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Vince McMahon said he elected himself executive chairman of WWE in a bold return to the company after a sexual misconduct scandal.
“Mr. McMahon can effectively exercise control over our affairs,” the company said in a November regulatory filing.
WWE, which styles itself as a media company, has been mentioned as a potential acquisition target.

Vince McMahon attends a press conference to announce that WWE Wrestlemania 29 will be held at MetLife Stadium in 2013 at MetLife Stadium on February 16, 2012 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Michael N. Todaro | Getty Images

Vince McMahon is staging a comeback at World Wrestling Entertainment, months after he retired from the company over a sexual misconduct scandal.
Shares of the company jumped 10% after hours following McMahon’s Thursday announcement.

McMahon, the company’s controlling shareholder, said he had elected himself executive chairman of the company, and he brought on two former WWE co-presidents and board members, Michelle Wilson and George Barrios.
The board initially pushed back on McMahon’s attempted return, along with Wilson and Barrios, which would force three current board directors out of their positions, according to The Wall Street Journal.
McMahon said that his return is necessary as the company gears up for negotiations over media rights and strategic alternatives. WWE, which styles itself as a media company, has been mentioned as a potential acquisition target.
“The only way for WWE to fully capitalize on this opportunity is for me to return as Executive Chairman and support the management team in the negotiations for our media rights and to combine that with a review of strategic alternatives,” McMahon said in his announcement. “My return will allow WWE, as well as any transaction counterparties, to engage in these processes knowing they will have the support of the controlling shareholder.”
A WWE spokesman didn’t immediately comment on the matter to CNBC.

McMahon retired last year amid an investigation into payments the former CEO made regarding alleged instances of sexual misconduct. A special committee probe found that McMahon had paid nearly $15 million to four women over the course of 16 years in order to silence sexual misconduct allegations.
Yet, because McMahon is the company’s largest shareholder, he maintained a lot of power. His daughter, Stephanie McMahon, and former company president Nick Khan became co-CEOs after he retired. Vince McMahon had also turned over creative control to his son-in-law, Paul Levesque, a former wrestler who was known as Triple H.
“Mr. McMahon can effectively exercise control over our affairs,” the company said in a November regulatory filing.
–CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this report.

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Stitch Fix founder Katrina Lake announced the company will be cutting 20% of its salaried workforce.
Lake will also reassume her post as CEO. The brand’s current CEO, Elizabeth Spaulding, will be stepping down effective immediately.
Stitch Fix has seen waning sales and failed initiatives after a Covid pandemic boom.

Katrina Lake, CEO of Stitch Fix
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Stitch Fix founder Katrina Lake on Thursday told employees the company will be cutting 20% of its salaried workforce and she will reassume her post as CEO as the fledgling apparel company continues to grapple with low sales, a dwindling customer base and a reduced market cap.
The brand’s current CEO, Elizabeth Spaulding, who joined the company as president in 2020 and took over as CEO in August 2021, will be stepping down effective immediately, Lake said.

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“I will be stepping in as interim CEO and leading the search process for our next CEO,” Lake said Thursday. “Despite the challenging moment we are in right now, the board and I still deeply believe in the Stitch Fix business, mission and vision.”
Shares of the company surged roughly 9% Thursday after the announcements and its market cap hovered around $386 million. Shares closed more than 9% higher at $3.50.
Stitch Fix, which sells curated boxes of clothing on a subscription basis, won big during the Covid pandemic after stuck-at-home consumers, newly flush with cash, took advantage of the service to update their wardrobes. But as shoppers ventured back out into the world, sales dropped and new strategies led by Spaulding failed.
Shortly after taking over as CEO, Spaulding led the rollout of a direct-buy option, called Freestyle, that allowed customers to purchase items directly from the company with the hopes they’d be won over as regular subscribers. But the initiative stalled and in June, the company announced it’d be laying off about 15% of salaried workers, or about 330 people.
The cuts left Stitch Fix with about 1,700 salaried employees, as of June.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData and a retail analyst, said in a statement Thursday that the company looks to have “lost its way” and that the issues it’s facing are neither temporary nor immediately solvable.
“This is one of the reasons why the company has announced the termination of around 20% of its salaried positions – an action it hopes will help to stem losses and put the company on a better financial footing,” Saunders said.
Stitch Fix employees learned about the job cuts Thursday morning and were told the brand’s Salt Lake City distribution center, which has been open for just over a year, will also be shuttering. Approximately 150 employees at that center will also be laid off, according to an employee at the facility. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about internal matters.
Staff at the Utah distribution center, which opened three months after Freestyle was launched in December 2021, got the news during their all-hands monthly meeting on Thursday morning, the worker said. Staff were “caught off guard” and surprised to hear about the layoffs because the facility hadn’t been open that long, the employee said.
“They did good in my opinion. We had [an] all hands right before work and [they] gave us a packet with all the info we needed from final dates to severance. They even had a translator for our Spanish speakers,” the worker told CNBC, adding they felt “overwhelmed” by the news.
When Stitch Fix shut down another distribution center in the past, some workers were given the option to relocate to different facilities within the company. It wasn’t an option this time around for workers at the Salt Lake City center, the worker said.
Salaried employees affected by the cuts will receive at least 12 weeks of pay, which increases with tenure, and health care and mental wellness support will continue through April 2023, Lake said.
Lake told staffers she was “truly sorry” for the cuts and thanked them for their “hard work” and “dedication.”
As founder, Lake has a unique perspective on the company and its potential, but she will have to contend with a consumer environment that has significantly shifted over the last year and a looming recession that’ll see shoppers reduce their spending on discretionary items like new clothes.

