Business

BJ’s Wholesale is opening a dozen clubs in the U.S. this year, as it pushes into new regions of the country.
The Massachusetts-based retailer has a heavier emphasis on groceries and carries smaller sizes, such as a single loaf of bread or gallon of milk along with bulk items.
Warehouse club rivals Costco and Walmart-owned Sam’s Club are also opening more locations.

A BJ’s Wholesale Club is shown in Falls Church, Virginia, May 23, 2023.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images

BJ’s Wholesale Club said Wednesday that it will open four clubs in the Southeast and one in the Midwest this year, as it tries to expand and attract members in other parts of the country in a competitive membership warehouse market.
The new stores will open this fiscal year in Maryville, Tennessee; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Palm Coast and West Palm Beach, Florida; and Carmel, Indiana. The company plans to open a dozen new clubs this fiscal year, including an already announced club in Louisville, Kentucky.

The smaller rival of Costco and Walmart-owned Sam’s Club is just the latest warehouse club to share its goals for expansion. Sam’s Club said in early 2023 that it would open more than 30 stores in the U.S. over a five-year period. Earlier this month, Costco said on an earnings call that it expects to open 30 new clubs globally in its fiscal year, including two relocations. Twenty-two are planned for the U.S.
Their moves come as value-focused retailers, such as off-price chains, drive store growth in the U.S. The retailers that have announced the most new locations so far this calendar year are Dollar General, Burlington and Aldi, according to Coresight Research, a retail advisory firm that tracks openings and closures.
Similarly, club stores resonate with budget shoppers because they emphasize getting more for less.

BY THE NUMBERS: Warehouse clubs

BJ’s
Clubs in the U.S.: 244
Membership fee: $55 per year or $110 for higher tier
Costco
Clubs in the U.S.: 603, including Puerto Rico
Membership fee: $60 per year or $120 for higher tier
Sam’s Club
Clubs in the U.S.: 599, including Puerto Rico
Membership fee: $50 or $110 for higher tier
Source: Company websites and most recent earnings releases

BJ’s has a smaller reach than its club rivals. Most of the Marlborough, Massachusetts-based retailer’s clubs have been concentrated on the East Coast. Its expansion will bring it to 21 states compared with Costco, which had clubs in 46 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico as of Sept. 3, the end of its fiscal year. Sam’s Club has locations in 44 states and in Puerto Rico.
Yet BJ’s has been in growth mode since 2016, when it stepped up efforts to break into new markets, said Bill Werner, the retailer’s executive vice president of strategy and development. It has opened 27 new clubs and entered four new states over the past five years: Tennessee, Alabama, Indiana and Michigan. It opened seven new clubs last fiscal year.
It plans to open 10 to 12 clubs each year going forward, Werner said.
Yet BJ’s will have to convince customers to buy a membership, which could be a challenge if it’s the second or third club in a customer’s backyard.
Greg Melich, a retail analyst for Evercore ISI, said BJ’s can stand out with its emphasis on grocery. It has nearly double the number of items of club competitors, including many more fridge staples like fruits, vegetables and deli meats. Along with carrying bulk sizes of laundry detergent and paper towels, it also sells smaller items like a gallon of milk or single loaf of bread that lend themselves to a weekly grocery run.
“You may be able to buy a piece of cheese that’s not two pounds,” Melich said.
He said BJ’s is better off focusing on stealing sales from regional and national supermarkets like Publix and Kroger.
“It would be a mistake for BJ’s to try to be Costco,” he said. “That’s not the point. The point is there are a lot of people in a lot of markets who would like to buy things cheaper than they would be at their local grocery store.”
BJ’s Werner said the company’s typical customer has an average household income of between $75,000 and $100,000. He added that in the new markets BJ’s has entered, it’s been able to attract members who already belong to another club.
Earlier this month, BJ’s said it expects modest growth during the full year. The retailer said it anticipates comparable club sales to increase 1% to 2% year over year, excluding gas sales. It said adjusted earnings per share will range from $3.75 to $4.00, with the lower end of that falling below the $3.96 that it reported for the most recent fiscal year.
As of Tuesday’s close, BJ’s shares had climbed more than 12% this year. That has outperformed the S&P 500’s gains of more than 9%. More

Ford Motor sees opportunity to grow Mustang sales as it becomes the last American muscle car with the roar of a traditional V8 engine.
The Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger — the Mustang’s closest American competitors — ended production in December.
Ford has been able to continue to sell V8 models in part because it was early to adopt smaller, turbocharged four-cylinder engines for the Mustang.

