Centene said it offered buyouts to some employees on Monday, as the health insurer grapples with higher medical costs, funding cuts and membership declines.

“Centene is positioning the company to lead the future of healthcare — working to deliver a simpler and better experience for our members and partners while meeting the realities of today’s healthcare environment,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “Today we announced a Voluntary Separation Program to support employees who may be considering a transition.”

The company did not indicate how many employees were offered buyouts or how much it is aiming to reduce its workforce. Shares initially fell 4% after Bloomberg first reported the news on Monday.

Layoffs could follow if the company doesn’t meet the target for voluntary separations, Bloomberg reported.

Centene is the largest Medicaid provider and is focused on other federal health plans through Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. The buyouts come after the company reported a decline in membership in the first quarter, down 6% year over year to 26.3 million, according to a filing.

Centene’s ACA business lost about 2 million members in the first quarter compared with the end of 2025, primarily because Congress let enhanced federal subsidies in the program expire at the start of the year. The company in March also said it expects ACA membership to fall nearly 40% by the end of 2026, executives said in March at a Barclays conference.

Centene is bracing for the impact of more than $900 billion in cuts to Medicaid over a decade, and the broader insurance industry is still managing higher-than-expected medical costs in privately-run Medicare plans.

DETROIT – General Motors is laying off hundreds of salaried employees in its information technology operations as the automaker reevaluates its workforce needs and cuts costs, CNBC has learned.

The global reductions began Monday and will impact about 500 to 600 employees, largely in Austin, Texas, and Warren, Michigan, according to a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly about the layoffs.

GM confirmed the cuts, which were first reported by Bloomberg News, but declined to give specific details about the actions.

“GM is transforming its Information Technology organization to better position the company for the future. As part of that work, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate certain roles globally. We are grateful for the contributions of the employees affected and are committed to supporting them through this transition,” the automaker said in an emailed statement.  

GM reported employing about 68,000 salaried workers globally as of the end of last year, including 47,000 white-collar employees in the U.S.

Despite Monday’s cuts, GM is still hiring IT workers. The company has 82 open IT positions that include jobs working in artificial intelligence, motorsports and autonomous vehicles, according to the Detroit automaker’s careers website.

GM in recent years has routinely reevaluated its salaried workforce, based on expected needs and skill sets. In October, the company laid off more than 200 Computer-Aided Design, or CAD, engineers due to “business conditions.”

Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday reported a staggering net loss for the first quarter, but it has an explanation.

The company booked a net loss of $2.9 billion, far larger than the net loss of $453 million it reported in the year-earlier quarter.

The figure included $1.3 billion of “pre-tax acquisition-related amortization of intangibles, content fair value step-up and restructuring expenses” as well as the $2.8 billion termination fee that Warner Bros. Discovery owed Netflix after their pending transaction fell through in February.

Netflix walked away from its proposed deal to buy WBD’s assets after Paramount Skydance came in with a higher offer. Paramount agreed to pay the termination fee as part of its agreement to buy the entirety of WBD, but the cost lives on WBD’s books until the close of that deal.

Since the amount is refundable to Paramount under certain circumstances, such as if it were to terminate the deal with Paramount for a higher offer, the obligation would be shifted to WBD.

Paramount’s proposed acquisition received approval from WBD shareholders in April and is currently in the midst of a regulatory review process. On Monday, Paramount said in its earnings release that it has “made significant progress” toward closing the deal, which it expects to be completed in the third quarter.

WBD on Wednesday also reported first-quarter revenue that was down 1% year over year to $8.89 billion. The company’s adjusted earnings before interest taxes, depreciation and amortization was up 5% to $2.2 billion. WBD had $33.4 billion in gross debt at the end of the quarter.

Streaming continued to be a highlight for the company.

Total streaming revenue was up 9% to about $2.89 billion as subscriber revenue increased due to the expansion of HBO Max — WBD’s flagship streaming platform — in international markets. Advertising revenue for the unit was up 20% due to an increase in customers subscribing to the ad-supported tier.

The company said in a shareholder letter it exceeded its guidance of more than 140 million global streaming customers at the end of the first quarter, and it remains on track to surpass 150 million global subscribers by the end of the year.

WBD’s portfolio of pay TV networks, which includes CNN, TBS and the Discovery Channel, continued to weigh on the company. The linear TV networks reported $4.38 billion in revenue, down 8% from the prior year. The company said linear advertising revenue was down 11%, which was primarily driven by the absence of NBA media rights from its portfolio.

Revenue for the film studio division, meanwhile, increased 35% to $3.13 billion year over year.

