Ford will go through with its last leg of job cuts in the next couple of months. The automaker announced on Monday that it will slash around 7,000 jobs (~10% of its global workforce) by August.The move is part of a larger restructuring, intended to result in $600 million in annual cost savings for the company. Around 2,300 of the affected people are employed in the United States, according to Ford's spokesman (as reported by Reuters). According to Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett, the job cuts include elimination of close to 20% of upper-level managers - a decision which is apparently   aimed at mitigating bureaucracy and speed up decision making. Most of the workforce retrenchment is scheduled to be completed by  May 24 in North America, and by the end of August in regions including Europe, China and South America.

This followed Baidu’s less-than-expected first quarter earnings reported last week. Adjusted earnings for the quarter came in at 41 cents a share, below analysts’ estimates of 40 cents a share.The company – often touted as the Google of China –  had a 47% year-over-year spike in content costs that touched $917 million, as it bulked up investments in video streamer iQiyi, while its research and development expenses went up 26%.

Lumentum Holdings shares extended their decline Monday, on news of the telecom equipment maker lowering its outlook on current quarter revenue. The company announced that it halted shipments to telecom/electronics giant Huawei, and currently expects revenues for the three months ending in June to range between $375 million and $390 million – below its prior predicted range of $405 million and $425 million. Lumentum has also slashed its earnings per share guidance to a range of 65 cents to 77 cents a share, compared to the previous estimated range of 85 cents to $1.00. Indicating that it aims to comply with the U.S. export regulations vis-a-vis license requirements, the company said, "Lumentum has discontinued all shipments to Huawei effective as of the date the licensing requirements went into effect and cannot predict when it will be able to resume shipments".

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Sunday there was consensus among OPEC and allied oil producers to drive down crude inventories “gently” but his country would remain responsive to the needs of what he called a fragile market.

Alphabet Inc’s Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday, in a blow to the Chinese technology company that the U.S. government has sought to blacklist around the world.

Huawei has built its own operating system for smartphones and computers in case it is suddenly blocked from using U.S. software from Microsoft and Google, the Chinese company confirmed to CNBC on Friday.

Crude oil prices surged as high as 2% on Thursday as tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia continue to escalate over Saudi-led coalition’s launch of air strikes on Iran in retaliation of the latter’s attack on Saudi’s oil infrastructure. U.S West Texas Intermediate crude settled 85 cents higher at $62.87 per barrel, gaining 1.4% and closing at the highest level in two weeks.Likewise, Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, also surged 85 cents or 1.2%, to close at $72.62 touching its highest level in three weeks. The Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen were launched after the Iranian-aligned movement admitted their drone attacks on two Saudi oil pumping stations earlier in the week.

A settlement worth nearly $6.6 million has been proposed that will go towards restoring Charleston area salt marshes and building oyster reefs. The money will be split among several state and federal agencies and will be used to reimburse administrative expenses related to damage assessment and damage control into the Ashley and Beaufort Rivers and about 100 acres of salt marshes by the phosphate fertilizer industry since the 1800s. Experts admit that the negative impact of phosphate fertilizer industry, apparently the largest in South Carolina, were unknown.The toxic pollutants have caused range of negative responses in the marine and estuarine life including increased mortality, developmental problems, and reproductive issues. The settlement money borne by Exxon Mobil will also go towards restoring other damaged ecosystems and rebuilding marine life.

Currently, Kohl’s focus is mainly on women’s, men’s and children’s clothing with little presence in the home goods category that accounts for only a small part of its overall business. On the other hand, At Home has also been exploring a sale and is already in advanced negotiation stage with private equity firms like Hellman & Friedman.So, Kohl’s goal of acquiring At Home may not finally materialize and the latter may choose to sell to a buyout firm instead. Currently, At Home has a market capitalization of $1.3 billion.