2024 Ford Mustang
Source: Ford

DETROIT — Ford Motor sees opportunity to grow Mustang sales as it becomes the last American muscle car with a traditional V8 engine, playing to generations of gearheads who’ve been drawn to the performance vehicles.
The optimism comes after Mustang’s closest American competitors ended production of their muscle cars in December. General Motors stopped producing the Chevrolet Camaro, and Stellantis ended production of its Dodge Challenger V8 ahead of a new all-electric muscle car later this year, followed by gas-powered models with twin-turbo, inline-six engines that are expected in 2025.

Their exodus (and that of others in the muscle car market) is the result of changing consumer demand away from two-door cars, as well as tightening fuel economy standards and the emergence of all-electric vehicles capable of unrivaled acceleration.
Jeff Marentic, general manager of Ford Blue products, which includes the Mustang, said the pony car remains good business for the automaker both domestically and internationally. Mustang marks its 60th anniversary on April 17.
“We’re excited to continue to offer Mustang. It’s sad to see competition leaving but that’s beneficial to us,” Marentic told CNBC. “For people who are looking for a true American sports car, it’s available to them. … We’re looking and talking about the future of Mustang, and how far we can grow it.”

Ford Chair Bill Ford and President and CEO Jim Farley converse in front of newly revealed Mustang Dark Horse at The Stampede in downtown Detroit on Sept. 14, 2022.

Marentic declined to discuss specific sales expectations for the vehicle but noted the company has added a new V8 model for the seventh-generation vehicle called the Dark Horse — a not so subtle reference to Ford’s ambitions for the V8-powered car.
Both the 2024 Dark Horse and Mustang GT are powered by a 5.0-liter V8 engine, with the new model generating up to 500 horsepower and 418 foot-pounds of torque. Ford also has announced a 2025 Mustang GTD with a supercharged 5.2-liter V8 engine that’s expected to arrive as early as later this year with more than 800 horsepower.

Ford has been able to continue to sell Mustang V8 models in part because it has invested in making the vehicles more efficient and it was early to adopt smaller, turbocharged four-cylinder engines that now make up about 48% of Mustang sales in the U.S.
Ford also offers an all-electric Mustang Mach-E crossover that features similar design cues and badging to the two-door coupe, but it shares little to no other characteristics other than the name.
“I can understand the green movement, but we’re so proud of our V8s,” Marentic said, adding the model accounts for a majority of Mustang sales in Europe. “It helps define who Ford is outside of the United States.”

The Ford Mustang Mach-E is presented at the New York International Auto Show, Manhattan, New York, April 5, 2023.
David Dee Delgado | Reuters

The seventh-generation Mustang, which Ford revealed in September, recently started shipping outside of North America. It will eventually be sold in 85 markets on every continent aside from Antarctica, according to Ford.
Non-U.S. sales have assisted in keeping the Mustang, which is exclusively produced at a plant in metropolitan Detroit, in production amid declining domestic demand for two-door sports cars.
U.S. sales of the Mustang have declined from a recent peak of more than 122,000 units in 2015 to fewer than 49,000 last year.

Internationally, Ford reports there have been more than 235,000 Mustangs registered since 2015. That’s when the automaker began producing right-hand drive models for countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan.
The top markets for Mustang outside of the U.S. are Canada, Australia and Europe, according to Ford.
“People relate extremely strongly to Mustang,” Marentic said. “The pull is amazing.”
Marentic declined to discuss future product plans for the Ford Mustang, including a hybrid that was reportedly canceled for the seventh-generation car or the potential for an all-electric version of the two-door vehicle.

Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

The FDA approved a drug from Merck designed to treat a rare, progressive and life-threatening lung condition called pulmonary arterial hypertension.
The decision is a big step for the roughly 40,000 people in the U.S. living with that disease because Winrevair is the first drug to target the root cause of the condition. 
The approval is also a win for Merck, which is working to diversify its revenue stream as its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda approaches a loss of market exclusivity in 2028. 