DETROIT – Ford Motor raised its 2026 guidance on Wednesday after beating Wall Street’s first-quarter expectations and reporting a $1.3 billion tariff refund benefit after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that some of President Donald Trump’s tariffs were illegal.

Ford stock rose more than 6% in after-hours trading.

Here’s how the company performed in the first quarter compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: 66 cents adjusted vs. 19 cents expected
• Automotive revenue: $39.82 billion vs. $38.82 billion expected

The first-quarter results significantly outperformed Ford’s performance from a year earlier, despite a 4% decline in wholesale units during the time period. Its overall revenue increased 6% to $43.3 billion and its adjusted earnings before interest and taxes more than tripled from $1 billion to $3.5 billion. Net income jumped to $2.5 billion, or 63 cents a share, up from $500 million, or 12 cents a share, a year earlier.

Automakers commonly exclude “special items” or one-time charges from their adjusted financial results to provide investors with a clearer picture of their core, ongoing business operations. Excluding special items but including the tariff reimbursement, Ford earned 66 cents a share.

The company’s updated full-year 2026 guidance includes adjusted EBIT of $8.5 billion to $10.5 billion, up from $8 billion to $10 billion. It maintained adjusted free cash flow of between $5 billion and $6 billion and capital expenditures of $9.5 billion to $10.5 billion.

Ford noted the guidance does not include potential impacts of a sustained conflict in the Middle East or a significant downturn in the U.S. economy. 

Ford CFO Sherry House said the earnings increase was not strictly because of the tariff reimbursement. The company has not received that refund yet but said it is helping to offset an expected $1 billion incremental increase in commodity costs, specifically aluminum, for the year.

“The rest of the beat came from strong product mix in net pricing and growth in software and physical services,” House said during a media call Wednesday.”Even with the one-time tier of benefit, the underlying business came in around $2.2 billion ahead of expectations.” 

Ford already expected an additional $1 billion in increased commodity costs amid higher prices and as it sources aluminum from different suppliers following fires that have affected production at a key Novelis aluminum plant last year in New York. The automaker has said the supplier isn’t expected to be operational again until between May and September.

House said the company decided to book the tariff refund during the first quarter because that’s when the Supreme Court’s decision was made. Trump last week told CNBC that he would gratefully “remember” U.S. companies that do not seek refunds for the tariffs.

House said the company did not raise its automotive free cash flow guidance along with the earnings outlook due to uncertainty about the tariff refund process and timing.

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariff benefit was largely expected by Wall Street analysts, but the exact amount Ford would receive was unknown. It is part of $160 billion in potential refunds expected to be returned to companies after the levies were ruled illegal in February by the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision. 

From a business unit basis, Ford’s traditional “Blue” operations led the way for the company with $1.9 billion in earnings during the quarter, followed by its “Pro” commercial business earnings at about $1.7 billion.

Ford’s “Model e” electric vehicle business narrowed its losses from $849 million a year ago to $777 million during the first quarter of this year. That smaller loss corresponded with a 70% decline in year-over-year EV sales for the first quarter.

Ford’s results come a day after crosstown rival General Motors raised its 2026 guidance and significantly beat Wall Street’s first-quarter earnings expectations. GM reported a roughly $500 million benefit from the U.S. Supreme Court IEEPA decision.

United Airlines slashed its 2026 earnings outlook Tuesday as it grapples with a surge in jet fuel prices due to the Iran war.

United said it could earn between $7 and $11 a share on an adjusted basis this year, down from its previous forecast of between $12 and $14 a share that it released in January, more than a month before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran.

The carrier, like others, is trimming some of its planned flying this year to reduce costs. Wall Street had already been adjusting its expectations for the year as a result. Analysts polled by LSEG had forecast that United’s adjusted, full-year earnings would be $9.58 a share.

For the second quarter, United forecast adjusted earnings of between $1 and $2 a share. Analysts had expected $2.08 a share for the quarter. United estimated its fuel price would average $4.30 a gallon in the second quarter.

The carrier said it expects its revenue to cover between 40% to 50% of the fuel price increase in the second quarter, as much as 80% in the third and between 85% and 100% by the end of the year.

United reiterated that it is tweaking its schedules to adjust to higher fuel, with capacity in the second half of the year expected to be flat to up about 2% on the year. It grew 3.4% in the first quarter.

Here is what United Airlines reported for the quarter that ended March 31 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on estimates compiled by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: $1.19 adjusted vs. $1.07 expected
• Revenue: $14.61 billion vs. $14.37 billion expected