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Lucid Group is counting on its upcoming Gravity SUV to assist the automaker in a “significant increase” in sales volumes to narrow the company’s losses, CEO Peter Rawlinson told CNBC.
The Gravity is Lucid’s second vehicle following the Air sedan, which the luxury EV manufacturer has been selling in small numbers since late 2021.
Lucid on Tuesday said customer ordering for the first Gravity model, called the Grand Touring and retailing for $94,900, will open Nov. 7 on its website.

Lucid Gravity Grand Touring SUV

Electric vehicle startup Lucid Group is counting on its upcoming Gravity SUV to assist the automaker in a “significant increase” in sales volumes to narrow the company’s losses, according to CEO Peter Rawlinson.
The Gravity is Lucid’s second vehicle following the Air sedan, which the luxury EV manufacturer has been selling in relatively small numbers since late 2021.

Lucid on Tuesday said customer ordering for the first Gravity model, called the Grand Touring, will open Nov. 7 on the carmaker’s website. It’s set to retail starting at $94,900. Other models are expected to follow, including an entry-level $79,900 Gravity Touring trim late next year.
“I’m very confident we’ll enjoy significant step change in demand for our products, our complete product portfolio,” Rawlinson told CNBC. “We believe there’s about a 6-to-1 ratio … for the SUV over sedan, and that’s going to put us in a very strong position.”

Lucid Gravity Grand Touring SUV

A six-times sales multiplier for the Gravity over the Air would be significant for the company, which has struggled with market awareness and customer demand compared with Wall Street’s expectations and its own initial expectations.
Lucid delivered 7,142 Air sedans to customers through the third quarter of this year, topping its roughly 6,000 vehicles delivered in 2023.
Rawlinson said the company, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, expects customer demand to initially outpace production, as the automaker ramps up output at its sole U.S. plant in Arizona.

Lucid expects to begin serial production of the Gravity for customers by the end of this year, but Rawlinson declined to disclose when customer deliveries are expected to begin.

Lucid Gravity Grand Touring SUV (left) and Lucid Air sedan EVs

Rawlinson said the company is still finalizing federal crash testing, a self-certification process, as well as awaiting range testing from the Environmental Protection Agency, followed by the California Air Resources Board.
Shares of Lucid have been under pressure this year, down roughly 40% as EV demand has been slower than expected. The stock closed Monday at $2.52 per share, up less than 1%.
Lucid is set to report its third-quarter results on Nov. 7 — the day customer ordering opens for the Gravity SUV.
The Gravity Grand Touring will offer more than 800 horsepower and a projected electric range of more than 440 miles, according to Lucid.

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McDonald’s third-quarter earnings and revenue topped Wall Street’s estimates.
Its U.S. restaurants reversed last quarter’s same-store sales decline.
However, investors are worried about another dent to U.S. sales fueled by a recent E. coli outbreak across 13 states linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers.

McDonald’s on Tuesday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ expectations as its U.S. restaurants reversed last quarter’s same-store sales decline.
However, investors are worried about another dent to U.S. sales fueled by a recent E. coli outbreak across 13 states linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers. As of Friday, 75 health cases have been tied to the outbreak, including one death of an older adult.

Health authorities have honed in on the burger’s slivered onions as the likely source, and McDonald’s has suspended its relationship with the supplier. Quarter Pounder burgers will return to affected restaurants on a rolling basis this week, sans slivered onions.
“While the situation appears to be contained, and though it didn’t affect Q3 numbers, it’s certainly an important development, which I know is on many of your minds,” CEO Chris Kempczinski told investors on the company’s earnings call, adding that McDonald’s was sorry and is committed to “making this right.”
Shares of the company fell more than 1% in premarket trading.
Here’s what the company reported for the period ended Sept. 30, compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $3.23 adjusted vs. $3.20 expected
Revenue: $6.87 billion vs. $6.82 billion expected

