Altria Group Inc plunged Tuesday after Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he's concerned about the slow pace of efforts to curb youth smoking.One market bull bought on the news. Read more...

European regulators on Wednesday ordered Google to pay 1.49 billion euros ($1.69 billion) for stifling competition in the online advertisement sector. According to the EU competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, Google's business strategy had prevented its rivals from being able to “compete and innovate fairly” in the online ad market.She further added that with Google reinforcing its dominance in the online search advertising segment, the company shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites – which is illegal under EU antitrust rules. This fine marks the third antitrust fine from Brussels to hit Google in recent times. Last July, EU regulators slapped Alphabet with a $5 billion fine for abusing the dominance of its Android mobile operating system, and did so again in 2017 ($2.7 billion) for favoring its shopping service over competitors. According to the European Commission, between

Ahead of its annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, Starbucks announced it would target two areas: food start-ups and improving its in-store experience to achieve future growth. The company announced that it plans to invest $100 million in a new venture fund with Valor Equity Partners, which has previously invested in Tesla and SpaceX. Over the last couple of years, investing in start-ups had become increasingly popular amongst the different food companies owing to the rapidly changing taste of customers. Faced by a similar issue, this investment provides Starbucks a window of opportunity to achieve future growth as it tries to address less customer footfall for its calorie-heavy Frappucinos.Adopting a similar strategy, struggling food giant Kraft Heinz launched its own fund in October, following the example of Big Food rivals Campbell Soup, Kellogg and General Mills. Further the Seattle-based coffee giant announced that starting this summer, the company would focus on impr

American multi-national coffee giant, Starbucks, recently announced it is revamping its rewards program, a decision in-line with the company’s strategy to bring even more people into the program by offering more choice and by being more attractive. Starting April 16th, the coffee company's rewards members would start earning reward points sooner and would also have more options when redeeming points.It is also expected to help the company learn more about their customers. Currently, the rewards program gives its customers two points or stars for every dollar they spend.

With all eyes trained on Tesla last Thursday awaiting its highly anticipated unveil of its Model Y crossover, Ford quietly teased the prospect of an electric version of its iconic Mustang “Pony car.” READ MORE...

The Federal Reserve decided Wednesday to hold interest rates steady and indicated that no more hikes will be coming this year. In a unanimous move that coincides with market expectations and demands, the central bank’s policymaking Federal Open Market Committee took a sharp dovish turn from policy projections just three months earlier.READ MORE...

Monster Beverage   (MNST - Get Report)  shares were down Wednesday after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to neutral from buy and removed it from its Americas Conviction List.READ MORE...

General Mills scooped larger-than-expected earnings in the fiscal third quarter, and also raised its full-year guidance. For the three months ended February 24, the consumer foods company had adjusted earnings of 74 cents a share, beating analysts’ expectations of 69 cents a share (based on FactSet poll). Sales for the quarter rose +8% year-over-year to $4.2 billion. Organic sales grew by +1% during the quarter, beating Wall Street estimates of +0.6%. Despite headwinds in Europe and Australia markets, General Mills’ 2018 acquisition of pet-food maker Blue Buffalo, strong sales performance in Asia and Latin America boosted the company’s overall performance. Its cost-cutting plan which includes cutting 625 jobs by this spring, also lifted profits, according to the company. General Mills raised its fiscal 2019 outlook on earnings growth to a range of flat to up +1%, compared to its previous forecast of flat to down -3%.Analysts were expecting earning

Earnings were also lower from the year-ago quarter’s $3.72 per share.Furthermore, the company slashed its full-year 2019 earnings guidance to a range of $15.10 and $15.90 per share, compared with analysts’ forecast of $15.97 (based on Refinitiv data). According to Graf , FedEx has embarked upon a voluntary employee buyout program to tackle the pressure from slowing international business.

Alphabet Inc. announced that Advanced Micro Devices’s (AMD) Radeon GPUs and developer tools would be used in Google’s new video game streaming platform Stadia.AMD shares extended gains in pre-market trading Wednesday on the news. That GPU growth is one of AMD’s key areas of focus for growth was apparent in CEO Lisa Su’s statement to investors in January.

If you want to retire by age 65, you should be setting aside 10-17 percent of your income.And that’s if you start saving as early as age 25. If you wait until 35 to start, you have to save 15 to 20 percent of your income to retire by 65. Keep in mind that this amount does not include your short-term savings, so it would be on top of any money you’re putting in an emergency fund, for example.

Goldman Sachs says the Federal Reserve is likely to let inflation run higher than its 2 percent target. The central bank has begun a monthslong review of its policy framework to consider alternative approaches to targeting inflation.Goldman believes the Fed will decide to allow overshoots of its inflation goal next year, which would take rate hike off the table.

The Indian rupee, one of Asia's worst performing currencies last year, has surged more than 3 percent since February on the back of election hopes.READ MORE...

European countries are expecting a letter from Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday, requesting a delay to the country's departure from the bloc. "The letter to President (Donald) Tusk will be sent ahead of the European Council," a U.K. official based in Brussels told CNBC Tuesday.READ MORE...

An economic slowdown and extremely tight credit conditions pushed corporate debt to a record high in China last year, according to experts. Defaults for Chinese corporate bonds — issued in both U.S. dollars and the Chinese yuan — soared last year, according to numbers from two banks.READ MORE...

Under Armour Inc UAA 0.89% announced Monday that it hired Kasey Jarvis as its new chief design officer, replacing longtime designer Dave Dombrow, who focused on mainly footwear development. Read More...

New orders for U.S.-made goods rose less than expected in January and shipments fell for a fourth straight month, pointing to a slowdown in manufacturing activity. Factory goods orders edged up 0.1%, the Commerce Department said.The drop comes as orders for computers and electronic products fell. There were also declines in demand for primary metals and fabricated metal products. Shipments of factory goods fell 0.4% after dropping 0.2% in December.

Allergan plc says the FDA has approved a label expansion of its anti-infective drug, Avycaz, in pediatric patients.The drug is now approved as monotherapy for complicated urinary tract infections (cUTI), and in combination with metronidazole for complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAI). This is the first drug to receive approval for pediatric patients with cUTI or cIAI in more than a decade. The drug is already approved in adult patients with similar indications.So far this year, Allergan’s shares have outperformed the industry.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said on Tuesday it had fined Citigroup $25 million for violating the Fair Housing Act by denying some borrowers preferential rates on the basis of their race, color or other factors. Read more...

Blucora shares surged nearly +20% Tuesday, after the tech-enabled tax management & financial services company announced that it will spend $100 million on share buybacks, and that it plans to acquire tax-focused wealth management company 1st Global. Chief Financial Officer Davinder Athwal  said that Blucora is focused on debt reduction and investments towards achieving long-term organic growth.He indicated that the $100 million share repurchase program would be an additional tool to deliver value to shareholders, and is a part of the company’s cash redeployment strategy.