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Constellation Brands stock is trading lower after the company reported inflationary struggles in its beer supply chain, despite strong performance of its core beer portfolio.
The company said it plans to continue price increases on its beer products to match higher operating costs plaguing its supply chain.
Constellation makes the Corona and Modelo beer brands, as well as Svedka vodka.

A worker stacks cases of Constellation Brands’ Corona beer for delivery at the Euclid Beverage LLC warehouse in Peru, Illinois.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares of Constellation Brands fell Thursday after the wine, beer and spirits company reported ongoing supply chain costs that offset sales growth in its beer category.
The stock closed down nearly 9% Thursday.

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The company, which makes Corona beer and Svedka vodka, also lowered its earnings out look for the fiscal year. Constellation said it now projects earnings of $11 to $11.20 per share for the year, down from its previous guidance of $11.20 to $11.60 per share. 
For the three months ended Nov. 30, Constellation’s beer segment posted year-over-year net sales growth of 8%, driven by continued growth of its Modelo Especial and Modelo Chelada brands.
However, the company cited higher costs from raw materials, packaging and logistics, brewery expansions and marketing, which offset beer sales growth.
In a conference call with analysts Tuesday morning, Chief Executive Officer Bill Newlands added that a “recent series of headwinds” hit the company’s beer business towards the end of its fiscal third quarter, including poor weather and economic conditions in California.
Its operating margin in the beer business decreased during the quarter to 37.5% from 41.3% a year earlier.

The company said it plans to continue price increases on its beer products to match higher operating costs plaguing its supply chain.
For its third quarter, Constellation’s over net income fell to $467.7 million, or $2.52 a share, from $470.8 million, or $2.48 a share, from a year ago.

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Roku is counting on its growing consumer base beyond 70 million customers as it launches its own line of televisions, CEO Anthony Wood told CNBC.
Wood said “the core of that business is the market share of our platform.”
Roku will sell 11 TV models ranging from 24 to 75 inches, which will be available for purchase in the spring. Prices will be between $119 to $999.

Roku is counting on its growing consumer base beyond 70 million customers as it launches its own line of televisions, CEO Anthony Wood told CNBC on Thursday.
The streaming company unveiled its new line of televisions, Roku Select and Roku Plus Series, Wednesday during the Consumer Electronics Show.

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Roku has sold hardware items in the past, like sound-amplifying devices and streaming players, though they have often been the money-losing parts of its business. Still, Wood is optimistic about selling the new TVs.
“We generate billions of dollars a year in revenue from advertising, from distributing streaming services and we have a great platform to do that, but the core of that business is the market share of our platform,” said Wood.
It will sell 11 TV models ranging from 24 to 75 inches, which will be available for purchase in the spring. Prices will be between $119 to $999.
Roku’s commitment to hardware comes after a tough year that saw its stock fall 80%, forcing the company to cut costs in areas like advertising and jobs.
The company tightened its fourth quarter guidance in November, projecting $800 million in revenue, a more than 7% decrease year over year. Weeks later, the company announced it was cutting around 200 jobs, or 5% of its workforce. It also reined in its advertising expenses in an attempt to slim margins.