McDonald’s posted third-quarter net income of $2.26 billion, or $3.13 per share, down from $2.32 billion, or $3.17 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding certain items, the fast-food giant earned $3.23 per share.
Net sales rose 3% to $6.87 billion.
The chain’s global same-store sales fell 1.5%, a more drastic decline than the 0.6% that Wall Street was expecting, according to StreetAccount estimates, and was weighed down by the company’s international markets. It’s the second straight quarter that the company’s same-store sales have fallen.
“While we anticipated a challenging environment in 2024, our performance this year has fallen short of our expectations,” Kempczinski said.
U.S. same-store sales rose 0.3%, reversing last quarter’s same-store sales declines but still slightly weaker than the 0.5% increase predicted by StreetAccount estimates. Traffic to its U.S. restaurants was slightly negative, but the company credited its marketing and a $5 value meal launched in late June for the increase in sales.
Diners have pulled back their restaurant spending, leading McDonald’s and its rivals to lean into discounts and other marketing tricks to bring customers back to their restaurants. For example, in August, McDonald’s launched limited-time “Collector’s Edition” cups.
The company’s two international divisions both reported steeper declines in same-store sales compared with the prior quarter. The international operated markets segment, which includes France, Germany and Australia, saw same-store sales shrink 2.1%. The international developmental licensed markets division reported same-store sales declines of 3.5%, driven by weak demand in the Middle East and China.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, it’s unclear how the E. coli outbreak might affect U.S. sales, particularly as consumers have grown more picky about how to spend their money and where.
McDonald’s executives have taken steps to reassure customers that the company’s menu items are safe to eat, including pulling Quarter Pounder burgers from menus in the affected areas until its beef patties were cleared as the culprit.
Still, foot traffic to U.S. locations fell roughly 10% in the three days immediately following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announcement last Tuesday of the E. coli outbreak tied to McDonald’s, according to a research note from Gordon Haskett Research Advisors.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

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Jason Kim, the new CEO of rocket and spacecraft builder Firefly Aerospace, said he is “going to work maniacally” to scale the company’s efforts, which range from rocket launches to moon landings.
All of Firefly’s product lines are generating revenue, Kim said, and the company has kicked off fundraising a round of capital with a new lead investor.
“At the end of the day, we have to execute. … As long as you execute, you can keep going bigger and bigger and bolder and bolder,” Kim told CNBC in his first interview since becoming Firefly CEO.

CEO Jason Kim in the company’s lunar mission control center.
Firefly Aerospace

Jason Kim just nabbed one of the most coveted yet high-pressure C-suite gigs in the space industry.
As the new CEO of rocket and spacecraft builder Firefly Aerospace, he’s no longer under the Boeing umbrella after leaving his previous role leading their satellite-making subsidiary Millennium. And he’s joined an operation that’s in rarefied air — as one of only four companies in the U.S. with an operational orbital rocket — with growing spacecraft and lunar lander product lines.

But now he’s taking on a launch market dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Legacy player ULA and rising challenger Rocket Lab are also ramping up their efforts in the market — with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin hot on their heels.
But Kim is unfazed. He sees gaps in the launch market for Firefly’s Alpha and coming MLV rockets, which slot into the middle of the small-to-heavy class of vehicles. 
“In the history of the world, we started with the sea and then we went to rail, roads and then airplanes. I think space is the next big transportation play. It’s a new category that Firefly is going to help create,” Kim told CNBC, speaking in his first interview since joining the company at the start of this month.

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Millennium worked alongside Firefly last year when it launched the Space Force’s experimental Victus Nox mission, so Kim said he’d already seen first-hand the “unstoppable” attitude and “calculated risk taking” of Firefly employees.
“I’m thrilled to be here. … I’m going to work maniacally to support this team so that we can achieve all of our visionary ideas,” Kim said.

Firefly’s previous CEO was in the job for less than two years before a shock exit in July after reported allegations of an inappropriate employee relationship. It was the latest in what’s been a rollercoaster existence for Firefly. It was founded, went through bankruptcy, got restarted and underwent a federally-forced-ownership swap all in its past decade of existence.
All the while, Firefly’s pushed forward. Building and testing at its “Rocket Ranch” outside Austin, Texas, the 700-person company has launched its Alpha rocket five times from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base, reaching its intended orbit successfully on two of those.
Firefly majority owner AE Industrial Partners moved quickly this summer to bring Kim over from Millennium, as he said he got a call three days after Firefly’s prior leader exited. Kim said being CEO of Firefly “was never in my road map” but emphasized that he was excited for the new challenge.
“What I’ve learned through running multiple companies is that I think autonomy is something that is very precious when you’re running a company, and that autonomy helps you make the best decisions. You use your funds in the best manner to scale, to create differentiators. It helps you continue to grow and innovate at a very rapid pace. And so I would say that Firefly and autonomy are synonymous. That’s what’s going to help us grow and continue to evolve and be sustainable,” Kim said.
Firefly has three main product lines: its rockets, Alpha and MLV; space tugs, called Elytra, and lunar landers, known as Blue Ghost. Kim said all of the company’s product lines are revenue generating, though he declined to say how much money they’re bringing in, and added that the company’s kicked off fundraising a round of capital “with a new lead investor.”
“We’re already seeing significant demand [from investors] … more to come on that soon, but that’s going to help us with all the scaling that we need to do,” Kim said.

