Ozempic's next move, Southwest's seating change, and Big Tech's troubles: Business news roundup
Plus, Wegovy could soon treat millions of Medicare patients
It’s not only food CEOs who need to worry about their bottom lines thanks to in-demand weight loss drugs like Ozempic. Big Tobacco and Alcohol have reason to fret, too.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a Faraday curtain descended across European airspace from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south. Over 46,000 planes have reported GPS issues while flying over the Baltic since last August. While aviation officials don’t believe Russia is purposely targeting foreign civilian aircraft, the interference still poses a safety risk. It’s been a decade since Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by Russian separatists.
Southwest Airlines is considering changing its notorious seating policy, according to chief executive officer Bob Jordan. “We’re looking at new initiatives like the way we seat and the way we board our aircrafts,” Jordan told CNBC. Jordan said the company has been “studying” its seating and cabin arrangements but no changes have been finalized just yet.
Southwest primarily follows an open-seating style, meaning passengers don’t have assigned seats ahead of getting on their flights. Instead, customers are assigned boarding groups; once onboard, they pick any open seat.
UBS Global Research downgraded its rating of what it calls the “Big Six” tech stocks — Apple $AAPL, Amazon $AMZN, Google $GOOGL-parent Alphabet, Meta $META, Microsoft $MSFT and Nvidia $NVDA.
Millions of Americans could now be eligible for Medicare to cover their prescriptions of the popular weight loss drug Wegovy, according to a new analysis by KFF. The highly coveted medication belongs to the same class of drug as diabetes medication Ozempic, which is also known for its weight loss side effects.
UnitedHealth $UNH Group, the parent company of the largest health insurer in the U.S., confirmed this week that it paid a ransom in relation to a cyberattack on its subsidiary Change Healthcare earlier this year.
After successfully completing its “halving,” Bitcoin is sitting strongly at $66,000, and crypto stocks are in celebration mode. Now people are wondering what will happen to Bitcoin miners given that the reward has decreased from 6.25 Bitcoin to 3.125 Bitcoin.
Nike $NKE has spent a great deal of time looking to innovate, but now it wants to get back to the basics by focusing on its running shoe catalog. The company’s efforts to sharpen its running brand image are in part due to the subdued success of its limited-edition franchise sneaker releases.
Smucker’s Uncrustables is poised to become a $1 billion business, according to Sherwood. The frozen PB&J sandwich maker has steadily grown in sales since it was acquired in 1998 by J.M. Smucker Co. for roughly $1 million. Last year, according to the company’s earnings report, it made nearly $700 million in sales from the PB&J discs.