Exterior view of the entrance to Merck headquarters on February 05, 2024 in Rahway, New Jersey. 
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a drug from Merck designed to treat a progressive and life-threatening lung condition in a win for both the drugmaker and for patients suffering from the rare disease.
The agency greenlighted the therapy, which will be marketed as Winrevair, for adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension. The decision is a big step for the roughly 40,000 people in the U.S. living with that disease because Winrevair is the first drug to target the root cause of the condition. Other available medicines only help manage symptoms. 

The condition refers to when the small blood vessels in the lungs narrow. That leads to high blood pressure in the arteries that carry blood from the heart to the lungs, which can damage the heart and result in limited physical activity. Starting from diagnosis, the mortality rate of patients is 43% by five years, according to Merck.
Merck estimates that Winrevair will be available in select specialty pharmacies in the U.S. by the end of April, according to a company release. The drug is an injection administered every three weeks and is distributed in single-vial or double-vial kits.
It will priced at $14,000 per vial before insurance, a Merck spokesperson said in a statement. But the company has a program that offers eligible patients help with out-of-pocket costs and copays.
Winrevair is meant to be used along with existing therapies for the condition to increase exercise capacity, lessen the severity of PAH and reduce the risk of the disease worsening.
The approval is critical for Merck, which is working to diversify its revenue stream as its top-selling cancer immunotherapy Keytruda approaches a loss of market exclusivity in 2028. 

In a note this month, JPMorgan analyst Chris Schott estimated that Winrevair would reach worldwide annual sales of around $5 billion by 2030 and emerge as one of Merck’s “largest growth drivers.” 
Merck Chief Medical Officer Eliav Barr told CNBC that “this is a really great opportunity for the company, but really, more importantly, a great important opportunity for patients.” He noted that the drug will be a “paradigm shift” for patients living with PAH.
The company gained the rights to Winrevair through its $11.5 billion acquisition of Acceleron Pharma in 2021. At the time, Merck estimated that PAH would be a roughly $7.5 billion market by 2026. 
The FDA’s approval is based on data from a late-stage trial, which followed more than 300 patients at a moderate stage of PAH who were already taking another medication for the blood vessel condition. 
The study found that Winrevair combined with an existing therapy helped patients with the condition walk about 40.8 meters more in six minutes than those who received a placebo, 24 weeks into the trial. 
“There is tremendous improvement in people’s ability to exercise and move around,” Barr said. “Because this disease causes people to be very, very homebound. They have shortness of breath, they can’t move.” 
Winrevair on top of an existing medication also significantly improved eight of nine secondary goals in the study. That includes reducing the risk of death or worsening of the condition by 84% compared to an existing drug alone.
Severe and serious adverse events were less common in the group of patients who took Winrevair compared to those who received a placebo, according to the trial. Side effects that occurred more frequently included nose bleeds, headaches and rashes, among others.
One notable advantage of Winrevair is that patients or caregivers can inject it under the skin with appropriate training from a healthcare provider. Meanwhile, some existing treatments for PAH must be administered by medical professionals at an infusion center. 
“One of the things we heard very loud and very clear, from both patients and physicians, is that they wanted something that you could get at home,” Barr said. 
Merck is continuing to study Winrevair in other phase two and phase three trials.
Those trials include late-stage studies on patients with more advanced PAH disease, and those who are within the first year after diagnosis. Merck has said it expects those trials to finish around 2025 and 2026. 

Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Canada Goose will cut about 17% of its corporate workforce, which included about 915 employees as of April 2023.
The cuts follow other retailers that kicked off the new year with sweeping layoffs, including Macy’s, Nike and Wayfair.
Between April 2021 and April 2023, Canada Goose nearly doubled its corporate workforce to support its growth, according to a securities filing.

Canada Goose parkas hang on display at a store in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
Chris So | Toronto Star | Getty Images

Canada Goose said Tuesday that it will cut about 17% of its corporate workforce, following a string of other retailers that have laid off employees this year as consumers continue to pull back on discretionary spending. 
It is not clear how many employees will be laid off. The cuts will affect staff at Canada Goose’s corporate headquarters, which had about 915 employees as of April 2023, according to a securities filing. Between April 2021 and April 2023, Canada Goose nearly doubled the number of employees at its corporate head offices from 544 to 915 to support its “continued growth,” the filing says.

