Royal Dutch Shell, one of the six oil and gas "super-majors," has finally sets it foot in the Japan’s electricity market, which is considered one of the world’s richest electricity markets. RDS is the second-largest energy firm by market capitalization.He further added that the move was in-line with company strategy, as it sees opportunities to balance the grid when there are supply-demand mismatches driven by intermittent wind and solar power. Japan, which meets nearly 15% of its electricity requirement from renewable sources, saw its power sales hover around 14 trillion yen ($125 billion) in 2017.

In an effort to stem the fall in oil prices, OPEC members are set to release a table detailing the voluntary supply cut quotas among its members and allies. As the influential oil cartel steps up its efforts to put a halt to one of the biggest oil price falls in years, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo on Thursday said that to reach the proposed cut of 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), the effective reduction for member countries would need to be 3.02% instead of 2.5% which was decided earlier this month. Concerns over an economic slowdown, demand and supply imbalance, reports of swelling inventories and forecasts of record U.S. and Russian output have all negatively influenced the oil prices in recent times.The above factors resulted into the oil prices crashing down by more than a third after reaching its four-year highs in early October. Despite production cutback efforts by OPEC members, the slide continued for oil prices and International benchmark Brent crude traded

Shares of the health-care conglomerate Johnson & Johnson dropped another 1% on Thursday.This happened after the company lost its motion to reverse a $4.7 billion jury verdict awarded to women who blamed ovarian cancer on asbestos in the company’s baby powder and other talc products. According to the report published by New York Times, the ruling was upheld by a circuit court judge in Missouri, Rex Burlison, who oversaw the trial in the case.

Carriers and other third-party retailers in Germany would still be able to sell all iPhone models,  the iPhone maker said. The German court’s ruling is chipmaker Qualcomm’s third major attempt, after allegations it made in China and the U.S.,  at securing a ban on Apple’s iPhones over patent infringement charges.A Chinese court had earlier this month ordered a ban on some iPhone sales, following a similar allegation put forth by  Qualcomm.

By pumping 830 billion Indian rupees (around $12 billion) into state-run banks by March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration intends to help a sector bludgeoned by bad loans.Following a recent parliament-approved additional capital infusion of 410 billion rupees, India’s state-run banks are set to receive a total of 1.06 trillion rupees this fiscal year. India’s banks are saddled with more than $210 billion of stressed debt, causing them to have the world’s worst bad loan ratio after Italy, and posing challenges to their lending capacity.

The four-week average (usually a less volatile gauge) fell to 222,000. As indicated by the latest figures from the Labor Department, the demand for labor still remains strong in the U.S., despite recently emerging concerns about a possible slowing down of economic growth.The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 1.2 percent. However, some analysts maintain a cautious outlook suggesting that the holiday season boost in hiring could only be seasonal and therefore might not be fully indicative of the underlying trend in hiring or unemployment claims.  

FedEx is portending global trade tensions and a slowing of economic growth to dampen its business in 2019. Lowering its profit projection for the full fiscal year (ending May 30) by 7-10%, the courier delivery services company said that its international business especially in Europe faltered over the last three months.Job cuts are expected to reduce the company’s costs by $225 million to $275 million per year. The company hopes that the buyouts would boost productivity, as indicated by CEO Fred Smith in a call with investors (as reported by CNN). However, the company’s recent performance has been quite strong.

tobacco company Altria has bought a 35% stake in e-cigarette startup Juul for $12.8 billion. With declining trend in cigarette smoking among Americans, Altria’s investment in Juul could potentially help the former diversify into the alternative smoking market.Juul, on the other hand, could leverage a big name like Altria to get top-shelf space at stores. Interestingly, Juul promotes its products as smoke-free sources of nicotine for people wanting to quit smoking.

The target fed funds rate – the interest rate at which banks can lend each other overnight – now stands at 2.25-2.5%, after the latest quarter-point increase. The highly anticipated Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meet also brought to fore potential challenges and pressures facing the central bank.As of the latest meeting, only six FOMC participants expect there could be as many as three. Nevertheless, the Fed is still keen on letting fresh data guide their rate hike decisions going forward as well.

GE has decided to move ahead with its plans to spin off its second most profitable business line, sending shares more than 8% higher on Wednesday following the news. According to Bloomberg report, GE has confidentially filed paperwork for an IPO of its health-care unit - GE Healthcare. Expected to hit the market in mid-2019, GE is likely to work with JPMorgan (JPM) on the IPO.Further, according to the Bloomberg report, Goldman Sachs (GS), Bank of America, Citigroup (C) and Morgan Stanley (MS) are also expected to work with GE on the IPO. GE Healthcare realized a net profit of $3.4 billion on total revenue of ~$19 billion in 2017, making it a leading player in the hospital and lab equipment segment.

