Dutch Bros. CEO Christine Barone described the coffee chain’s cross-country expansion plans in a Friday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, saying it may be some time before the Oregon-based company opens stores in the Northeast region.

“We’re really growing in a contiguous way, so that we’re growing across states that are next to each other,” Barone said. “We just had the ability to enter Florida this year. So, we still have a lot of growth ahead of us. We will be there, but it’ll be a little while.”

Dutch Bros. operates in 18 states on the West Coast and in the South, including in California, Arizona and Texas. The company made its market debut in 2021, and the stock is currently up 48.97% year-to-date. It reported a solid quarter Wednesday night that sent shares surging more than 28% Thursday, and they continued to climb during Friday’s session, closing up more than 5%.

According to Barone, the company’s growth is “predicated on people” and added that the chain received 400,000 applications for 11,000 available positions this year. During Dutch Bros.’ recent earnings calls, Barone said management plans to open at least 160 new shops in 2025. She also discussed the company’s product strategy, saying Dutch Bros. puts an emphasis on iced beverages and personalized drinks.

“Personalization has been a big part of us since the very beginning,” she said. “So, I think we’ve really built our operations, and we’ve built our brand around the ability to personalize really well.”

U.S. stock futures hovered near the flatline Thursday night after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite hit records in a postelection rally and investors weighed the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate cut.

S&P 500 futures and futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average each added less than 0.1%. Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed.

During Thursday’s trading session, the broad market index gained 0.7% to close at a new record. The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.5% and ended the session above 19,000 for the first time. Meanwhile, the 30-stock Dow was marginally lower. The three major averages all hit intraday record highs during the session.

The moves higher continue the market rally from Wednesday in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, during which the Dow and S&P 500 rose to their best days since November 2022.

Meanwhile, the Fed lowered interest rates by a quarter point, in-line with the market’s expectations. Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted he is “feeling good” about the economy during a press conference.

However, “the path of Fed cuts is cloudier today than it was a week ago before the election,” said Scott Helfstein, head of investment strategy at Global X ETFs.

Investors generally view a Republican-controlled government as more favorable on expectations for deregulation, the potential for more mergers and acquisitions and proposed tax cuts. However, concerns over the large federal deficit and increased tariffs have also sparked concerns of an uptick in inflation.

“The market is signaling that a Trump administration would be good for growth and risk assets, but the combination of faster growth with new tariffs would be inflationary,” he added. “While the Fed feels the risks are balanced between stable prices and maximum employment, this could shift quickly increasing the risk to reaccelerating inflation.”

The postelection surge put all three of the major averages are on pace for strong weekly gains, with the S&P 500 up about 4.3% and the Dow higher by nearly 4%. Both indexes are on track for their best week since November 2023. The Nasdaq is the outperformer of the three, toting a 5.6% advance through Thursday’s close.

Novo Nordisk on Wednesday reported a third-quarter beat on sales of its blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy and narrowed its 2024 full-year growth guidance.

Company shares jumped early on Wednesday and were last up 7.7% at 9:02 a.m. London time.

The Danish pharmaceutical giant said that its net profit in the third quarter hit 27.3 billion Danish kroner ($3.92 billion), above an LSEG aggregate estimate of 26.95 billion Danish kroner.

Novo Nordisk added that sales of Wegovy were 79% higher year-on-year in the third quarter, coming in at 17.3 billion Danish kroner. This was above the 15.9 billion Danish kroner analyst had been expecting according to a company-compiled consensus, Reuters reported.

The company narrowed its sales growth outlook for the full year 2024 to 23% to 27% from 22% to 28% at constant exchange rates and tightened its operating profit growth guidance to come in at 21% to 27%, versus the previously expected 20% to 28%, both at constant exchange rates.

The guidance reflected the company’s expectations for sales growth in North America and internationally, which is largely driven by volume growth of treatments based on Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), Novo Nordisk said.

“Following higher-than-expected volume growth in recent years, including GLP-1-based products such as Ozempic and Wegovy, combined with the expectation of continued volume growth and capacity limitations at some manufacturing sites, the outlook also reflects expected continued periodic supply constraints and related drug shortage notifications across a number of products and geographies,” it added.

Novo Nordisk added that it was investing in capacity both internally and externally to increase supply in the short- and long-term.

Regionally, Novo Nordisk’s sales increased 22% in North America in the third quarter of 2024 compared to a year earlier. Sales to the key U.S. market were up 21% over the period, with GLP-1 volume growth up 15% in the region.

“Novo Nordisk is the market leader with 53.9% measured by total monthly prescriptions and 50.0% measured by new-to-brand prescriptions,” the company said.

The healthcare titan has weathered increasingly strong competition, but also received promising news in the weight-loss space in recent months.

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said all doses of Wegovy were now available in the U.S. after previously noting that the lowest dose of Wegovy was in short supply. The news was taken as a signal that Novo Nordisk’s efforts to ramp up supplies of Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic are paying off.

Also in October, a study showed that Ozempic could reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting its potential to delay or prevent the memory-robbing condition.

— CNBC’s Annika Kim Constantino contributed to this story

Boeing machinists approved a new labor deal Monday, ending a more than seven-week strike that halted most of the aircraft production at the company that was already struggling with mounting losses.

Machinists voted 59% in favor of the new contract, which includes 38% wage increases over four years and other improvements.

The approval is a relief for Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, who took the top job in August to steer the company through its safety and manufacturing crises. The company raised more than $20 billion in a share sale last week to weather its financial problems after warning it will likely burn cash through 2025.

Boeing will now be able to resume production, key to its recovery since the bulk of the aircraft price is paid when they are handed over to customers.

“While the past few months have been difficult for all of us, we are all part of the same team. We will only move forward by listening and working together,” Ortberg said after the contract passed. “There is much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company.”

President Joe Biden congratulated the union and the company — one of the country’s top exporters — on reaching the deal. Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su had gotten involved with the negotiations, meeting with both sides.

“This contract provides a 38% wage increase over four years, improves workers’ ability to retire with dignity, and supports fairness at the workplace,” Biden said in a statement. “This contract is also important for Boeing’s future as a critical part of America’s aerospace sector.”