of queued requests. We will continue to provide additional information.”

The company had said earlier Monday on its AWS dashboard that its customers were experiencing “increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS services in the US-EAST-1 Region.”
Some reservations were showing up on airline apps, while customers complained on social media that they couldn’t check in or drop off bags, for several hours.
United responded to a customer on X on Monday that it was “experiencing a system glitch affecting our online tools.”
United told CNBC some of its internal systems were temporarily affected by the outage and that it was using backups to end the disruption. The airline said “our teams are working to get our customers on their way.”
Delta said mid-morning it had some “minor” delays on Monday because of the outage but that it did not “anticipate any significant customer impact moving forward as a result of this event.”

Read more CNBC airline news

A massive CrowdStrike outage in July 2024, due to a botched software update, took thousands of Microsoft Windows systems offline, disrupting air travel and other industries around the world. Delta said the disruption forced it to cancel more than 5,000 flights and cost it more than $500 million in revenue and compensation for passengers, among other expenses.
The disruptions on Monday occurred as the U.S. government shutdown stretches on. Staffing shortages of air traffic controllers, who are required to work though they’re not getting paid during the impasse, contributed to delays at major U.S. airports on Sunday, including in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas; Chicago and Newark, New Jersey.
More than 7,800 U.S. flights were delayed on Sunday, according to FlightAware, with staffing shortages, bad weather and other constraints contributing to the problems.
WATCH: Transportation Secretary Duffy on air travel disruptions due to the shutdown More

The auto industry faced a slew of challenges at the beginning of the year from tariffs to inflation and supply chain concerns.
Auto executives, insiders and analysts told CNBC that the industry has been resilient and things aren’t as bad as they once feared, but there are growing concerns about the state of the consumer and suppliers.
That optimism will be put to the test as major automakers such as General Motors, Ford and Tesla begin reporting third-quarter results this week.

A worker at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant on April 30, 2025.
Michael Wayland | CNBC

DETROIT — “A lot of cost and a lot of chaos.” That’s how Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley described the state of the automotive industry earlier this year amid geopolitical tensions, tariffs, inflation and other disruptions.
All those factors created massive uncertainty for the U.S. automotive industry that led to relatively bearish outlooks for the sector in 2025. Some of those concerns have come to fruition, but the industry has proven to be far more resilient than many had expected.

“Six months into the onset of tariffs, we’ve been positively surprised by the extent to which the industry has held in better than anticipated,” Barclays analyst Dan Levy said in an investor note last month that upgraded the U.S. auto/mobility sector to “neutral” from “negative.”
The neutral rating by Barclays speaks volumes to the state of the automotive industry right now, according to auto executives, insiders and analysts who say circumstances aren’t as bad as they once feared — but also that they still aren’t as positive or certain as they could be.
S&P Global last week released a new report explaining how tariff burdens have eased, but noting that demand headwinds persist amid slowing disposable income growth, consumer pessimism and fluid trade policies. The government shutdown also adds uncertainty to the economic outlook, the firm said.

Jim Farley, President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, speaks at a Ford Pro Accelerate event on Sept. 30, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan.
Bill Pugliano | Getty Images

The cautiousness followed S&P revising its U.S. light vehicle sales estimates upward by about 2%, to 16.1 million vehicles for 2025, and to 15.3 million, up 200,000, in 2026.
Part of what’s driven the unexpected optimism have been industry sales and production holding up much better than expected, in addition to broader macroeconomics such as consumer spending being relatively stable.

“The [economic] outlook is getting better, and part of it is realizing that tariffs didn’t end the world, and that applies to the auto market as well,” Cox Automotive chief economist Jonathan Smoke told CNBC. “I think we can navigate it, and I’m holding on to that optimistic outlook.”
Such optimism will be tested as major automakers such as General Motors, Ford and Tesla begin reporting third-quarter results this week.
Each of the American automakers is expected to report double-digit declines in adjusted earnings per share but remain profitable on an adjusted basis, according to analyst estimates compiled by LSEG.
“We expect Q3 earnings that [are] generally in line to slightly above expectations. Industry production did come in better than expected,” Wolfe Research analyst Emmanuel Rosner said in an Oct. 10 investor note. “But as always there are nuances to consider.”

