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[ad_1] A pharmacist displays boxes of Ozempic, a semaglutide injection drug used for treating type 2 diabetes made by Novo Nordisk, at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, U.S. March 29, 2023.  George Frey | Reuters Drugmakers aren't the only ones feeling the impact of the weight loss industry gold rush.  Retailers with pharmacy businesses, such as Walmart , Kroger and Rite Aid , said increased demand for prescription weight loss drugs helped boost sales for the second quarter.  But analysts note that those blockbuster treatments are minimally profitable for retail pharmacies – and may even come with margin headwinds. "More recently, you're starting to hear retailers talk about these drugs. But I wouldn't say they're necessarily beneficiaries of the increased popularity," Arun Sundaram, an analyst at CFRA Research, told CNBC. "They're really not making much of a profit on the drugs. So it's really just a traffic driver and not really a p

[ad_1] Limited Edition holiday breakfast cereal, Christmas Crunch in holiday shapes, Target store, Queens, New York. (Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Lindsey Nicholson | Getty Images Two big companies weighed in on persistent demand woes this week. General Mills , which reported earnings Wednesday morning, said tepid demand and pricing pressures are compounding problems for the Dunkaroos and Bisquick maker. That echoed what FedEx said in its report after the bell Tuesday. FedEx shares fell 12% on Wednesday, on pace for its worst day in 15 months, while General Mills' stock slipped more than 3%. And, just like FedEx, General Mills trimmed its full-year sales outlook. With two quarters remaining in the Cheerios producer's fiscal year, the company now sees revenue down 1% to flat, compared with previous guidance of a 3% to 4% increase. General Mills is also cutting the high end of its earnings guidance due to the lower demand foreca

[ad_1] Members of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild walk the picket line outside of Disney Studios in Burbank, California, on July 18, 2023.  Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty Images Disney posted mixed results for its fiscal third quarter despite ongoing streaming woes and massive restructuring costs resulting from pulling content from its platforms. Subscriber losses continued over the last three months, with the company reporting 146.1 million Disney+ subscribers during the most recent quarter, a 7.4% decline from the previous quarter and a larger loss than Wall Street expected. The majority of subscriber losses came from Disney+ Hotstar, where the company saw a 24% drop in users after it lost out on the rights to Indian Premier League cricket matches. Facing dwindling users and falling revenue in its media and entertainment distribution segment, Disney announced Wednesday it would raise the price on its ad-free streaming tier in October and that it would crack

[ad_1] Ford CEO Jim Farley announces at a press conference that Ford Motor Company will be partnering with the worlds largest battery company, a China-based company called Contemporary Amperex Technology, to create an electric-vehicle battery plant in Marshall, Michigan, on February 13, 2023 in Romulus, Michigan. Bill Pugliano | Getty Images News | Getty Images DETROIT – U.S. lawmakers are seeking to review a licensing deal between Ford Motor and China-based CATL that would allow the automaker to produce battery cells developed by the global supplier at a planned $3.5 billion plant in Michigan. In a letter Thursday addressed to Ford CEO Jim Farley, chairs of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the House Ways and Means Committee demanded the automaker provide a copy of the licensing agreement and any communication about the deal between the two companies as well as between Ford and the Biden administration regarding any potential tax credits. The

[ad_1] U.S. President Joe Biden puts on a t-shirt of the UAW Local 1268 during a United Auto Workers (UAW) union members meeting, in Belvidere, Illinois, U.S., November 9, 2023.  Leah Millis | Reuters DETROIT – President Joe Biden said Thursday that all autoworkers deserve contracts like the ones recently won by the United Auto Workers from General Motors , Ford Motor and Chrysler-parent Stellantis . Biden, wearing a red UAW T-shirt given to him by a local union leader, said the deals won by UAW negotiators are "game changers" that set a "new standard" for blue-collar workers. The deals include 25% wage increases, including 11% upon ratification; reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments; additional contributions for retirees; billions in new investments; and other benefits. The tentative deals must still be ratified by union members; voting is ongoing. "I'm a little selfish, I want this type of contract for all autoworkers," Biden said during

[ad_1] GameStop on Tuesday posted a quarterly profit for the first time in two years, finishing out its fiscal year on a high note in the holiday quarter after grappling with sales declines, inventory woes and cash flow pressure. Shares of the company soared more than 45% during after-hours trading. For the quarter ended Jan. 28 , net sales dropped slightly to $2.23 billion from $2.25 billion in last year's fourth quarter. The video game retailer also posted a profit of $48.2 million, or 16 cents a share, compared to a loss of $147.5 million, or 49 cents, a year ago. GameStop did not provide financial guidance and has not done so since the early days of the pandemic. Its results can't be compared with Wall Street estimates because too few analysts cover the company. The retailer had been working to steer itself back to profitability, and got there in part by cutting costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses came in at $453.4 million for the quarter, or 20.4% o

[ad_1] Kevin Mazur | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images Warner Bros. Discovery reported second-quarter results Thursday that fell below Wall Street expectations across the board and revealed subscriber totals that were down from the previous quarter. Global direct-to-consumer streaming subscribers at the end of the period were 95.8 million, below the 96.7 million subscribers analysts were expecting according to StreetAccount, and a decrease of nearly 2 million from the end of the first quarter. related investing news The company launched its combined Max streaming service during the second quarter, merging HBO content with unscripted hits from the Discovery networks into one platform. Customers dropping their Discovery+ subscriptions for Max were likely to blame for the decline in subscribers. Data provider Antenna estimated that Discovery+ cancellations were up about 68% compared with June 2022 due to the switchover to Max. Still, the company said it had repaid $1.6 bil