The British multinational oil and gas company, BP Plc on Wednesday launched the sale of its U.S. oil and gas onshore assets to help pay for other U.S. based fields it bought from the BHP Group (BHP) in October. Expected to fetch more than $3 billion, the sale proceeds according to the company, would be utilized to partially fund the $10.5 billion acquisition of BHP’s onshore assets that are mostly around oil-producing fields in Texas and Louisiana.BP, post this acquisition deal, announced that it would finance the deal by selling assets worth $5 billion to $6 billion. London-listed BP justified this move by saying that this move is in line with the company’s strategy to focus on enhancing its production from its holdings in the Permian and Eagle Ford basins to match rivals Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) whose recent investment in the basin is expected to increase their production sharply in the coming years. Rebranded as BPX, BP’s onshore business, had sent out information pa

Houston-based Cheniere Energy announced on Wednesday that they have signed a 20-year liquefied natural gas supply deal with a subsidiary of Petronas, Malaysia's state-owned oil and natural gas company. According to the terms of the deal, Cheniere's Sabine Pass (export) LNG facility in Louisiana will supply 1.1 million tonnes of LNG per year on a free on-board basis for a 20-year term following the date of first commercial delivery for the sixth natural gas liquefaction train. Although the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by any of the companies, Cheniere confirmed that the purchase price of the LNG would be indexed at the monthly Henry Hub price, plus a fee.They also confirmed that according to the terms of the deal, the point of sale is at the loading point and Petronas would be responsible for arranging the shipping. Cheniere Energy’s CEO Jack Fusco, in a statement said that Petronas will be a foundation customer for the company’s sixth production unit planned at i

Facebook was sued by the District of Columbia over a privacy breach that exposed millions of users’ information to Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that worked for President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. On Wednesday, the suit was filed by the district’s attorney general, Karl Racine, alleging Facebook of inadequate oversight of the company’s third-party applications and therefore of failure to comply with the Consumer Protection and Procedures Act.The maximum penalty under the Act is $5,000 per violation. Racine’s suit mentions that some Facebook users downloaded a “personality quiz” app, which also collected data from the app users’ Facebook friends without their knowledge/consent.

Revenues grew +15% to $7.91 billion, but fell short of analysts’ expected $8.02 billion. Micron’s projections for February quarter:  EPS in the range of $1.65-$1.85, which is below  consensus expectations; Revenue of $5.7 billion-$6.3 billion (down 18% annually at the midpoint). The semiconductor company mentioned that relatively weak smartphone demand could be weighing on chip sales in near future.CEO Sanjay Mehrotra cited "higher than normal inventories in gaming [graphics] cards” and “fall-off in crypto-related demand" as potential headwinds for Micron’s graphics DRAM sales. The company began its $10 billion stock buyback program in September.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2019. Following the merger, GSK plans to spin off the consumer healthcare segment and list it on a London stock exchange within three years, as it plans to focus more on its pharma business.Expecting to save 500 million pounds (about $632 million) by 2022 from the deal, GSK plans to reinvest up to 25 percent of the cost savings into the company's innovation efforts.  For Pfizer, too, the deal should allow more room for the company to concentrate on its prescription drug business from which it makes most of its revenues.  

Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are planning to combine their consumer healthcare units and spin-off the joint venture.The new company would be the world's largest seller of over-the-counter drugs in the world with medicines such as Advil, Panadol in their inventories. The benefits of separating into two companies — one focused on prescription medicines and the other on consumer health — outweigh the advantages that come with a more diversified structure, Glaxo CEO Emma Walmsley told reporters on a conference call.

The hedge fund, which is managed by a unit of GF Holdings Corp. and according to the report, is in discussions with Citigroup on how they s would value their positions give foreign exchange worries. The matter was escalated to Citigroup’s board, Bloomberg reported.The bank is also reorganizing its prime brokerage business as a result of the expected financial hit, according to the story and is taking the FX prime brokerage unit out of the currency trading division and placing it under the oversight of its prime finance and securities services unit, according to a memo from the bank.

A second former Goldman Sachs banker was charged by the Malaysia government in connection with an alleged money-laundering scheme at the state-run fund 1MDB. This week, the government also filed charges against Goldman Sachs in connection with its role as underwriter of bond sales that raised $6.5 billion for 1MDB.Tim Leissner, a former partner for Goldman Sachs in Asia, was also charged this week. For its part, Goldman Sachs denies wrongdoing and on said certain members of the former Malaysian government and 1MDB lied to the bank about the proceeds of the bond sales.

The signature smell is hard to forget.Johnson and Johnson’s baby powder, a product that was once considered simple, benign, and ubiquitous among new mothers is now the subject of intense legal allegations. READ MORE...

That would include overseeing deals with longtime collaborators Shonda Rhimes and Kenya Barris who created hit shows for ABC. Dungey is joining Netflix at a time when competition among online video streamers seems to be heating up, with some traditional broadcast players also expanding their own digital content.Netflix announced last year of its plans to spend as much as $8 billion on content for 2018. "Channing is a creative force whose taste and talent have earned her the admiration of her peers across the industry.