Potential Federal Reserve nominee Judy Shelton thinks the central bank ought to pay more attention to financial markets when setting interest rates. Already an economic advisor to President Donald Trump, Shelton has been mentioned frequently as a possible candidate for a Fed governor position.

Over 170 shoe retailers including major ones like Nike (NKE), Under Armour (UAA), Adidas, Foot Locker (FL), Ugg, and Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse have sent a letter requesting President Donald Trump to consider removing the additional tariff on footwear imported from China. The request follows the release of a fresh list of about $300 billion in Chinese goods on which 25% tariff would be added if Trump decides to prolong the U.S.-China trade dispute.The list includes every aspect of footwear-from sneakers to sandals, golf shoes, rain boots, and ski shoes. The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA) has estimated a loss of more than $7 billion each year for the shoe industry if the tariffs are imposed and continued. According to FDRA, a popular type of canvas “skate” sneaker, currently retailing for $49.99, with a 25% tariff, could increase to $65.57.

Shares of Sprint plunged sharply on Monday and were even interrupted for a brief period following conflicting messages from regulators regarding the company’s projected merger with T-Mobile. Initially, the companies committed to helping the mobile broadband in rural America expand faster and hence the recommended approval came by the Federal Communications Commission of the $26.5 billion merger.Following the news, Sprint’s shares jumped about 27% and T-Mobile’s shares popped almost 7%. But soon after, the said companies received discouraging messages from the Department of Justice (DoJ) over antitrust issues that could potentially threaten the merger.

However, there are good reasons to hope that it may not be the case and the companies have managed to carve out a decent quarter in terms of sales. One of the primary reasons for the optimism about TJX and Ross’s quarterly results is their consistency.TJX too averaged 4% comp-sales growth over the period gaining 6% in 2018, 2% in 2017, and 5% in 2016. Another reason is that both the companies have a conservative approach towards forecasts and in most cases, they exceed those forecasts.

Merck & Co Inc says it is buying Peloton Therapeutics Inc for $1.05 billion in cash plus $1.15 billion in additional payments based on how the company's drugs fare once they are further developed.The purchase will give it access to the privately held company’s lead kidney cancer drug candidate.  Peloton had said earlier this month that it was planning to raise up to $159.4 million in an initial public offering.

home sales fell for a second straight month in April due to weak sales in the lower-priced segment of the market. Existing home sales fell 0.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.19 million units last month.Economists polled by Reuters had forecast existing home sales rising 2.7% to a rate of 5.35 million units in April. Existing home sales, which make up about 90% of U.S. home sales, dropped 4.4% from a year ago.  That was the 14th straight year-on-year decrease in home sales. 

Foreign investors remained enthusiastic about China, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that his tariffs are causing companies to move production away from the world’s second largest economy.

Apple Inc., Dell Technologies Inc. and two other U.S. technology companies are set to give up their preferred shares in Japanese chip maker Toshiba Memory Holdings Corp. for more than $4 billion under a refinancing plan, according to people familiar with the plan.

Major automakers have announced a slew of investments in the United States since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017 and exerted pressure on the industry to create more U.S. jobs.

Tesla’s stock and bonds tumbled on Monday as investors worried about the automaker’s cash burn and problems with an Autopilot system that CEO Elon Musk has held out as key to the electric car maker’s future.

Activision Blizzard (ATVI -5%) is lower today after a weekend article points to some disarray on the company's key Call of Duty franchise.

Pershing Square Holdings, the hedge fund led by the billionaire Bill Ackman, delivered a strong performance in the first quarter of 2019.Its digital sales doubled y-o-y to almost 16% of overall sales coupled by a strong delivery strategy that has further increased sales and improved margins. The hedge fund thinks that Chipotle is on a path to transformation that will expand its footprint and astounding growth in sales and profits in the future. Restaurant Brands was the second best performer of the fund whose unit count expanded by more than 5% and EBITDA grew by 6%. On the other hand, Starbucks grew 7% in Q1 opening another 30,000 stores globally.

One of the reasons is Amazon’s investment in the loss making London-based Deliveroo which operates in nearly 500 European and Asian cities. On Friday Deliveroo announced that it has raised $575 million from investors led by Amazon, which is being currently valued at $940 billion.In 2017, payment for cyclists and moped drivers accounted almost 4/5th of Deliveroo’s £277 million sales.

They are now being relocated to Dubai or to the main camp housing foreign oil company employees in Basra province. Officials at the embassy have, however, confirmed that there is no such imminent threat and the company has confirmed that its operations are normal and stable as before with the oilfield running at full capacity and producing 440,000 barrels per day. According to the company, the evacuation was a precautionary measure and hasn’t impacted production in any way as the foreign engineers were mainly stationed as advisors.Operations are primarily being overseen and managed by Iraqi engineers. Exxon’s staff were evacuated in several phases on late Friday and also on early Saturday, and they were stationed either straight to Dubai or to the main camp housing foreign oil company employees in Basra province. The said threat is perceived following rising tensions between Iran and Washington which anticipate a potential U.S-Iran conflict.

Global dividends reached a first-quarter record of $263.3 billion, rising 7.8% despite concerns about the world economy, according to new research Monday. The Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index said that U.S. dividends totaled a record $122.5 billion during the period, up 8.3%.

Shares of Deutsche Bank hit a record low Monday, down nearly 3%, after UBS downgraded the German lender’s stock to a “sell” rating from “neutral.” Pointing to tough external events and the low interest rate environment, UBS slashed its price target for Deutsche from 7.80 euros ($7.45) to 5.70 euros.

Trade tensions between the U.S. and China stalled a global recovery and are continuing to endanger investment and growth, the secretary general of the OECD warned Monday. “We were in the middle of a recovery when all these decisions about trade started and not only did it stifle the recovery, it basically has produced the slowdown and the potential for greater damage is still there,” Angel Gurria told CNBC.

Google has severed business ties with Huawei, in a stunning move that could threaten the smartphone maker’s global ambitions. The U.S. tech giant has decided to stop licensing its Android operating system to the Chinese telecommunications firm, in order to comply with a U.S. trade blacklist.

General Dynamics shares jumped +2% Monday, following an upgrade by Goldman Sachs analysts. Analysts at Goldman Sachs raised their rating on the aerospace & defense company's stock to buy from neutral.A decline in General Dynamics stock’s valuation relative to its peers, and strengthening margins on its Gulfstream private jet line were cited as factors behind the analysts’ optimism. The analysts reiterated their per-share price target of $204 – which represents a 23% upside from the stock's previous closing price of $166.37.   

Arconic added $500 million more to its share repurchase program. The metal engineering company’s board approved the $500 million share-buyback - which will be added to its existing program of $1 billion, out of of which $100 million remains available through next year. On May 2, Arconic began a $200 million accelerated share repurchase plan.  Analysts expect that Arconic’s full year earnings would come in at $1.74 per share, and  predict earnings per share in the range of $1.59 and $1.83, according to Zacks survey (as reported by Rockland Register).