Balancing act

The automotive industry is in a bit of a balancing act.
Tariffs have cost automakers billions of dollars this year, but deregulation of fuel economy penalties, as well as corporate gains under the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” are expected to help offset those costs, Ford’s Farley and others have said.
Meanwhile, there are red flags of stress in auto lending for lower credit buyers, including the recent bankruptcy of subprime auto lender Tricolor — but sales and pricing of new vehicles through the third quarter remained far better than many had expected.
“There’s some positives for next year, but there could also be some really bad negatives if there’s a freak out on tariffs or the consumer finally breaks down or whatnot,” Morningstar analyst David Whiston told CNBC. “But no one’s calling for a complete crash.”

Fronts of the GMC Sierra Denali,Tesla Cybertruck and Ford F-150 Lightning EVs (left to right).
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Whiston — who covers GM, Ford and several auto retailers and suppliers — characterized his outlook as “cautiously optimistic,” saying the significant industry concerns are countered by other bullish circumstances.
UBS analyst Joseph Spak agreed, noting a lot of challenges for automakers such as tariffs and losses on electric vehicles “have already been incorporated into 2025/2026 estimates,” he said in an investor note last month.
In addition to the economic and political concerns, the automotive industry faces significant changes in all-electric vehicle adoption that caused GM last week to pre-report $1.6 billion in special charges during the quarter related to its pullback in EVs.
Adding to this year’s “chaos,” especially for Ford, is a fire last month at aluminum supplier Novelis that is impacting vehicle production. Wall Street analysts estimate the fire to cost Ford between $500 million to $1 billion in operating income.
“The industry is in a lot of flux. It faces an array of challenges,” Elaine Buckberg, a senior fellow at Harvard University and former GM chief economist, said regarding tariffs, EVs and other issues. “The level of volatility they’ve faced over the last seven years or so is unlike what came before.”

Suppliers

The broader supplier industry remains a major potential concern for automakers, as it did to begin the year.
The automotive supplier industry is made up of thousands of companies — ranging from multibillion-dollar publicly traded corporations to “mom and pop shops” making one or two parts — that industry experts say cannot support many, if any, additional cost increases.
“The market has been under pressure. It’s fragile,” said Mike Jackson, executive director of strategy and research for vehicle supplier association MEMA. “Those suppliers that are flexible and agile have been able to reposition themselves to be successful despite the changes, despite the shifts.”

Autolite spark plugs at an auto parts store in Provo, Utah, on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. First Brands Group Holdings has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, capping weeks of turmoil sparked by creditor concern over the auto-suppliers use of opaque off-balance sheet financing.
George Frey | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Not all have been able to compete successfully. The bankruptcy of U.S. auto parts maker First Brands Group in late September heightened concerns on Wall Street about the health of the private credit market. First Brands had a web of complex debt agreements with a slew of lenders and investment funds globally.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon last week called the bankruptcies of First Brands and Tricolor Holdings “early signs” of excess in corporate lending, while some Wall Street analysts have written them off as idiosyncratic.
Executives have said automakers, also known as OEMs, or original equipment manufacturers, have so far done their best to assist suppliers when needed and have not passed on added tariff costs to such companies, but it’s unclear how long that may last.
“Suppliers clearly are working as hard as they can with their customers to try and mitigate the impact, understating it’s an important issue to work through,” Jackson said. “That said, there have been a number of different cost pressures that we’ve seen that go beyond the tariffs. … It varies by customer, by OEM.”
Shares of many larger publicly traded suppliers, such as Aptiv, BorgWarner, Dana and Adient, are up double digits so far this year. Even Canada-based Magna International, which at one point was expected to be one of the companies most impacted by tariffs, is up roughly 7%.
Those gains are despite the third quarter marking the 14th consecutive quarter of building pessimism by North American auto supplier executives, according to MEMA’s most recent “Vehicle Supplier Barometer” released earlier this month.
Adding to supplier concerns are ongoing issues with tariffs between the U.S. with Mexico and Canada as well as the Trump administration’s ongoing trade war with China, where many rare earth materials, some of which are used in vehicles, are processed and sourced.

K-shaped concerns

There are also continuing concerns that the automotive industry is an example of a K-shaped economy in the U.S., where the wealthy keep seeing gains while those who have lower incomes struggle.
Economists have warned the U.S. economy is increasingly “K-shaped” following the coronavirus pandemic, with consumers experiencing different realities depending on their income level.
Used vehicle retailer CarMax was the first major auto-related company to sound the alarm on the consumer late last month.
“The consumer has been distressed for a little while. I think there’s some angst,” CarMax CEO Bill Nash told analysts earlier this month, with an auto lending executive for the used car retailer warning the “cracks” are “an industry issue.”

