Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay about $1 billion to resolve many lawsuits claiming the company sold defective metal-on-metal hip implants that ultimately had to be removed, according to a report in Bloomberg. The agreement resolves over 95% of the 6,000 cases in which surgeons extracted the company’s Pinnacle implants because they left patients unable to walk and in pain, according to the report. The $1 billion total includes an earlier settlement for more than $400 million and there are still about 4,500 pending suits by patients with artificial hips that were not made totally of metal or haven’t been surgically removed, Bloomberg added.

U.S.job openings rebounded sharply in March, while the pace of hiring was little changed, pointing to a growing worker shortage that could slow employment growth this year. Read more...

Semiconductor company Marvell Technology Group has confirmed on Monday its acquisition of Aquantica Corp, a leader in Multi-Gig Ethernet connectivity, for $13.25 per share. According to the company’s press briefing, this acquisition is expected to help Marvell in further diversifying its portfolio of copper and optical physical layer product offerings along with further extending its position in the Multi-Gig 2.5G/5G/10G Ethernet segments,.It is expected that a combination of Marvell’s gigabit PHY along with Aquantia's innovative Multi-gig automotive PHYs will create broadest and most advanced range of high-speed in-car networking solutions in the world. The acquisition is timely and important as ethernet in-vehicle networks for mainstream adoption is expected to grow at a 62 % annualized growth rate from 53 million in 2018 to 367 million by 2022.

This announcement sent Beyond Meat’s stock down 6% at the market opening, before rebounding as high as 7% against steeper losses in the broader market. Even though Beyond’s IPO debut remains that strongest this year, Tyson’s market value at $22.66 billion surpasses Beyond by almost $19 billion. Yet, Beyond and other such plant-based meat substitute manufacturers like Impossible Foods continue to threaten Tyson, which is struggling to capture the market through its products that more closely mimic the taste and texture of actual meat. Although the number of vegan and vegetarian customers has remained stable over the past decade, there is a rise of ‘flexitarian’ diets, where consumers are embracing plant-based substitutes in their diet.The U.S. meat substitute market is currently valued at about $1.44 billion but is expected to grow 74% to $2.5 billion by 2023. However, this market is not easy to grasp, especially for upstarts and even Beyond and Impossible Foods conti

Starbucks’ Chinese rival, Luckin Coffee, is all set to take its rivalry with Starbucks to the next level as it filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange on Monday. The company expects to raise $586.5 million in its initial public offering which implies an estimated offer of 34.5 million American depository shares (ADS) priced between $15 and $17 per ADS with each ADS representing eight Class A shares. The coffee maker has been expanding rapidly with currently 2,370 stores in 28 Chinese cities and a plan to open another 2,500 stores by the end of this year in an ambition to replace Starbucks as the go-to coffee shop. Coffee consumption in China has doubled to 8.7 billion cups last year from 4.4 billion in 2013 and is anticipated to rise to 15.5 billion cups by 2023.The Chinese coffee maker is rooting on this increase in consumption. Further, Luckin’s app also has the option of ordering food and beverages outside coffee.

TD’s latest offering spans 21 providers/fund managers covering around 90 Morningstar categories. An ETF (or exchange-traded fund) is an investment fund (a basket of securities) that tracks a particular index.ETFs are often regarded as relatively passive and lower-cost compared to several funds that involve picking individual securities. The move, according to TD, gives more than 7,000 registered investment advisors (RIAs) and TD Ameritrade’s 11 million individual investor client accounts access to “one of the largest and most diverse selections of non-proprietary, commission-free ETFs in the industry.” Last year, Vanguard Group announced commission-free online trading in almost 1,800 of its competitors' ETFs in addition to 77 of its own

SolarEdge Technologies’ earnings edged past analysts’ expectations for the first quarter. The solar energy technology company reported adjusted earnings of 64 cents per share, which exceeded analysts' estimates of 62 cents.Revenue of $271.9 million also beat analysts’ expectations of $265.4 million. Guy Sella, founder, chairman and CEO of SolarEdge, mentioned Europe as a strong contributor to the first quarter growth.