In a statement Tuesday, CEO Dani Reiss said, “Today, we are realigning our teams to ensure that corporate resources are fit for purpose to fuel our next phase of growth across geographies, categories, and channels.”
“We are focused on achieving efficiency and margin expansion, while investing in key initiatives — brand, design and best-in-class operations — that will powerfully position our iconic performance luxury brand to deliver long-term growth,” Reiss said.
The cuts, part of the company’s ongoing “Transformation Program,” come after what it called a “comprehensive review” of its organizational structure and the roles it needs to reach its goals. It expects the cuts will bring “immediate” cost savings and simplify its workforce, allowing it to make decisions more quickly and become more efficient. 
Shares of Canada Goose closed about 7% lower.
In the three months that ended Dec. 31, Canada Goose saw sales grow 6% compared to the year-ago period, but the results fell short of analysts’ expectations, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv. When releasing its holiday-quarter results, Canada Goose noted that its wholesale revenues were particularly weak, an ongoing dynamic for the company that many other retailers have felt.

Several retailers, including Under Armour and Nike, have said recently that wholesale orders have been sluggish as department stores look to keep inventories in check and contend with a slowdown in demand. 
The layoffs at Canada Goose come after Nike, Macy’s, Wayfair, Hasbro and Etsy all announced widespread layoffs over the past few months. In many cases, the companies were looking to focus on what they can control by becoming more efficient and focusing on profits, even as shoppers pull back on discretionary items such as clothes, shoes and toys.

Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Hyundai’s Genesis is previewing the future of the growingly prominent luxury brand with a new large all-electric concept vehicle called the Neolun.
The full-size SUV features a sleek exterior design illuminated by long horizontal headlights and taillights reminiscent of the brand’s current EVs, though more modern.
The vehicle’s front seats can swivel to face the rear passengers for lounge seating.

Genesis Neolun Concept

NEW YORK – Hyundai’s Genesis is previewing the future of the growingly prominent luxury brand with a new large all-electric concept vehicle called the Neolun.
The full-size SUV features a sleek exterior design illuminated by long horizontal headlights and taillights reminiscent of the brand’s current EVs, though more modern.

The interior of the Neolun – derived from the Greek “neo,” or new, and the Latin “luna,” which means moon – is minimalistic compared with many recent concepts that include door-to-door screens. The SUV features a large central screen with physical buttons below it and a control panel and knob to the right of the driver.
The vehicle’s front seats can swivel to face the rear passengers for lounge seating.
“The Neolun Concept is a concept model that showcases the future vision of Genesis, as well as the overall direction in which the brand is headed in terms of product, design and technological advancement,” Genesis said in an emailed statement.
Automakers routinely use concept vehicles to gauge customer interest or show the future direction of a vehicle or brand. The vehicles are not meant to be sold to consumers.

Genesis Neolun Concept

The company declined to disclose whether the vehicle is a preview of an upcoming large all-electric SUV for Genesis, which has been growing its lineup in the U.S.

Genesis’ U.S. sales increased 23% last year to a record of 69,175 units compared with 2022. Genesis, which became its own brand in 2015, outsold more established luxury rival Infiniti and expects sales to continue to grow this year.
“Our standalone retail footprint is rapidly expanding, and the brand continues to achieve record-breaking sales results in the United States,” Tedros Mengiste, vice president of sales operations for Genesis Motor America, said in a release last week.

Genesis Neolun Concept

Genesis also revealed another concept called the GV60 Magma Concept, a high-performance variant of its compact EV crossover.
The brand said it aims to develop a high-performance Magma model for each production vehicle in the existing lineup.
The concept vehicles were revealed Monday night ahead of their public debuts this week at the New York International Auto Show.

GV60 Magma Concept 

Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme are expanding their partnership to all of the burger chain’s U.S. locations by the end of 2026.
McDonald’s first started testing selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts in late 2022.
Krispy Kreme will more than double its distribution to reach McDonald’s restaurants nationwide.

