Tilray Inc. experienced a loss for the fourth quarter, but had blockbuster growth in sales - thanks to a burgeoning medical marijuana market. The Canadian pharmaceutical and marijuana company incurred a net loss of -33 cents per share for the three months ending in December, compared to a 4 cents per share profit from the same period in 2017.According to Tilray, the number of kilograms of cannabis and derivative products increased nearly three-fold to 2,053, from 694 kilograms of the year-ago quarter. Sales for the full-year 2018 surged +110% to $43.1 million. Tilray felt a downward pressure on its fourth quarter gross margins, which at 20% were nearly a third the rate of the previous period.

IBM (IBM -0.1%) announces the official availability of its IBM Blockchain World Wide real-time payments network for regulated financial institutions in a growing number of markets. Read More...

OPEC and other major oil producers on Monday canceled a meeting planned for April, leaving the alliance’s price-boosting production cuts in place until at least June. Read More...

After years of failed turnaround attempts, the once dominant German financial institution Deutsche Bank is currently negotiating government-backed merger talks with Commerzbank AG. This move arose in the wake of massive job cuts, political turbulence, a weakening European economy, U.S. probes into its dealings with Donald Trump and a herculean integration – not to mention skeptical clients and investors. Further, the persistent struggle of both banks to restore revenue growth, along with an economic slowdown that has pushed back expectations for higher earnings, have added to the urgency of the merger. Problem is, this merger could risk as many as 30,000 jobs. Formal talks will only start after the government signals its non-interference in the way of necessary job and cost cuts.The merger of these two century-old entities, if successful, will have a combined market value of about 25 billion euros and would give birth to Europe’s fourth-largest lender with assets worth ~1

Amazon now allows customers who buy medicines from them to use their flexible savings account or health savings account, often referred to as HSA or FSA, to get discounts. These programs allow customers with health insurance to reduce their out-of-pocket expenses by setting aside a portion of their pre-tax income to cover medical expenses like prescription medicines. The move is intelligent to stay relevant in a market where rivals like Walmart (WMT) already offer pharmacy services and also have a storefront for HSA and FSA products. In the summer of 2018, Amazon has also acquired an internet pharmacy company, PillPack, gesturing an interest to add prescription medicines in its portfolio.But PillPack, which primarily serves to older customers who take multiple medications, hasn’t been fully integrated with Amazon yet. Amazon’s current interest in the prescription drugs market will not be without challenges owing to the complex web of intermediaries that sit between the drug ma

On Monday March 18, ride-hailing platform Lyft will be seeking investors to invest in its IPO as part of its strategy to compete with rivals like Uber Technologies, which is planning to launch its own public offering ($120 billion at its IPO) next month. Sources connected to the matter confirm that Lyft will be pitching itself as a more focused bet on ride-hailing to differentiate itself from Uber, which has diversified to areas such as food delivery.Dividends from the IPO will also help finance other areas such as autonomous driving. Launched in 2012, Lyft will be the first ever ride-hailing platform to go public in the U.S. markets, even though the company continues to face challenges from sectors such as automated driving, regulatory pushback and legal challenges over drivers’ pay and benefits.

Marriott International has a new 3-year business strategy, which includes adding 300,000 new rooms and returning and as much as $11 billion to shareholders by 2021. The luxury hotel chain plans to open 1,700 hotels by 2021, with more than 500 hotels (on average) per annum.The company expects the business expansion to enable it to pay shareholders as much as $9 billion on stock buybacks and nearly $2 billion in dividends over the three years. It expects its annual diluted earnings to be in the range of $7.65 to $8.50 per share by 2021, which is higher compared to analysts’ average estimate of $7.72 per share (based on Refinitiv data). Earlier this month, Marriott’s fourth quarter earnings of $1.44 per share surpassed analysts' estimates, but fell short of revenue estimates. In September, the hotel chain’s Starwood guest reservation data base was hit by a major data breach, which compromised personal data (like name, emailing address, phone numbers and passport numbers) of aroun

According to a new Bloomberg survey of economists, the Federal Reserve is likely to end the current rate-hike cycle with one more rate hike this year. The median of responses in the March 13-15 poll predicted one rate hike in September.In December, the poll had forecasted two 2019 hikes. The latest survey reveals that economists are expecting the current hiking cycle to top off at 2.75 percent upper-end of the target policy rate range; that figure is lower compared to the survey’s previous forecast of 3.25 percent.