“If you look at our overall ad business, obviously the industry is hurting right now,” said Wood, though he noted that advertising in streaming is growing faster than traditional television advertising.
But Wood is staying hopeful, banking on the momentum of the streaming industry at large.
“Roku streaming hours were 87 billion hours of streaming last year” said Wood. “That was up 19% year over year. The world is moving to streaming. All TV is going to be streamed, that means all TV advertising is going to be streamed.”
So far, Roku’s streaming technology has been usable through TVs made by manufacturers Hisense, TCL, Philips, JVC and others. By introducing its own television line, it will compete with those very partners.
Shares of Roku are up more than 4% in the early going of 2023, closing at $42.76 on Thursday.

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Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a “Morning Meeting” livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here’s a recap of Thursday’s key moments. Avoid expensive stocks Sticking by Danaher Still a buyer of Ford 1. Avoid expensive stocks Stocks continued their drop on Thursday after the December ADP private payrolls report indicated the labor market remains strong. This data suggests the Federal Reserve has more work to do to tamp down inflation. In other words, investors should continue sticking to reasonably priced stocks of companies that make things and do stuff for a profit and return capital to shareholders. It’s especially important not to buy any expensively valued stocks — ones with forward price-to-earnings ratios that are not close to the S & P 500 ‘s nearly 17x multiple. 2. Sticking by Danaher Credit Suisse on Thursday downgraded Danaher (DHR) to neutral from outperform, a hold from buy equivalent, and lowered the price target to $300 per share from $315. Analysts argued the life sciences and medical diagnostics company’s efforts to reduce inventory could continue through next year and hurt growth. The stock fell around 4% on Thursday, which was undeserved because Danaher’s underlying business remains strong. “This is one of the highest quality companies in America,” Jim Cramer said. 3. Still a buyer of Ford Ford Motor (F) said Thursday that it sold more than 75,000 F-series pickups in December, a 20% increase compared to last year. This is important because the F-series makes the automaker more money than older, less expensive models. Ford also said that it remains the second best-seller of electric vehicles in the U.S. We like these numbers as well as the stock’s generous dividend. “I remain a buyer of Ford after these levels,” Jim said. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long DHR, F. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. More

Georgia, Kentucky, and Michigan are going to dominate electric vehicle battery manufacturing in the United States by 2030.
Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee will also be key players.
This EV battery manufacturing capacity will support the manufacturing of between 10 and 13 million all-electric vehicles per year, putting the U.S. in position to be a global EV competitor.

Arrows pointing outwards

Planned electric vehicle battery plant capacity in North America by 2030. Data updated through November.
U.S. Department of Energy, Argonne National Lab

Georgia, Kentucky and Michigan are going to dominate electric vehicle battery manufacturing in the United States by 2030.
Each of those three states will be able to manufacture between 97 and 136 gigawatt hours’ worth of EV batteries per year by 2030, according to plans they have laid out.

Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee will also be key players, with planned capacity for between 46 and 97 gigawatt hours’ of EV battery production per year by 2030.
This planned manufacturing capacity was highlighted by the U.S. Department of Energy on Monday, based on a November 2022 report from the Argonne National Laboratory in November.
To keep up with increasing demand for EVs, the total build out of EV battery manufacturing capacity in North America will go from from 55 gigawatt-hours per year in 2021 to almost 1,000 gigawatt-hours per year by 2030. So far, the planned investment in these factories is more than $40 billion, according to an October report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

The Ford Motor Co. and SK Innovation Co. electric vehicle and battery manufacturing complex under construction near Stanton, Tennessee, on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022.
Houston Cofield | Bloomberg | Getty Images

By 2030, this EV battery manufacturing capacity will support the manufacturing of between 10 million and 13 million all-electric vehicles per year, putting the U.S. in position to be a global EV competitor.
“Growing battery manufacturing capacity by more than 15x by 2030 will put the U.S. in the leadership circle of the EV market,” Nick Nigro, founder of the public policy shop, Atlas Public Policy, told CNBC.

“This capacity will provide more than enough batteries for the U.S. to reach the Biden Administration’s goal of 50% EV sales by 2030,” Nigro told CNBC. The work Atlas does includes both transportation and climate policy.
The planned wave of EV battery manufacturing plants will be close to EV assembly facilities in North America, identified by red dots in the graphic.
“It really appears that they are trying to reduce their overall manufacturing costs here,” David Gohlke, one of the authors on the paper from Argonne, told CNBC. “They have these relatively heavy batteries that they need to ship from the assembled battery assembly location to their automotive assembly plant, and they need to make sure that they have the infrastructure around to do that.”
Virtually all of the planned plants in Argonne’s report will make lithium ion batteries and will be joint ventures between automakers and battery manufacturers like Panasonic, Samsung, LG Chem or SK Innovation, Gohlke told CNBC.
Going forward, it will also be important to train workers and ramp up the supply chains of necessary minerals, Nigro told CNBC.
“The big challenge for the industry will be establishing a reliable supply chain and building the human capacity to make these factories hum,” Nigro told CNBC.