Mylan’s first-quarter revenue fell short of analysts' expectations.  The pharmaceutical company reported revenue of $2.5 billion, falling behind analysts’ expectations of  $2.69 billion.Revenue from its U.S. business declined -6%. However, the pharmaceutical company’s adjusted earnings came in at 82 cents per share, beating analysts’ estimates of 79 cents per share. For the full year, the company projects earnings to range between $3.80 and $4.80 per share, while predicting a revenue range of $11.5 billion to $12.5 billion.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ first-quarter earnings came in lower  than what analysts expected. Regeneron raked in adjusted earnings of $4.45 per share, missing Wall Street's expectation of $5.52.Revenue of $1.71 billion also was lower than analysts' $1.76 billion expectations.  CEO Leonard Schleifer emphasized that the company is optimistic about the potential of its  product Dupixent, which is now FDA-approved in atopic dermatitis and asthma in both adults and adolescents and is currently under Priority Review by the FDA for chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.

Chevron’s leaders insist the company’s fortunes don’t rely on dealmaking, but the oil major nevertheless has much to lose if it does not prevail in an ongoing battle with Occidental Petroleum to take control of Anadarko Petroleum.Read More...

Anadarko Petroleum’s board of directors said on Monday that Occidental Petroleum’s buyout offer is superior to its agreement to sell its business to Chevron, putting the deal with the oil giant in jeopardy.Read More...

Kraft Heinz said in a filing Monday it will restate its financial statements for 2016 and 2017 by $181 million, after a review into its procurement and accounting procedures discovered employee misconduct.Read More...

Industrial companies and metals producers reliant on Chinese demand bounce off opening losses but remain sharply lower following Pres.Trump's latest tariff threat. Read More...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer Inc’s oral drug, tafamidis, to treat a rare and fatal heart disease called transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, the U.S drugmaker said. Pfizer, which has touted tafamidis as a potential blockbuster product, set a list price of $225,000 a year for the medicine, which would be sold under the brand name Vyndaqel.It is the first approved medicine for the disease in the United States. Analysts are forecasting annual sales to exceed $1 billion in 2024, according to Refinitiv data.

Goldman Sachs Group's co-head of global equities trades and execution services, Brian Levine, will retire this summer, according to a memo. The bank also said that Philip Berlinski and Jeff Nedelman were being named co-chief operating officers of global equities with Michael Daffey.The three will jointly lead global equities.  Berlinski had been Levine’s co-head overseeing global equities trades and execution services, and Nedelman had been the global head of prime services. Levine joined the bank’s shares trading desk 25 years ago.

China had backtracked on commitments in trade talks, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to threaten additional tariffs over the weekend, but Washington would be willing to keep talking if the Chinese changed position, top U.S. trade officials said on Monday. Read more...

The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (NYSE: XBI)fell just shy of 10% from April 5 through April 22 before it bounced a little.The S&P 500 was up 0.5% during that same time period, meaning healthcare and biotech stocks underperformed the overall market rather dramatically during that stretch. The XBI rallied for just over a week before dipping a second time and once again it moved down to the $82.50 area before bouncing back in the last few days.

Teladoc Health (NYSE: TDOC) is somewhat of a hybrid company, caught between technology and healthcare.Regardless of what the company does, the stock has been in a downward trend for the last seven months.  The decline started last October and it saw the stock drop from over $85 a share to $42.50 in December.

Since the global selloff ended in late December/early January, China’s market has moved sharply higher.The Deutsche X-Trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-shares ETF (Amex: ASHR) is up 33.3% from the close on January 2. At the post selloff high earlier in April, the ASHR was up over 40% from that January low.

General Motors, America’s largest automaker, is all set to join the cohort of producing electric cars just like Tesla (TSLA), Ford (F) and Rivian and plans to add an all-electric pickup to its portfolio. GM’s clientele has mostly been comprised of SUV buyers.Electric cars in general have been slow to catch up with American car buyers, even though electric hybrid models jumped from 195,226 in 2017 to 360,353 last year, but that is still less than 2% of the overall new vehicle market. One of the other dominating automakers, Ford, has been planning to launch its own electric cars for some time now and has invested $500 million in Rivian to ramp up its production.