In this photo, Krispy Kreme doughnuts are shown in Daly City, California, on May 12, 2022.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

McDonald’s is planning to sell Krispy Kreme doughnuts at its restaurants nationwide by the end of 2026, the chains announced Tuesday.
The rollout will start in the second half of this year, but it will take roughly two and a half years as Krispy Kreme more than doubles its distribution to satisfy the partnership. For the duration of the agreement, McDonald’s will be the exclusive fast-food partner for Krispy Kreme in the U.S.

Shares of Krispy Kreme jumped almost 20% in premarket trading Tuesday after the announcement.
The doughnut chain uses a “hub and spoke” model that lets it make and distribute its treats efficiently. Production hubs, which are either stores or doughnut factories, send off freshly made doughnuts every day to retail locations such as grocery stores and gas stations.
The partnership with McDonald’s is a major opportunity for Krispy Kreme to expand its reach. It delivers its doughnuts to 6,800 third-party stores, as of Dec. 31. McDonald’s has roughly 13,500 restaurants in the U.S. and plans to open 900 new locations nationwide by 2027.
“We think we can service about 6,000 restaurants with our existing infrastructure, mostly doughnut shops, which have excess capacity,” Krispy Kreme CEO Josh Charlesworth told CNBC.
Krispy Kreme has also been expanding its capacity so it can deliver fresh doughnuts to the roughly 7,500 McDonald’s restaurants that it can’t currently reach.

While McDonald’s is the primary reason the company is expanding its distribution so quickly, Charlesworth said Krispy Kreme will also be using the opportunity to land in grocery and convenience stores that prefer national suppliers.
“That means that the overall efficiency and productivity of our distribution network will significantly improve over time, not just because of all those local deliveries,” he said.
Additionally, Krispy Kreme’s doughnut shops typically make more of the sweet treat than the chain can sell. The extra demand from McDonald’s and other new customers means its production lines can churn out higher volume with few additional costs.
“Overall, therefore, it makes our system more profitable to grow the deliver fresh daily channel, and McDonald’s is an accelerator of that,” Charlesworth said.
The two chains’ relationship started about a year and a half ago, when McDonald’s began selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts at nine restaurants as a test. Months later, the pilot had expanded to roughly 160 restaurants across Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky. Those initial restaurants will keep selling the doughnuts during the national rollout.
Demand from McDonald’s customers during the tests exceeded both chains’ expectations, according to Charlesworth.
For McDonald’s, the addition of Krispy Kreme doughnuts helps bolster its bakery and breakfast offerings. The burger chain has been leaning into coffee, a common drink pairing for doughnuts, but trimming other bakery items such as cinnamon rolls from its menu.
McDonald’s customers will be able to order the original glazed, chocolate iced with sprinkles and chocolate iced cream-filled doughnuts, either individually or in packs of six. The restaurants will sell the doughnuts all day.
In the long term, Krispy Kreme now expects it can reach more than 100,000 points of access for its doughnuts globally, up from its prior outlook of 75,000 locations. The chain’s doughnuts can currently be found in more than 14,100 stores across 39 countries.
Shares of Krispy Kreme have fallen 20% over the past year, dragging its market value down to $2.11 billion. As hype over weight loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic has soared, investors have worried about whether the treatments will cut into Krispy Kreme’s future sales.
Similar concerns have weighed on McDonald’s, although its stock has risen 2% in the past year as consumers trade down to its cheap food and drinks. The company has a market value of $201 billion.

Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said he plans to depart at the end of the year. The company will begin a search for his replacement.
Boeing’s airplane customers have grown increasingly frustrated with production defects and delivery delays.
The next CEO must handle the company’s safety crisis and quality problems as well as growing competition from Airbus and Chinese manufacturers.

An aerial photo shows Boeing 737 Max airplanes parked on the tarmac at the Boeing Factory in Renton, Washington, on March 21, 2019.
Lindsey Wasson | Reuters

Help wanted at Boeing.
CEO Dave Calhoun on Monday announced he is stepping down from the aerospace giant’s top post at year’s end as the company struggles with a safety and production quality crisis tied to its best-selling airplane, the 737 Max. Boeing said it will begin a search for Calhoun’s replacement.