But that “issue” appears to only be for lower income consumers or those with subprime credit, many of whom are not new car buyers.
Wealthier Americans have been assisted by rising house values, lucrative stock market returns and favorable credit, while lower- and middle-income buyers have faced tighter budgets and have been hit hard by rising inflation.
Fitch Ratings reports 6.43% of subprime auto loans in August were at least 60 days past due, in line with a record high of 6.45% that was hit in January. Delinquency rates for borrowers with higher scores have remained relatively stable.
“Clearly there is concern about the consumer, because if you’re not in the upper part of the ‘K’ then yes, there is stress,” Cox Automotive’s Smoke said. “But it tends to be a demographic story about median and below income households.”
About two-thirds of new vehicle purchases are made by people whose household income is above the median, according to Buckberg. The U.S. household median income last year was $83,730, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates
That percentage could continue to grow and impact sales if tariff costs begin getting passed on to new car buyers or the whiplashing regulatory chaos barrels more into the automotive industry.
“That’s really the big question for 2026. I think everyone in the industry is assuming consumers are going to start to get tariffs passed down to them for autos. They haven’t really yet,” Whiston said. “How does the consumer react to that? Will they just take it in stride, pay more and keep going? Or will it just cause a massive freak out? No one knows the answer to that yet.” More

Sales of collectible trading cards like Pokémon and sports sets are surging, with Target reporting a 70% year-to-date increase and expecting over $1 billion in annual revenue from the category.
Despite strong growth, analysts caution that trading card sales may not see a major holiday spike since many purchases are for personal enjoyment rather than gifting.
Retailers like Target and Walmart are aiming to capture shoppers’ attention with exclusive sets, eye-catching out-of-aisle displays and limited time deals.

Trading cards of the game “Magic” are located in a shop where a “Magic” tournament is taking place.
Frank Rumpenhorst | picture alliance | Getty Images

As screentime soars and technology races ahead, a low-tech pastime is back in a big way: collecting trading cards.
The cardstock depicting everything from NFL standouts to Pokémon and even Taylor Swift is one of the hottest toy categories in stores this year. Big-box retailers are stocking up ahead of the holidays, anticipating that demand will extend beyond traditional toy buyers like children and collectors.

“We see trading cards being a hot gifting category for all ages that we will fuel with newness and with exclusive drops,” Rick Gomez, Target’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, told CNBC. “We’re going to have new releases nearly every week during the holidays that’s going to drive demand. And these make for great gifts and great stocking stuffers.”
Strategic trading card sales — which exclude sports — are up 103% year-to-date through August, while non-strategic card sales, which tend to be collectible pop culture or sports cards, are up 48%, according to market research firm Circana.
Target’s trading card sales are up nearly 70% year-to-date, with annual revenue from the category expected to top $1 billion.
Sales on some online platforms are rising even faster. Walmart Marketplace reported a 200% jump in trading card sales from February 2024 to June 2025, with Pokémon sales up more than tenfold year-over-year during the same period, the company first told Axios. The retailer has even launched a new weekly influencer livestream series focused on sports collectibles.
Since 2021, strategic card sales have grown by $891 million, or 139%, to total $1.5 billion, according to Circana. Sales of non-strategic cards and collectible stickers climbed by $565 million, or 156%, to $925 million in the same period, Circana said.

Millennials and Gen Z customers have been crucial for growth, said Juli Lennett, vice president and industry advisor for Circana’s U.S. toys practice.
“Lots of adults are buying these because it brings them back to a time when they had no cares in the world,” Lennett said. “It’s an affordable luxury with the economy right now. Some couldn’t afford cards as kids and now they have their own money and no one’s there to say ‘no’.”
Some buyers also treat cards like alternative investments. Through August, the value of Pokémon cards has delivered a cumulative return of 3,821% since 2004, according to an index by analytics firm Card Ladder, the Wall Street Journal reported. To combat online resellers, many stores now limit purchases to two packs per customer.
While the trading card category has boomed this year, not everyone is convinced the segment will boost sales during the peak holiday shopping season. Within the past six months, 19% of adults said they purchased Pokémon cards for themselves, signaling they may not be buying them for others in the weeks ahead, according to Circana.
“There has been steady growth in the category, but a large chunk of buyers are purchasing for themselves. There isn’t as much gifting here as you see in other toys,” Lennett said.

