After two consecutive good quarters, Exxon Mobil fell a little flat in its latest quarter, due to weak performance from its refining and chemical business. The two main reasons for such a flat performance, according to the company, were lower than expected margins from the company’s refining and chemical business and second, the substantial downtime for maintenance in both its upstream and downstream businesses.Margins from the refining and polyethylene business in this past quarter were some of the lowest the company has seen in almost a decade. A number of investors are of the opinion that this trend will continue over the next couple of years.

President Donald Trump dramatically increased pressure on China to reach a trade deal on Sunday, saying he would hike U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods this week and target hundreds of billions more soon. Read More...

The European Union will start a formal probe of Apple Inc. in the next few weeks following Spotify Technology SA’s antitrust complaint, the Financial Times reported. Read More...

Oil prices tumbled by more than 2 percent on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said he would sharply hike tariffs on Chinese goods this week, risking derailing months of trade talks between the world’s two biggest economies. Read More...

The earnings include about $15.5 billion in earnings on investments, $608 million on derivatives, and operating earnings of nearly $5.6 billion. In the year-ago quarter, the company incurred around $1.14 billion loss. For the first quarter, Berkshire reported net earnings of $13.209 per Class A share and $8.81 per Class B share.In the year-ago period, the company posted a -$692 loss per Class A share and -46-cent loss per Class B share.  The company had repurchased shares of Class A and B common stock for an aggregate amount of approximately $1.7 billion during the quarter.  

Shares of the online furniture retailer, Wayfair, fell as much as 12% on Thursday over high costs and widening losses, even though the company clocked double-digit growth in revenue for the first quarter of 2019. Revenue rose 39% to $1.94 billion in Q1 versus an estimated $1.92 billion.However, losses widened to $200.4 million, that is, $2.20 per share, from $107.8 million, or $1.22 a share, during the same period a year ago.

After the joining the IPO cohort this year, Beyond Meat so far had the strongest market debut with shares surging as high as 163%, giving the company a market valuation of $3.77 billion. The company’s trade started with $46, later soaring to 125% and then finally to 163% after a brief pause over volatility. The plant-based meat substitute manufacturer price its initial public offering at $25 implying a market value of $1.46 billion.Its IPO price is on the high end of its expected range of $23 and $25 per share. Proceeds from the IPO will go towards investment in manufacturing facilities, research and development, and sales and marketing. Beyond Meat has fast gained popularity as more Americans are embracing ‘flexitarian’ diet, cutting down their meat consumption over health and environmental issues, and opting for plant-based meat substitutes that closely mimic the taste and texture of actual meat, like fake ground beef and burger patties.

In a new offering, electric automaker Tesla plans to raise up to $2 billion, consisting of a mixed bag of convertible notes ($1.35 billion) and equity shares ($650 million) along with a big purchase from Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk. According to the filing, Musk intended to buy about $10 million shares of the company’s out of the new offerings – accounting for 41,896 shares out of a total equity offering for 2.7 million shares. The move came only a week after the company’s CEO Elon Musk was questioned by analysts about raising capital for Tesla following its loss of $2 billion in cash in the first quarter of 2019. Following this announcement, shares of Tesla which had fallen in premarket trading, bounced back when the company revealed the details of its offering about the combination of debt and equity securities.Shares closed trading up 4.3% at $244.10 a share. Analysts have rated buy for Tesla’s stock, especially when after the last five purchases by Musk, the shares were higher by an

Shake Shack beat expectations on sales growth and revenue for the first quarter, and raised its guidance for the remainder of the year.  The casual restaurant chain reported adjusted earnings of 13 cents a share, in line with analysts’ estimates.The company now expects full-year same-store sales growth of 1% to 2%, up from the previous projection of 0% to 1% growth. CEO Randy Garutti said that the company is expecting to open 36 to 40 new company-owned Shacks, alongwith 16 to 18 net new licensed Shacks for its international consumers particularly in Asia and its new markets of mainland China, Singapore, the Philippines and Mexico. 