Boeing also announced Monday it’s replacing board chair Larry Kellner and the chief executive of its all-important commercial airplanes unit, Stan Deal.
Calhoun told CNBC on Monday that the decision to retire was “100%” his own and that he would be involved in finding his successor. Four-year Boeing board member Steve Mollenkopf, ex-Qualcomm CEO who will take over as independent chairman of the board, will lead the search.
Calhoun’s departure isn’t much of a surprise given the struggles of the last few months.
Boeing’s customers had grown frustrated under Calhoun’s watch as they faced the fallout from recurring quality issues. He was appointed as CEO a little more than four years ago to get the manufacturing giant in order after two fatal Max crashes in 2018 and 2019.
One quality problem after another has surfaced spanning other programs like the 787 Dreamliner and the two 747s that will serve as Air Force One aircraft. With supply chain issues, quality lapses and more regulator scrutiny in the wake of a panel blowout from an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 in January, airplane deliveries are arriving late, and airline executives say the problems have forced them to change their growth and fleet plans.

Boeing’s stock is down more than 26% this year, and its CFO last week warned it’s burning more cash than it expected.
“We need someone to fix Boeing,” one major airline executive told CNBC after Boeing announced the management shake-up on Monday. “They unequivocally needed a change.”
Executives at Boeing’s customers told CNBC they want Boeing’s new leader to have manufacturing acumen, expertise in the highly regulated and technical world of aviation, and, perhaps most difficult of all, the ability to rally Boeing’s employees and ensure a culture of safety, consistency and innovation.
“This is going to be a challenging role to fill. You’re going to need someone with a huge amount of energy and commitment,” said John Plueger, CEO of Air Lease, a major buyer of Boeing planes that leases them to airlines. “You don’t want somebody for two years. You want someone at the head of the ship for as long as possible.”
The next boss at Boeing will have to contend not just with the company’s internal struggles but lost market share to rival Airbus. Meanwhile, China has been pushing ahead with building its own commercial aircraft.
“I want somebody who knows how to handle a big, long-cycled business like ours,” Calhoun told CNBC in an interview on Monday while announcing his departure. “It’s not just the production of the airplane. It’s the development of the next airplane. Our next lead is going to develop … the next airplane for the Boeing company.”
Financial analysts applauded the amount of time Boeing is giving itself to find Calhoun’s replacement.
“It provides leadership continuity, which a knee-jerk change would not, and CEO Dave Calhoun clearly is on board with the need to bolster safety,” said TD Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr, in a note on Monday. Analysts said other board changes are possible, too, and Von Rumohr said the board could consider bringing Boeing’s headquarters back to Seattle, where most of its commercial aircraft production is.
While Boeing didn’t comment on its top candidates, here’s who some aviation experts say could potentially lead Boeing:

Larry Culp

Larry Culp, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric Co., speaks during the Semafor World Economy Summit in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

General Electric CEO Larry Culp is “probably at the top of the list for a Boeing CEO,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at Aerodynamic Advisory, an aviation consulting firm.
Culp is set to head the aviation unit of GE that is about to spin off, a company that makes and overhauls engines that power both Boeing and rival Airbus planes. Culp has lead a turnaround for the conglomerate and oversaw the split of the company.
“The relationship with Boeing has never been stronger,” Culp told reporters earlier this month at an investor event. “Clearly, 2024 hasn’t played out the way they would have liked let alone the way we would have liked. We’re trying to support them in every possible way.”
But Culp is focusing on GE’s aerospace unit as a standalone company, a GE spokesperson said in response to questions about a potential future for him at Boeing.

Pat Shanahan

Pat Shanahan, then-senior vice president of Airplane Programs for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, speaks during the grand opening of the new Boeing 737 Delivery Center on October 19, 2015 in Seattle, Washington.
Stephen Brashear | Getty Images

Pat Shanahan, the interim CEO of Spirit AeroSystems, is another possibility, Aboulafia said.
A three-decade Boeing veteran, Shanahan was appointed last October to head the Boeing supplier, which makes fuselages for the company’s 737 Max and other parts, as Spirit dealt with its own quality problems that have spilled over to Boeing.
Boeing is in talks to buy Spirit, bringing the fuselage manufacturer back in house after spinning it off almost two decades ago. A reunion could naturally slot Shanahan in as chief executive of the merged company.
“Mr. Shanahan remains solely focused on driving a zero-defects culture across all aspects of Spirit AeroSystems,” Spirit spokesman Joe Buccino told CNBC Monday.