Pokemon cards released in 1999
Yvonne Hemsey | Hulton Archive | Getty Images

A year-round rush

What trading cards may lack in holiday flair, they make up for in consistency.
Cards stand apart from most toy categories in two key ways: they are frequently self-purchased and not “super seasonal,” Lennett said.
“Cards sell just as well in March or July as they do in December,” she said. “That makes them very attractive to retailers trying to offset seasonal risk.”
Target, which often gets a bump from merchandise tied to holidays, has tried to capitalize on the year-round fervor for cards.
“We expanded our assortment. We increased the number of drops that we have. We put trading cards in a more prominent place in store, did bolder displays and the business has responded,” Gomez said. “We don’t see the business slowing and we see it continuing to grow in popularity.”
Pokémon remains the category’s top performer, with card sales topping $1 billion last year — it’s the first toy brand to hit that milestone in the U.S., according to Circana. Sports cards are also becoming more popular, particularly among teen boys, with NFL packs leading the charge.
“A lot of different people are coming in to buy. You have your adult collector who’s buying for themselves, but we also see a lot of families coming in with kids requesting them and asking their parents for trading cards,” Gomez said. “It’s a great gift for parents, for kids, especially if they know that they’re into sports or Pokémon.”
While contemporary releases are booming across people aged eight to 28, vintage cards — typically pre-1970s — haven’t connected as strongly with Gen Z and Gen Alpha collectors.
“The majority of my customers aren’t looking for vintage,” Matthew Winkelried, CEO of New York-based Bleecker Trading, told CNBC. “Younger people don’t want to dig through 1960s cards unless they see a Mickey Mantle or Hank Aaron. Plus, the scarcity and price of vintage cards make it a tough entry point.”

Topps trading cards are arranged for a photograph in Richmond, Virginia.
Jay Paul | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Changing customers

After a near-collapse in the 1990s due to overproduction, the trading card industry has rebounded. Growth has been particularly strong since the pandemic, propelled by a blend of nostalgia, community and, for some, investment potential.
For many, cards offer a sense of belonging — whether it’s exchanging cards or playing a game like Pokémon or Magic: The Gathering.
“You still have the game players, and that’s a really tight-knit community,” said Jason Howarth, senior vice president of marketing and athlete relations at Panini America, which supplies sports cards to retailers like Target and Walmart. “Among sports fans, there’s a huge sense of camaraderie around trading. And with Pokémon too, I’ve heard game nights still play a major role in keeping that ecosystem alive.”
For those looking to cards as a store of value, Pokémon cards often prove to be a stronger investment than their sports counterparts, said Winkelried of Bleecker Trading.
“Maybe a highly touted rookie joins the league, and you buy their card early hoping it’ll rise in value,” he said. “The value can change week to week. It’s volatile like a stock.”
He added: “Pokémon is like a commodity. Pikachu can’t tear an ACL or get a DUI. Supply is limited, so the market is more stable.”
Looking past the holidays, major retailers are focusing on building the category’s long-term future. Target is betting on exclusive sets, limited specialty drops and drawing a more diverse consumer base.
“We are looking at reaching not only breadth of age with trading cards, but also gender,” Gomez said.
That process is already underway. The WNBA is now one of the fastest-growing segments in sports cards, particularly among young girls.
And with the 2026 FIFA World Cup spanning the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, soccer is poised to surge next.
“Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese have done wonders for the WNBA trading card business,” Howarth said. “Once it hits June, the U.S. marketplace is going to be taken over by soccer. Fans already know the global stars like Messi, but with the World Cup being held here, at least four or five players will skyrocket in popularity and get recognized.” More

Shares of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk dropped Friday, after President Donald Trump said his administration aims to cut the cost of brand name GLP-1 weight loss drugs to $150 per month, a fraction of their current list price.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz interjected and stressed that the administration has not yet agreed to GLP-1 price reductions with drugmakers.
Shares of Hims & Hers Health plunged because that cash price for branded GLP-1s would be lower than even compounded alternatives.

Shares of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk dropped Friday, after President Donald Trump said his administration aims to cut the cost of brand name GLP-1 weight loss drugs to $150 per month, a fraction of their current list price.
“In London, you’d buy a certain drug for $130 and even less than that … $88 as of… a month ago. And in New York, you pay $1,300 for the same thing,” Trump said during a Thursday afternoon event about in vitro fertilization at the White House. “Instead of $1,300 you’ll be paying about $150 and they’ll be paying $150 so we’re going to pay the same thing.”