More rockets

The company’s fifth Alpha launch lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California in July 2024.
Trevor Mahlmann / Firefly Aerospace

The core of Firefly’s bid to be an end-to-end space transportation company is its rockets. 
Alpha, standing at 95 feet tall, is designed to launch about 1,000 kilograms of payload to orbit — at a price of $15 million per launch.
MLV (Medium Launch Vehicle), standing at 183 feet, is designed to launch as much as 16,300 kilograms of payload to orbit. The intended successor to Northrop Grumman’s Antares rockets, the pair of companies are co-developing MLV and aim to launch it for the first time in 2026.
Alpha and MLV both fit in the middle of the rocket market, between Rocket Lab’s “small” Electron and the “heavy” rockets such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
“The small-medium-large model is critical to support all the different needs of the market. … There’s no one size fits all kind of approach,” Kim said.

A rendering of the MLV rocket.
Firefly Aerospace

Kim sees Firefly as having a key advantage — “an engine that works” — in its Reaver engines that power the Alpha rockets. And for MLV, Kim said Firefly took that “great engine technology” and “scaled it up to become Miranda, so you’re not starting from scratch” with a new engine.
“We’re making huge strides on MLV,” Kim said. “We’ve had 50 Miranda engine tests already.” 

A Miranda engine, left, and a Reaver engine.
Firefly Aerospace

Before MLV debuts, Firefly will also be delivering part of Northrop’s Antares 330 rocket, with a first stage similar to MLV’s, by the third quarter of next year.
Additionally, while Firefly’s Alpha may not be reusable, the company has “purposely designed the MLV for reusability.”
“We’re closer to how SpaceX tackled [rocket reuse],” Kim said, referencing how SpaceX added the landing capability of its Falcon 9 rockets over time.
“We want to get some launches to orbit first before we tackle the ‘return to launch site’ part of it,” Kim added. “I do believe that reusability is going to help along the [launch] cadence of the MLV program, but for Alpha, we’re going to just get to our numbers by pure just cadence.”
Firefly has built up a backlog of launches for Alpha, signing deals for upward of 50 launches. That includes bulk orders from Lockheed Martin and L3Harris, as well as trio of launches for startup True Anomaly, one being part of the Space Force’s latest responsive launch mission Victus Haze. 

An aerial view of the “Rocket Ranch” in Briggs, Texas.
Firefly Aerospace

The company focused on infrastructure expansion this year, more than doubling Rocket Ranch’s footprint to over 200,000 square feet of floor space. Next year, Kim aims for Firefly to conduct four to six Alpha launches and then double that annually until Alpha is flying twice a month, or 24 launches a year.
“We could have prioritized doing more Alpha launches this year but instead we prioritized scaling up for the future,” Kim said.

A variety of spacecraft

Kim talks to a company employee outside the clean room of its Blue Ghost lunar lander.
Firefly Aerospace

Firefly has another major debut coming up even sooner: The launch of its first Blue Ghost lunar lander is scheduled for December and is set to touch down on the moon’s surface 45 days after that.
Seven feet tall and 12 feet in diameter, Blue Ghost is flying cargo under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Firefly is one of three U.S. companies to win CLPS mission contracts. NASA in 2021 awarded Firefly with a $93 million contract for Blue Ghost Mission 1, to deliver 10 research payloads to the moon.
“Any time you go to the moon, the whole world is watching. And when we land that thing, like Simone Biles sticks the landing in the Olympics, we’re going to be a different company,” Kim said.