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Ford narrowed its U.S. sales loss last year to 2.2%, as the automaker notably increased sales of its F-Series pickups to end 2022 with a slight increase in December.
Ford said it sold more than 75,000 F-Series pickups in December, a 20.1% increase compared with a year earlier and the best month of the year.
Ford’s 2022 sales outpaced the industry, which was estimated to be down by roughly 9%.

2023 Ford Super Duty F-350 Limited

DETROIT — Ford Motor narrowed its U.S. sales loss last year to 2.2%, as the automaker notably increased sales of its F-Series pickups to end 2022 with a slight increase in December.
The Detroit automaker on Thursday reported sales of more than 1.9 million vehicles in 2022, including an increase of 3.2% during the final month of the year. Ford’s sales were off 2.7% through November, before the December boost.

Ford said it sold more than 75,000 F-Series pickups in December, a 20.1% increase compared with a year earlier and the best month of the year as parts and supply chain problems disrupted production. Sales of the trucks still ended the year down 9.9% but better than the 13% they were down through November.
Andrew Frick, Ford vice president of sales, distribution & trucks, said the company is “well positioned heading into 2023.” However, the automaker did not release a sales forecast for the year.
Ford’s 2022 sales outpaced the industry, which was estimated to be down by roughly 9%. But they were not able to match crosstown rival General Motors, which managed to eke out a 2.5% gain in sales compared with 2021.
Ford said it was able to gain 0.7 percentage points of market share in 2022, but that wasn’t enough to offset its 1.3 percentage point loss from the prior year.
Regarding all-electric vehicles, Ford said it was able to maintain its status as the country’s second-best seller of EVs. Despite more than doubling its EV sales, Ford trails industry leader Tesla by a wide margin.
The Ford brand’s sales were down 2.1% last year, while the company’s luxury Lincoln brand was off by 4%.

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Walgreens and CVS both plan to get certified to dispense the abortion pill mifepristone to patients in states where abortion remains legal.
The FDA dropped long-standing restrictions this week that prevented retail pharmacies from offering mifepristone.
Mifepristone has become a central flashpoint in the political battle over abortion at the state level in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Mifepristone (Mifeprex), one of the two drugs used in a medication abortion, is displayed at the Women’s Reproductive Clinic, which provides legal medication abortion services, in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, on June 15, 2022.
Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty Images

Walgreens and CVS will sell the prescription abortion pill mifepristone after the Food and Drug Administration this week dropped a long-standing rule that prevented drug stores from doing so.
The decision by the two largest drug store chains in the U.S. will significantly expand access to mifepristone in states where abortion is legal. The companies cannot offer the pill in states that have completely banned abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

The FDA on Tuesday changed its regulations to allow retail drug stores to dispense mifepristone so long as they complete a certification process. The agency dropped a long-standing rule that required patients to obtain the abortion pill in-person at clinics, hospitals and other certified health-care providers.
Walgreens plans to get certified and is working through the registration and training of its pharmacists to dispense mifepristone consistent with federal and state law, spokesperson Fraser Engerman said. CVS also plans to get certified in states where it is legal to do so, spokesperson Amy Thibault said.
This means patients in many parts of the U.S. will effectively be able to obtain mifepristone like other prescription medications, either in-person at a retail pharmacy or through the mail. Patients will still need to obtain their prescription from a certified health-care provider.
Mifepristone has become a central flashpoint in the political battle over abortion at the state level in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Several conservative groups have asked a federal court in Texas to overturn the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.
Mifepristone is the most common way to terminate a pregnancy in the U.S. Some 51% of abortions were performed with mifepristone in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The FDA first approved mifepristone more than 20 years ago in 2000 as a method to terminate early pregnancies, but the pill long had strict regulations around how it could be dispensed to patients. Medical organizations such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists had long argued that those regulations lacked a scientific basis and were rooted in politics.
Mifepristone is approved to end a pregnancy through the 10th week. It is used in combination with another pill called misoprostol. Mifepristone stops the pregnancy from continuing and misoprostol induces contractions that empty the uterus.

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