Amazon.com Inc. taking a $575 million investment in Deliveroo, buying into the startup and pitting it directly against Uber Technologies Inc. the European food delivery industry. The London-based startup, which has raised $1.53 billion to date, will use the cash to expand its technology team and network and compete against Just Eat Plc and Uber. Amazon will be joined in the Series G funding round by existing backers T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Management and Research Co. and Greenoaks, Deliveroo said in an emailed statement. Deliveroo said the new funding will partly go towards new innovations in the food sector.

Oil climbed to $73 a barrel on Friday, mainly due to supply cuts and concern of further disruption to Middle East shipments as tensions rise. U.S.Meanwhile, rising tension in the Middle East this week has raised concern about additional supply disruption.  Brent crude was up 43 cents to $73.05 a barrel at 1101 GMT.

A senior official of China’s ruling Communist Party said the trade dispute with the U.S. could reduce China’s growth pace this year by as much as 1 percentage point, the South China Morning Post reported on Friday, citing an unnamed source.  

Sony Corporation SNE 0.04% and Microsoft Corp. MSFT 0.02% announced Thursday afternoon they will partner up on consumer entertainment platforms and artificial intelligence products.

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) is the world's biggest company by revenue and the largest private employer on the globe.When it talks, especially about the global economy, investors and other interested parties tend to take note of what's said. 

Amazon is leading a $575 million funding round for Deliveroo, taking the total the food delivery app has raised to date up to $1.53 billion.

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) +6.2% after Q1 beats with revenue down 31% Y/Y.In-line Q2 guidance has $2.5-2.6B in revenue (estimate: $2.53B) with 59.2-59.5% gross margin.

After initially withdrawing shares from the FAANG components - Facebook Inc (FB), Apple Inc (AAPL), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN), Netflix Inc (NFLX) and Alphabet Inc (GOOG, GOOGL) - it seems that some of the highest-profile U.S. hedge fund investors and money managers fell back in love with FAANGs again during the first quarter. According to regulatory filings released on Wednesday, prominent hedge fund managers including names like Tiger Global Management LLC have changed their minds on the FAANG stocks and are reinvesting. Tiger increased its Facebook stake by 64.5% to 8.8 million class A shares during the first quarter.It also boosted its stake in streaming company Netflix by 42.8% to 2.1 million shares.

The company may soon go public to strengthen long-term successes. However, preparations of floatation may take years before coming to fruition, so in the meantime the company must ensure that the UK chain receives adequate resources to realize its full potential. Meanwhile, the U.S retailer has instructed Asda to focus on improving its operations, including the implementation of £80 million of price cuts to take on rivals such as Aldi and Lidl.However, Asda itself is faced by greater challenges such as the threat of Amazon. Analysts believe that contemplations of IPO could mean that the U.S. retailer is struggling to find a plan B for its UK business, especially after its merger attempt with Sainsbury failed. But analysts also believe that these supermarkets need to sharpen their prices in the face of rapidly expanding low cost players like Aldi and Lidl.

Chinese tech giant Alibaba clocked an impressive fourth quarter, despite the ongoing US-Sino trade war, with revenue rising 51% to $13.9 billion beating estimate of $13.3 billion.The number of active customers reached 654 million, rising 18 million from the previous quarter and 102 million from the same period a year ago.  The main driver for this growth was e-commerce businesses made up of Taobao marketplace and Tmall.

Five U.S. states filed lawsuits accusing Purdue Pharma of illegally marketing and selling opioids, escalating the wave of litigation over a nationwide abuse epidemic. Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, West Virginia and Wisconsin joined 39 states to file lawsuits targeting Purdue Pharma and its leaders, including former president Richard Sackler and his family.  Officials accused Purdue Pharma of repeatedly making false and deceptive claims that opioids, including OxyContin, were safe for a wide range of patients seeking to reduce pain.  Purdue Pharma called the new lawsuits “misleading attacks.” “These complaints are part of a continuing effort to try these cases in the court of public opinion rather than the justice system,” the Stamford, Connecticut-based company said.