The Blue Ghost Mission 1 lunar lander.
Firefly Aerospace

Firefly’s other spacecraft is its Elytra line of space tugs, also known as orbital transfer vehicles. The trio —Dawn, Dusk, and Dark — are increasingly large spacecraft that can delivery spacecraft and payloads to orbits ranging from low-above Earth to orbiting the moon.
“[Elytra] is getting the least amount of attention right now at Firefly publicly, but I think in about five years, it’s going to be a flywheel constellation program that’s servicing different missions. And so that’s where my expertise being a satellite manufacturer comes into play, is we can take something like Elytra and turn it into a multi-mission constellation capability,” Kim said.
Kim has only just joined Firefly but he said he already has a clear sense of how the company needs to progress.
“I’ve run companies before. At the end of the day, we have to execute. We’ve got to get a cadence. … As long as you execute, you can keep going bigger and bigger and bolder and bolder,” Kim said. More

Ford guided to the low end of its previously announced 2024 earnings forecast as it slightly topped Wall Street’s third-quarter expectations.
The automaker now expects adjusted earnings before interest and taxes, or EBIT, of about $10 billion, down from a range of between $10 billion and $12 billion.
Ford’s third-quarter results were led by its “Pro” commercial and fleet business as well as its traditional operations, known as “Ford Blue.”

Ford and Lincoln vehicles are displayed for sale at a Ford dealership on August 21, 2024 in Glendale, California. 
Mario Tama | Getty Images

DETROIT — Ford Motor guided to the low end of its previously announced 2024 earnings forecast as it slightly topped Wall Street’s third-quarter expectations.
The Detroit automaker said Monday it now expects adjusted earnings before interest and taxes, or EBIT, of about $10 billion. It had previously guided to between $10 billion and $12 billion. It retained its forecast for adjusted free cash flow of between $7.5 billion and $8.5 billion.

Heading into Monday’s results, several Wall Street analysts were concerned Ford would need to lower its forecast due to softening demand, rising vehicle inventory levels and worries about Ford’s ability to achieve an announced $2 billion in cost cuts this year.
“Our focus continues on cost and quality, which are holding back our progress and represent tremendous upside potential,” Ford CFO and Vice Chair John Lawler said Monday during a media briefing.

Lawler said Ford has achieved its $2 billion in material, freight and manufacturing costs, but higher inflationary and warranty costs have eaten into those improvements and have restricted the company “from having a record year.”
Here’s how the company performed in the third quarter, compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 49 cents adjusted vs. 47 cents expected
Automotive revenue: $43.07 billion vs. $41.88 billion expected

Shares of the automaker were down by roughly 5% during after-hours trading after closing Monday at $11.37, up 2.7%.

The automaker was under pressure after a disappointing second quarter in which unexpected warranty costs caused the company to miss Wall Street’s earnings expectations.
Lawler said the company’s warranty costs in the third quarter were slightly lower than they were a year earlier after increasing by $800 million year over year during the second quarter.
“It’s an improvement, but it’s not as big as we would like to see,” Lawler said, declining to disclose the overall costs during the period.
Ford’s third-quarter results were led by its “Pro” commercial and fleet business as well as its traditional operations, known as “Ford Blue.” Blue reported adjusted earnings of $1.63 billion, while Pro earned $1.81 billion.
Lawler said Ford Pro and Blue operations are being affected — and likely will continue to be affected — by some supplier problems, in part due to Hurricane Helene in late September.
Ford’s “Model e” electric vehicle unit recorded losses of $1.22 billion during the third quarter — less than it lost a year earlier, largely due to lower volumes and cost cuts.
Ford CEO Jim Farley told investors Monday that the company continues to believe in its EV strategy; however, the automaker has pulled back on many investments in the vehicles to focus on hybrid models.
Ford’s net income for the third quarter was $896 million, or 22 cents per share. Adjusted EBIT increased roughly 16% year over year to $2.55 billion. Ford’s 2023 third quarter included $41.18 billion in automotive revenue, net income of $1.17 billion, or 30 cents per share, and adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of $2.2 billion, or 39 cents per share.
Ford’s overall revenue for the third quarter, including its finance business, increased about 5% year over year to $46.2 billion. It marked the company’s 10th consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth.
Farley noted that the company’s operations in China, where legacy automakers have increasingly struggled, have contributed more than $600 million to the company’s EBIT. That includes Ford’s plans to increase vehicle exports from the country.
Farley also addressed the company’s rising new vehicle inventory levels. Ford has 91 days’ supply of gross inventory, including vehicles in the company’s possession, and 68 days’ supply on dealer lots at the end of the third quarter, which has concerned investors.
He said the mix and price of those vehicles is “really good” and the company is holding back some inventory to assist with vehicle changeovers in early 2025. More

Call it a modern-day version of a spectacular Renaissance patronage. Since 2019 Microsoft has provided more than $13bn in cash and computing capacity to OpenAI, a once-penniless startup that is now at the forefront of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and, as of its most recent fundraising round, worth $157bn. In exchange, Microsoft has gained the exclusive right to run OpenAI’s models on Azure, its cloud-computing business. More

Cosm will broadcast NFL games across networks on Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays.
The immersive experience, with a 360-degree dome and giant 8K LED screens, allows people to feel as though they are at the game.
Cosm has locations in Los Angeles and Dallas, with plans for another venue in Atlanta and more down the road.