[ad_1] People hold placards, as a coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions representing 75,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente start a three day strike across the United States over a new contract, in San Diego, California, U.S. October 4, 2023.  Mike Blake | Reuters More than 75,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente — the nation's largest health-care nonprofit organization — went on strike Wednesday at hospitals and medical offices in five states after the company and labor negotiators failed to resolve a dispute over staffing levels. The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions says the work stoppage is the largest strike of health-care workers in U.S. history. The strike targets Kaiser hospitals and medical offices in California, Colorado, Oregon, Virginia, the District of Columbia and Washington. Kaiser Permanente serves nearly 13 million patients and operates 39 hospitals and more than 600 medical offices across eight states and the District of Columbia. The striking wo

[ad_1] Carl Icahn Adam Jeffery | CNBC Biotech company Illumina pushed back Monday against Carl Icahn's proxy fight over the company's acquisition of cancer test developer Grail, saying the activist investor's board nominees "do not add value."  The San Diego-based DNA sequencing company released its latest response to Icahn's sharp criticism of the $7.1 billion deal it completed in 2021, saying it's committed to maximizing shareholder value as it works with antitrust regulators to "define GRAIL's path forward as expeditiously as possible." Icahn, who owns a 1.4% stake in Illumina, sent an open letter to the company's shareholders last week saying the DNA sequencing company paid too much for Grail and completed the "reckless" deal without getting European antitrust regulatory approval. He claimed those actions have wiped out $50 billion in Illumina's market value and "clearly shows that shareholders have lost fai

[ad_1] James Trusty, attorney for Donald Trump, appears on "Meet the Press" in Washington, D.C., April 9, 2023. NBCUniversal | Getty Images An attorney who quit the team defending Donald Trump in the criminal classified documents case said Friday he would no longer represent the former president in a separate defamation lawsuit against CNN. The lawyer, Jim Trusty, said in a court filing that his request to withdraw from the $475 million civil suit "is based upon irreconcilable differences" with Trump. "Counsel can no longer effectively and properly represent Plaintiff," Trusty wrote in the filing in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Neither Trusty nor lawyers for CNN immediately responded to requests for comment on Trusty's move to withdraw as Trump's counsel. Lindsey Halligan, Trump's remaining attorney in the defamation case, referred CNBC to the former president's spokesman Steven Cheung, who said the defamation su

[ad_1] People walk by the News Corporation headquarters, home to Fox News, on April 18, 2023 in New York City. Spencer Platt | Getty Images Fox Corp. Chief Legal and Policy Officer Viet Dinh will step down from his post, months after the company agreed to pay a $787.5 million settlement to Dominion Voting Systems. The departure comes after Dinh advised the company through the lawsuit with the voting machines company, which was halted just short of a trial with the April settlement. The company has continued to feel the fallout since. Dominion hit Fox with a defamation lawsuit arguing its networks "intentionally and falsely" blamed the company for the 2020 election loss of former President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden by airing unsubstantiated claims that Dominion's machines rigged the election. While Fox agreed to the settlement, its hosts weren't required to talk about the lawsuit or make any public apology for on-air statements. Days after the settlem

[ad_1] Rupert Murdoch arrives at the Sun Valley Resort of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 10, 2018. Drew Angerer | Getty Images Rupert Murdoch is being deposed Tuesday as part of the $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed against Fox Corp. by the voting technology company Smartmatic , a source familiar with the matter told CNBC. Murdoch is expected to sit for questioning in Los Angeles on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the source. It is the second time this year that Murdoch, 92, has been deposed in a high-stakes defamation lawsuit accusing Fox News of airing damaging lies about the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Under questioning in January as part of a similar defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, Murdoch admitted that some Fox News hosts and personalities "endorsed" the false narrative that the election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump . Fox paid $787.5 million to settle Dominion&#

[ad_1] Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) arrives to the U.S. Capitol Building on June 01, 2023 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday called on the U.S. Health and Human Services Department to take action to ensure seniors can actually afford the expensive Alzheimer's treatment Leqembi . Sanders, who chairs the Senate Health Committee, in a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra called the $26,500 annual price tag for Leqembi set by drugmakers Eisai and Biogen "unconscionable." The Vermont independent said the drug's current cost would put a substantial financial burden on Medicare and increase premiums for seniors. Medicare is the federal program that provides health coverage to primarily older Americans. Sanders said the "outrageously high price" of Leqembi "will prevent seniors who need this drug from receiving treatment." The lawmaker wrote that HHS should use its authority to break Leqembi's pa

[ad_1] A container holding boxes of Mifepristone, the first medication in a medical abortion, are prepared for patients at Alamo Women's Clinic in Carbondale, Illinois, April 20, 2023. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters A federal appeals court on Wednesday imposed restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone, though the ruling will not have an immediate impact. The order by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is almost certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court. Justice Samuel Alito in April preemptively paused any ruling from the appeals court pending a petition for the high court to take the case. If the Supreme Court does not take the case, the restrictions will go into effect. Should the restrictions go in to effect, women would no longer be able to obtain the abortion by mail. Patients would have to receive a prescription from a doctor and have follow-up appointments in person. The restrictions would also shorten the time period when women can take the pill to 49 days into t