Category: Business & Economy

Chart Wars: What to Watch on Tesla, Twitter Stocks as Elon Musk Digs In

Tesla, Inc and Twitter, Inc stocks have responded wildly differently since April 4, when a SEC filing revealed Elon Musk had purchased a 9.1 percent stake in the social media company, which within just three weeks resulted in a pending acquisition. Since the news of Musk’s stake in Twitter hit, Tesla has plunged about 19 percent whereas…


Merck Raises 2022 Forecast as COVID Pill, Cancer Drug Fuels Profit Beat

Merck & Co. on Thursday reported quarterly profit and sales that beat estimates and raised its full-year forecasts on strong demand for top-selling cancer drug Keytruda, its Gardasil vaccine and COVID-19 antiviral pill molnupiravir. The U.S. drugmaker’s shares rose 1.8 percent to $85.90 before the opening bell as revenue rose 50 percent to $15.9 billion,…


Mastercard Profit Jumps as Pandemic-Weary Consumers Splurge on Travel

Mastercard Inc. on Thursday reported first-quarter profit above Wall Street expectations and said consumers were braving stubbornly high inflation and concerns around new coronavirus variants to spend on travel, sending its shares up 3 percent. Pent-up demand from Americans who stayed homebound for a prolonged period helped cross-border travel surpass 2019 levels in March for…


Meta Still Subject to Consumer Lawsuits for Breach of Data Protection Rules, EU Regulator Says

The European Union’s top court said Meta Platforms Inc. is still subject to consumer group lawsuits for possible violations of data protection rules, Bloomberg reports. In a dispute between the Federation of German Consumer Organizations and Meta’s Facebook, Germany’s top civil court sought the EU tribunal’s guidance on whether lawsuits to protect consumers from Big Tech were…


Netflix’s Crash Triggers Concerns for Spotify Too

Netflix, Inc’s share price crash has pulled down other media stocks emulating the streaming giant’s moves. Spotify Technology S.A. valuation is also losing its mojo even before Netflix’s crash, the Financial Times wrote. Spotify’s market capitalization is about twice its 2021 revenue, while Netflix’s market cap is about three times its 2021 revenue. Spotify and Netflix, pioneers of streaming in…


Southwest Airlines Faces Staffing Challenge as Travel Rebounds

Southwest Airlines Co on Thursday forecast a “solid” profit for the current quarter and full-year, but said staffing woes were making it harder to keep pace with booming travel demand. The company said a sharp recovery in travel bookings in March helped lift its monthly revenue above 2019 levels for the first time since the…


Sweden’s Central Bank Raises Interest Rate to Hit Inflation

STOCKHOLM—Sweden’s central bank on Thursday raised a key interest rate from zero to 0.25 percent, citing the highest inflation level since the 1990s. Riksbanken said there had been “unusually large fluctuations in inflation in Sweden” and the rise last year “was largely due to rapid increases in energy prices.” The Consumer Price Index for March…


Global Inflation to Stay Stubbornly High as Wrecked Supply Chains Persist: Reuters Poll

BENGALURU—The global streak of high inflation is far from over and aggressive monetary policy tightening will fall short in taming price pressures to mandated levels as broken supply chains are unlikely to mend anytime soon, Reuters polls showed. Inflation in most countries has soared to multi-year highs, driven by a rebound in economic activity and…


Gold Holds Near 10-week Low on Robust Dollar, US Rate Hike Bets

Gold prices hovered near their lowest level in two months on Thursday, as expectations of aggressive U.S. policy tightening boosted the dollar and added pressure on non-yielding bullion. Spot gold fell 0.1 percent to $1,885.06 per ounce by 1:04 p.m. GMT. It hit $1,871.81, its lowest since Feb. 17 earlier in the session. U.S. gold…


Unilever Warns of More Price Hikes as Cost Pressures Build

Unilever raised prices by over 8 percent in the first quarter and warned more hikes were on the way as the maker of Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream lifted its cost inflation forecast for the second half of the year due to the Ukraine conflict. The company said it now expected cost…