Cosm currently has two locations in Los Angeles and Dallas, Texas but plans but is planning on expanding to additional locations in the future.
Courtesy: Cosm

Cosm, the immersive technology company that broadcasts live sports events using what it calls “shared reality,” is partnering with the National Football League, the company announced Monday.
As part of the deal, Cosm will produce and distribute NFL games at its venues throughout the rest of the 2024 season.

The deal includes broadcasting every Thursday night football game on Amazon, all Sunday night games on NBC, every Monday night football game on ESPN and select games on Sunday with Fox.
The company, founded in 2020 by Mirasol Capital, uses a 360-degree dome with giant 12K+ LED screens to offer viewers a fully immersive “shared reality” experience that mirrors being at the game.
The domes fit about 700 people with the average ticket price ranging between $22 and $127. Cosm uses a dynamic pricing model, similar to concerts or live sports.
“What’s so unique about a property like the NFL is that fandom is everywhere,” said Jeb Terry, president and CEO at Cosm. “We see fans coming in wearing jerseys, bringing the Terrible Towel, bringing cow bells, having an absolute blast, like they’re at the stadium themselves.”
The company did not disclose the financial details of its deal with the NFL.

Cosm offer a wide range of live sports and also educational programming
Courtesy: Cosm

Cosm first opened its doors in Los Angeles and Dallas this summer and recently announced its third venue would be in downtown Atlanta, with future locations to be announced soon.
Cosm already has deals in place with the NBA, UFC, ESPN, NBC Sports, TNT Sports, Fox Sports and Amazon Prime Video, and broadcasts everything from the Summer Olympics in Paris to the current World Series.
Tickets for the first game of the World Series featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees sold out in seven minutes, Cosm said. The second game sold out in one minute.
“Inventory is flying off the shelf,” Terry said.

The shared reality experience gives fans the feeling of being at the game.
Courtesy: Cosm

While live sports act as the core anchor for Cosm, the company also has nonsports offerings, including an animated voyage beyond the planets through the eyes of astronauts and a Cirque du Soleil show. This allows the company to have programs throughout lunch and matinee hours when live sports may not be available.
As fans’ viewing habits are changing, Cosm is finding rapid success in its tech-forward model.
Terry said the venues are already seeing repeat customers and they will soon be introducing membership rewards and season passes.
In July, the company raised more than $250 million in funding to expand globally. Cosm is valued at more than $1 billion, and its investors include sports heavyweights such as former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and co-managing partner of the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils David Blitzer.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

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McDonald’s is bringing the Quarter Pounder burger back to restaurants affected by an E. coli outbreak linked to the menu item.
Health authorities have honed in the burger’s slivered onions, rather than its fresh beef patties, as the likely source for the outbreak.
McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger apologized to customers who are feeling “ill, scared or uncertain” in a video posted on the company’s website.

A double quarter pounder with cheese and fries arranged at a McDonald’s restaurant in El Sobrante, California, US, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. 
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers will return to roughly 900 restaurants this week after the fast-food giant pulled the menu item linked to a deadly E. coli outbreak.
Affected restaurants — roughly a fifth of the company’s U.S. footprint — will be serving the Quarter Pounder burgers without slivered onions for the foreseeable future as health authorities continue their investigation into the source of the outbreak. That change will affect restaurants in Colorado, Kansas and Wyoming and portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Utah.

“The issue appears to be contained to a particular ingredient and geography, and we remain very confident that any contaminated product related to this outbreak has been removed from our supply chain and is out of all McDonald’s restaurants,” Cesar Pina, chief supply chain officer for McDonald’s North American operations, said in a letter sent to the company’s U.S. system.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture’s testing did not detect E. coli in samples of the beef patties taken from restaurants in the area, according to Pina. The agency isn’t planning further tests of the company’s beef.