Fast-growing companies sometimes discover that what they once thought was an ancillary part of their business suddenly has more potential than their primary focus area.With Latin American e-commerce provider MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI), the company's marketplace platform was initially the focal point for growth, but recently, its payment network has been the biggest driver of growth for the company -- paralleling the experience that one of its closest counterparts in the U.S. experienced with its own related payment service. Read More...

Quorum, developed by JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), will become the first distributed ledger platform available through Azure Blockchain Service, enabling JPMorgan and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) customers to build and scale blockchain networks in the cloud. Read More...

Iran’s oil minister is warning that OPEC is “likely to collapse” because some members of the 14-nation group are working against their fellow producers. Read More...

Analysts expected nonfarm payroll growth of 185,000 jobs, and the market didn’t disappoint.The national employment metric grew from 196,000 in March to 263,000 in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Read More...  

Adidas reported a 17% rise in first-quarter net profit on Friday, even as sales growth slowed as it suffered from supply chain issues in the North American market it had already flagged, as well as a decline in Europe. Read More...

GoDaddy Inc. reported first-quarter 2019 adjusted earnings of $0.70 per share, missing consensus estimates by $0.50. The company reported revenue of $710 million, increasing 2% sequentially and 12.1% year-over-year.  Revenue growth was driven by strong performance of its product segments.Moreover, growing subscription of GoDaddy’s mobile-optimized website builder, GoCentral, contributed well to top-line growth during the reported quarter. The company’s customer base reached 18.8 million at the end of the first quarter.

General Motors says it is considering a $1 billion investment at its Missouri assembly plant where it builds vans and trucks, state officials said on Thursday.  According to a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri Governor Mike Parson said GM had outlined a plan to invest in the plant and add jobs.  Parson told the newspaper that GM is seeking a package of state incentives that would need approval from the legislature before committing to the project to expand its Wentzville plant, which builds the midsize Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks, Chevrolet Express Cargo van and GMC Savana full-size van.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited reported first-quarter 2019 earnings of 60 cents per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 58 cents.Earnings per share declined 36% year over year due to lower sales and operating income. Read more...

Despite beating both earnings and revenue estimates for the first quarter, Activision Blizzard disappointed on its guidance for the full year 2019. The video game company’s earnings per share came in at 58 cents on a GAAP basis, racing ahead of Wall Street estimates of 44 cents. The earnings-per-share, however, was -10.7% lower from the year-ago quarter. Sales declined -7% year-over-year to $1.83 billion, but surpassed analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. Looking ahead, Activision forecasts full year 2019 GAAP earnings-per-share of $1.18 – which is lower compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.32.The company predicts that revenue would be $6.025 billion for 2019, below Wall Street forecasts of $6.43 billion.  The company's shares lost more than -4% during after-hours trading Thursday.

For the three months ending March, Qualcomm earnings surpassed analysts’ estimates.Apparently, softening smartphone demand from economic weakness in China has weighed on its revenue guidance. Qualcomm’s years-long patent dispute with Apple seemed to arrive at a resolution last month, leading the semiconductor company to expect a one-time benefit of $4.5 billion and $4.7 billion.

San Francisco-based wearable device maker Fitbit Inc. posted estimate-beating first quarter results, as well as reaffirming its full-year revenue forecast from $1.52 billion to $1.58 billion as its sales of smart watches and other wearable health tracking devices elevated shares by 1.5% to $5.45. As smartphone sales doubled in the quarter, analysts believe it is the newly launched Inspire Line that alone made up 67% of the revenue in the said quarter. The company sold 2.9 million devices in the first quarter, 36% higher than the sales in the same quarter a year ago.However, average selling prices declined by 19% to $91 per share as the company shifted focus to cheaper devices to compete tech giants like Apple and Samsung.