Lyft officially kicked-off the road show for its initial public offering, putting 30 million shares up for sale with an expected price of between $62 and $68 per share. That would raise more than $2 billion for the San Francisco ride-hailing company, which could be valued between $20 billion and $25 billion. Lyft released financial details about the company for the first time this month, reporting $2.2 billion in revenue last year, more than double its $1.1 billion in revenue in 2017, but also $911 million in losses.Lyft has lost nearly $3 billion since 2012, but has brought in more than $5 billion in venture capital.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. is set to purchase Worldpay for about $35 billion. “Scale matters in our rapidly changing industry,” said FIS Chief Executive Officer Gary Norcross, who will lead the combined company. The FIS deal, valuing Worldpay at about $43 billion including debt, comes a little more than a year after U.S. firm Vantiv paid $10.63 billion for the payments firm, which was set up in Britain and spun off from Royal Bank of Scotland in 2010. FIS and Worldpay combined will have annual revenue of about $12 billion and adjusted core earnings of about $5 billion. Worldpay is a player in card payments, mainly in Britain, while FIS, produces software for banks and asset managers.

U.S.makers of bulldozers and other heavy equipment are raising prices, losing sales and in some cases beginning to trim workers in response to the Trump administration’s protracted trade disputes with various countries, according to a new report. Read more...

 Through this foreign-exchange swap, the RBI apparently hopes to boost the economy, as the additional funds supplied in local currency would allow banks to have more cash at their disposal to lend and/or invest with. The move is expected to also curb the Indian rupee’s appreciation.A strong rupee is a potential headwind to India’s exports. RBI has scheduled the dollar-rupee buy-sell swap auction to take place on March 26.    

Raymond James analysts upgraded their rating on AT&T stock to outperform from market perform. On Friday, analyst Frank Louthan indicated in a note to clients that a sanguine outlook on AT&T earnings’ positive growth coupled with the telecom giant’s deleveraging efforts could lead to its shares outperforming.We believe that the combination of positive earnings growth and delivering over the course of the year will being investors back to AT&T", Louthan mentioned in the note. Louthan also set price target of $34 per share, which is around +12% higher compared to the stock's previous closing price. Last week, AT&T shares trembled after the company announced a major revamp of its DirecTV Now streaming service, including a hike in package prices.

The move come amidst the social networking company's strategies to apparently make its platforms more focused on and sensitive towards users' privacy. Cox was involved in leading product teams, running the Facebook app, and designing strategy for the company's various other apps, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg's blog post.while adding “At this point, we have made real progress on many issues and we have a clear plan for our apps, centered around making private messaging, stories and groups the foundation of the experience, including enabling encryption and interoperability across our services.” Cox has been at the company for more than 13 years. Zuckerberg also wrote that Chris Daniels would also be resigning.

business groups say they are encouraged by China's approval of a new law that loosens restrictions on foreign investment and said it could help smooth the way to a working trade agreement between the two countries. China's legislature passed a measure that would prevent Chinese officials from forcing U.S. and other foreign companies to turn over proprietary technology, a key issue in the current tug of war between the two countries. The U.S. has imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods in an effort to force changes to a range of China's economic policies.China has retaliated by putting duties on most U.S. imports. "It's one of those confidence building measures," Erin Ennis, senior vice-president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said of the move by Chinese legislators.

Merck & Co., Inc. says the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved the label expansion of its blockbuster PD-1 inhibitor, Keytruda (pembrolizumab).The drug has now been approved in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) — a difficult to treat lung cancer. The European approval was expected as the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use had recommended the same in February.

Sales of new U.S. homes in the U.S. dropped almost 7% in January, indicating the housing market got off to a slow start in early 2019 amid a partial government shutdown and patches of unusually harsh weather. Read more...

This expansion is in-line with the company’s 2017 pledge of investing $10 billion in U.S. factories over the course of five years. This new plan will have some employment benefits also.It will also increase its production capacity through factory renovation in locations like Huntsville, Alabama; Buffalo, West Virginia; Troy, Missouri; and Jackson, Tennessee. To implement the plan, the company will need to ramp up production of fuel-efficient vehicles. Toyota said it will produce hybrid versions of the RAV4 crossover and Lexus ES luxury sedan in Kentucky for the first time.

E-commerce giant Amazon is now planning to open more physical grocery stores, a sector currently dominated by the likes of Walmart (WMT). According to the Wall Street Journal, with the acquisition of Whole Foods Amazon got its first real taste of store-based grocery sales, but Amazon’s grocery models will be starkly different from that of Whole Foods.  But this move comes with its own set of challenges.Even though the company could remove expenses associated with established physical stores, it’s already a notoriously low-margin business, and Amazon Web Services is the primary source for the company's profits. Additionally, recent figures suggest that Amazon’s online grocery sales are not remarkably higher than those of Walmart’s physical grocery sales – 12.5% to 11.1% in 2017. Going ahead with its plans, Amazon will now have to open dozens of relatively smaller brick-and-mortar locations across the country.

A California jury in Oakland has found the company guilty and has ordered it to pay $29 million to the victim. The company, on the other hand, has denied such allegations claiming that its products are checked by experts and numerous studies and tests have already proved that their products are free from any cancer causing substance.The company has lost a motion to appeal a verdict in Missouri that awarded more than $4 billion to 22 women who accused that the asbestos in the company’s talcum products is the reason for their ovarian cancer. Following the current lawsuit, shares of the company have fallen sharply.