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McDonald’s, 1 month

Instead, health authorities have honed in on slivered onions used in the Quarter Pounders as the likely suspect for the outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration is still investigating if onions produced by Taylor Farms are responsible. McDonald’s has stopped using Taylor Farms as a supplier for the ingredient indefinitely.
McDonald’s is now asking its beef suppliers to produce a new supply of the fresh beef patties used in its Quarter Pounders, Pina wrote in a letter sent to the company’s U.S. system. Customers can expect to see the menu item back in all restaurants in the coming week, although it will happen on a rolling basis, depending on delivery and resupply operations.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that the E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s has led to 75 cases across 13 states. Out of 61 patients with information available, 22 have been hospitalized, and two people have developed a serious condition that can cause kidney failure, called hemolytic uremic syndrome. The agency also said previously that an older adult in Colorado died.

Based on reported cases so far, the outbreak took place between Sept. 27 and Oct. 11. Over a two-week period, McDonald’s typically sells roughly one million Quarter Pounders in the affected region, according to company spokespeople.
McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger apologized to customers who are feeling “ill, scared or uncertain” in a video posted on the company’s website.
“On behalf of the McDonald’s system, I want you to hear from me: we are sorry,” he said.
McDonald’s is expected to report its third-quarter earnings before the bell on Tuesday. Shares of the company have fallen 7% since the CDC linked the E. coli outbreak to its restaurants. More

A deadly E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has led to 75 cases in 13 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
It is the latest tally of people affected since the agency announced the outbreak on Tuesday.
Health officials are closely examining the slivered onions used in the Quarter Pounders as a likely contaminant.

A quarter pounder with cheese, fries and a drink arranged at a McDonald’s restaurant in El Sobrante, California, on Oct. 23, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A deadly E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has led to 75 cases in 13 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, as it investigates the source of the spread. 
The outbreak has led to 22 hospitalizations and one previously reported death of an older adult in Colorado.

Out of 61 patients with information available, 22 have been hospitalized and two people have developed a serious condition that can cause kidney failure, called hemolytic uremic syndrome. All of the 42 people who were interviewed by the CDC reported eating at McDonald’s, while 39 people reported eating a beef hamburger, the agency said.
Those with infections ranged between ages 13 and 88, according to the CDC. The agency reiterated that the number of cases in the outbreak is likely much higher than what has been reported so far. The CDC added that the outbreak may not be limited to the states with related cases. That is because many patients do not test for E. coli and recover from an infection without receiving medical care, the CDC said. It also usually takes three to four weeks to determine if a sick person is part of an outbreak.
Shares of the restaurant chain closed down 3% on Friday. The stock has fallen 7% since the CDC announced the outbreak on Tuesday, initially citing 49 cases and one death across 10 states.
McDonald’s declined to comment on the update, citing the company’s statement when the outbreak was first announced.
Quarter Pounder hamburgers are a core menu item for McDonald’s, raking in billions of dollars annually.

Health officials are closely examining the slivered onions used in the Quarter Pounder as a likely contaminant. McDonald’s has instructed restaurants in the affected area to remove slivered onions from their supply, and has paused the distribution of that ingredient in the region.
McDonald’s stores in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming as well as parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma have temporarily stopped using Quarter Pounder slivered onions and beef patties, according to the CDC.
McDonald’s identified California-based produce giant Taylor Farms as the supplier for the sliced onions the company removed from its supply chain. Taylor Farms has issued a recall on four raw onion products due to potential E. coli contamination. Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell have pulled onions from select restaurants in response to the outbreak.
But federal agencies are also investigating the Quarter Pounder’s beef patty as a potential culprit.
As the CDC and other federal agencies trace cases and work to contain the outbreak, McDonald’s has pulled Quarter Pounders from restaurants in the affected areas. Around a fifth of McDonald’s U.S. restaurants are not selling Quarter Pounder burgers.
McDonald’s spokespeople said Wednesday that it is too early to tell if the outbreak is having any effect on traffic to its restaurants.
The company is expected to report its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday and could share more details with investors about the situation on the conference call.
The outbreak comes after several quarters of sluggish U.S. sales for McDonald’s. Price-sensitive consumers have not been visiting restaurants as much, leading McDonald’s and other fast-food chains to turn to value meals to boost sales. Wall Street analysts are expecting the company to report U.S. same-store sales growth of 0.5% for the third quarter, according to StreetAccount estimates.
For now, McDonald’s is trying to reassure customers that its menu items are safe to eat and drink and that it is taking the outbreak seriously. Experts told CNBC that barring a more serious crisis, the damage to its brand may be minimal, as with an E. coli outbreak linked to Wendy’s two years ago.

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