Asked by a reporter what drug he was referring to, Trump replied, “I was referring to Ozempic or … the fat loss drug.”
At that point, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz interjected and stressed that the administration has not yet agreed to GLP-1 price reductions with drugmakers.
“We have not negotiated those yet … We’re going to be rolling these out over time, the GLP category of drugs, which includes Ozempic have not been negotiated yet,” Oz said.
Just a week ago, Oz had said that the administration was “in the middle of a lot of action” with price discussions with weight loss drugmakers.

Eli Lilly shares closed 2% lower Friday, while Novo Nordisk’s stock fell 3% in U.S. trading. Meanwhile, shares of Hims & Hers Health — which sells much cheaper compounded GLP-1s — plunged more than 15%.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk were among 17 of the largest U.S. pharmaceutical companies that received letters from the Trump administration following the president’s executive order on so-called most-favored nation pricing, demanding that businesses bring U.S. drug prices in line with those in other developed nations.
Pfizer and AstraZeneca have signed on to the president’s initiative, striking drug pricing deals with the administration. But Trump and Oz’s comments make it clear the administration is looking to get the weight loss drugmakers on board.

$150 GLP-1 would be cheaper than compounders

While demand for weight loss drugs has grown, price has remained an obstacle for consumers and employers.
Only about one in five large employers currently offer GLP-1s for weight loss, according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Of those who do, two-thirds say the high cost drugs have had a “significant” impact on their prescription drug spending.
Workers who don’t get coverage through health insurance have increasingly turned to the cash market to buy the drugs on their own.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk sell discounted versions of their diabetes and weight loss medications on their direct-to-consumer sites at roughly $500 a month. Telehealth providers like Hims & Hers offer compounded versions of GLP-1s for less than half that price, anywhere between $130 to $200 per month.
If the administration could bring the cash price for popular weight loss drugs like Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy down to $150, that would be competitive with compounded options and could have a major impact on the current cash market. More

The FAA said Boeing can produce 737 Max planes at 42 a month, above the 38 a month limit Boeing had been producing at.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg had said the company expects to ramp up more in the future.
It’s a milestone for the manufacturer, which hasn’t turned an annual profit since 2018.

Boeing 737 Max aircraft are assembled at the company’s plant in Renton, Washington, U.S. June 25, 2024.
Jennifer Buchanan | Via Reuters

Boeing has won regulator approval to ramp up production of its best-selling 737 Max jetliners to 42 a month, a milestone for the manufacturer nearly two years after the Federal Aviation Administration capped its output after a midair near-catastrophe.
In January 2024, the FAA restricted Boeing to building the planes at a rate of no more than 38 a month — though it had been below that level at the time — after a door plug from a nearly new 737 Max 9 blew off from an Alaska Airlines flight as it climbed out of Portland, Oregon.

Boeing failed to reinstall key bolts on the door plug before it left the factory, a National Transportation Safety Board report found. The 737 Max returned and landed safely, but it put the company back into crisis mode just as leaders were expecting a turnaround year.
The FAA said Friday that it would still oversee Boeing’s production. “FAA safety inspectors conducted extensive reviews of Boeing’s production lines to ensure that this small production rate increase will be done safely,” the agency said in a statement.
Boeing said it would work with its suppliers to increase production.
“We appreciate the work by our team, our suppliers and the FAA to ensure we are prepared to increase production with safety and quality at the forefront,” Boeing said Friday in a statement.

Read more CNBC airline news

An increase in output is key to the company’s turnaround after years of problems, since airlines and other customers pay for the bulk of an aircraft when they receive it. CEO Kelly Ortberg, named last year to stabilize the top U.S. manufacturer, said last month he expected to soon win FAA approval to raise output to 42, with other increases planned for down the line.

“We’ll go from 42 and then we’ll go up another five, and we’ll go up another five,” Ortberg told a Morgan Stanley investor conference in September. “We’ll get to where that inventory is more balanced with the supply chain, probably around the 47 a month production rate.”
The change shows the FAA’s softening tone and increased confidence in Boeing after years of restrictions. Last month, the agency said it would allow Boeing to again sign off on some of its aircraft itself before they’re handed over to customers, instead of that responsibility falling solely with the FAA.
The Max program was crippled following two crashes of the planes in 2018 and 2019, which killed all 346 people on the two flights. The aircraft was grounded for nearly two years. Covid also hurt production, followed by supply chain problems and, last year, a labor strike at Boeing’s main factories in the Seattle area.
Boeing hasn’t posted an annual profit since 2018. But it has increased output, and its deliveries of new planes are on track to hit the highest rate since that year.
Boeing is scheduled to release quarterly results on Oct. 29.
— CNBC’s Phil LeBeau and Meghan Reeder contributed to this report. More