David Gitlin

David Gitlin, chief executive officer of Carrier Global Corp., during a Bloomberg Television interview on day three of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. 
Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Aboulafia also mentioned Carrier CEO and chairman David Gitlin, who serves on Boeing’s board.
Gitlin has experience in aviation, previously working as president and chief operating officer at Collins Aerospace. Aviation experts have said said someone with a strong background in manufacturing and operations would be needed.

Stephanie Pope

Boeing’s Stephanie Pope gives a press conference at the Paris Le Bourget Airport, on June 20, 2023.
Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt | AFP | Getty Images

Stephanie Pope, who was recently promoted to chief operating officer after serving as head of Boeing’s Global Services unit, is the most obvious internal option to succeed Calhoun. (Former Boeing CFO Greg Smith retired from the company in 2021. He was also seen as a possible successor.)
But Pope will take over from Stan Deal, who is retiring from his post as head of Boeing’s commercial airplane division, the company said Monday. And one aviation executive questioned why Boeing wouldn’t have announced her appointment on Monday if she were the choice.
The “management changes are geared to institutionalize a priority on safety throughout the company by bringing in new blood,” TD Cowen’s von Rumohr wrote.
— CNBC’s Phil LeBeau contributed to this report. More

Viking Therapeutics shares jumped after the company said its experimental weight loss pill showed positive results in a small study and will enter the next stage of development later this year.
The study results add to the excitement around the drugmaker’s prospects in the budding weight loss drug market.
The once-a-day tablet is an oral version of its experimental weight loss injection, which showed encouraging results in a mid-stage trial last month. 

Alexey Krukovsky | Istock | Getty Images

Viking Therapeutics shares jumped more than 10% in premarket trading Tuesday after the company said its experimental weight loss pill showed positive results in a small study and will enter the next stage of development later this year.
The study results add to the excitement around the drugmaker’s prospects in the budding weight loss drug market.

Viking is one of several small biotech companies hoping to compete with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly in the space, which analysts say could grow into a $100 billion market by the end of the decade. Some analysts view Viking as a particularly strong potential player, or takeover target for a larger company. 
Based on Tuesday’s results, Viking plans to start a phase two trial on its weight loss pill later this year. The once-a-day tablet is an oral version of the company’s experimental weight loss injection, which showed encouraging results in a mid-stage trial last month. 
The phase one trial for the pill followed more than 40 patients with obesity for around a month. Those people took different dose sizes of the drug or received a placebo.
Viking said patients who received the pill once a day lost up to 5.3% of their weight on average, or up to 3.3% more than those who took a placebo, at 28 days. 
Up to 57% of patients who received Viking’s pill lost at least 5% of their body weight. Meanwhile, no people who took the placebo shed that much weight, the company said. 

Notably, those who received higher doses of the experimental pill appeared to maintain or add to their weight loss at 34 days in the study, six days after their last dose of the drug. Weight loss for those patients ranged up to 3.6% higher than those who received a placebo. 
Viking CEO Brian Lian said during a conference call on Tuesday that it’s unclear “how durable” the weight loss is. Still, he noted that the sustained weight loss seen in the trial may be encouraging to patients who might miss a dose because they are traveling or don’t have access to their medication. 
“I think that’s an encouraging sign that you don’t necessarily have to take it every day,” he said.
In a release, Viking said it believes that treating patients beyond 28 days may provide “further reductions in body weight.” 
The company also said the trial suggested the pill is safe and tolerable to take. 
The majority of side effects that patients experienced after starting the oral drug were mild in severity. 
The majority of gastrointestinal events that patients experienced were mild. Gastrointestinal side effects, such as nausea and vomiting, are commonly seen across all weight loss and diabetes treatments.
But people who received Viking’s pill did not report vomiting. Patients who took the placebo also reported diarrhea more frequently than those treated with the oral drug, the company said.
Analysts have compared Viking’s weight loss injection to Eli Lilly’s injectable drug Zepbound because both drugs imitate two naturally produced gut hormones called GLP-1 and GIP.
GLP-1 helps reduce food intake and appetite. GIP, which also suppresses appetite, may also improve how the body breaks down sugar and fat.
Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk’s weight loss injection Wegovy only targets GLP-1. More