Markets have been lulled into a false sense of calm and are unprepared for the impact of a seismic shift in Chinese economic policy, according to Saxo Bank chief economist Steen Jakobsen. Stocks in China tumbled on Thursday amid worries that Beijing could pull back on stimulus measures following recent better-than-expected economic data.READ MORE...

Amazon’s revenue numbers will likely show the slowest growth in four years when the company reports first-quarter results after the bell on Thursday, but investors will see more profitability in exchange.READ MORE...

Turkey’s troubled lira fell to its lowest level since October on Thursday after its central bank scrapped a pledge to raise interest rates if needed.READ MORE...

Total payment volume increased to $161 billion, compared to analysts’ expectations of $163 billion. Reporting for its Venmo peer-to-peer digital payment service, PayPal said that around 40 million people used it for at least one transaction in the last 12 months, contributing up to $21 billion in total payment volume in the first quarter. Looking ahead, PayPal expects revenue to range between $4.3 billion and $4.34 billion for the current quarter.For the full year, the company bumped up its earnings per share outlook to between $2.94 and $3.01.

United Parcel Service (UPS) earnings and revenue missed analysts’ estimates. The package delivery/supply chain management company reported adjusted earnings of $1.39 a share, below analysts’ estimates of $1.42 a share (based on FactSet poll).The figure is also lower compared to the year-ago quarter’s $1.55 a share. Apparently, the winter weather set back profit by about $80 million (or 7 cents a share), as indicated by the company.

The earnings were also lower compared to the year-ago quarter’s 95 cents a share. Revenue of $4.39 billion was lower than analysts’ expectations of $4.59 billion for the quarter. Howard Willard, Altria's chairman and CEO indicated that the company had incurred higher interest expense from its recently issued debt, and that it did not realize – through most part of the quarter - the full benefit of savings from its cost reduction program.He blamed these forces for the decline in Altria’s first quarter adjusted diluted EPS. The company reaffirmed its forecast of 4% to 7% growth in adjusted per-share earnings  for the full-year 2019. 

Oil prices dipped on Thursday as record U.S. output and rising crude stockpiles dampened the impact on markets of tighter U.S. sanctions on Iran and producer club OPEC’s continued curbs on supply.Read More...

Microsoft Corporation MSFT 0.34% reported strong third-quarter earnings beat Wednesday on the back of continuing strength in its cloud computing business, coming in at $1.14 per share to top analysts’ estimates by 14 cents.The company also reported quarterly sales of $30.6 billion, beating the Street estimate of $29.84 billion by more than 2.5 percent.

McDonald’s is teaming up with AARP and the AARP Foundation to hire more older workers.Read More...

California-based Franklin Resources Inc. recently confirmed in a staff memo that the company is looking at reducing as much as 5% of its workforce in an effort to save at least $75 million in employee cost as the fund manager faces continued outflows and economic uncertainty.  However, the company will not be firing its employees directly, but will give them buyout offers eligible for employees who are older than 50 years and with an industry experience of more than 10 years.

E-commerce giant Amazon and French retailer Casino are strengthening their ties by opening lockers in more than 1,000 Casino stores including Monoprix, Monop, Geant, Hyper Casino, Casino Supermarche, Leaderprice, Viva and Spar and more of the French retailer’s products to be available on Amazon. This move was anticipated following Amazon’s purchase of brick-and-mortar American food retailer Whole Foods last year. The partnership comes at a time when Casino is looking at selling assets and cutting debt to address investors’ concerns over its finances. As part of the deal, Amazon and Monoprix will also extend their partnership on Amazon’s Prime Now grocery delivery service outside Paris and into new cities by the end of this year. This partnership has been closely watched as Monoprix was the first French retailer to agree to sell products via Amazon. Amazon had long term plans to launch services in French supermarket which is currently dominated by Carrefour and Leclerc, operating a

The news of the exit of CEO, Bernardo Hees, only adds to its ongoing troubles by denting the company’s reputation. Nevertheless, the company’s shares rose 1.3% on Monday following the announcement that former Anheuser-Busch InBev executive Miguel Patricio will be the new CEO. Valued at $40.2 billion, the company’s stock fell more than 43% in the last year.Sales have stagnated coupled with increased commodity costs resulting in shortage of cost cutting. But there's more. The company received a subpoena from the SEC earlier this year over accounting policies and internal controls.

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Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay part of $22 million to settle allegations by China’s securities regulator over how the Wall Street firm interacted with its local joint venture partner, the first such agreement under pilot rules the nation adopted in 2015. The China Securities Regulatory Commission agreed with Goldman Sachs under guidelines that allow it to negotiate a settlement rather than to simply issue a fine.Employees at both firms have agreed to step up internal controls, the CSRC said in a statement. Nine companies, including Goldman Sachs and Beijing Gao Hua, will pay 150 million yuan ($22 million) to settle the case, according to the CSRC notice. “We are pleased to have resolved the matter,” a spokeswoman who represents Goldman Sachs and Beijing Gao Hua said. Between October 2013 and July 2015, traders at Goldman Sachs’s Asian unit used its account held with Beijing Gao Hua to carry out trades and provided “business guidance” to staff at Beijing Gao Hua, according

Drugmaker Biogen beat analysts' estimates for first-quarter on higher sales of its growth driver Spinraza. Net income attributable to the company rose 20 percent to $1.41 billion, in the quarter ended March 31. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $6.98 per share on revenue of $3.49 billion.Analysts had expected the company to earn $6.87 per share on revenue of $3.39 billion.

Morgan Stanley’s Shelley O’Connor, one of two co-heads of the wealth management business, was named on Tuesday to lead two of the bank’s regulated entities, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. Read more...

Twitter’s first quarter earnings turned out to be more than double of what analysts’ expected. The social networking company’s adjusted earnings for the quarter came in at 37 cents per share, compared to analysts’ estimate of 15 cents (based on a Refinitiv survey).The company defines mDAU as “Twitter users who log in and access Twitter on any given day through Twitter.com or our Twitter applications that are able to show ads”. Looking ahead, Twitter forecasts that its second-quarter revenue would range between $770 million to $830 million, compared with analysts’ estimates of $783.9 million to $853.6 million in the Refinitiv survey.

eBay shares jumped more than +6% during after-hours trading Tuesday, after the company reported higher-than-expected earnings for its first quarter. The e-commerce behemoth’s adjusted earnings of $0.67 per share exceeded analysts’ expectations of $0.63.Revenue of $2.6 billion came in higher than analysts’ estimates of $2.58 billion. For the full-year 2019, the company forecasts that its adjusted earnings would range between $1.94 and $2.04 per share.

Kohl’s announced that it will be expanding its agreement with Amazon. Under the deal, customers who shopped online on Amazon would be able to return unpacked products to Kohl’s brick-and-mortar stores.The returns policy will soon be active at around 1,150 Kohl’s locations nationwide – compared to 100 stores when the agreement was first started in 2017. The deal could be a potential win-win for the two companies.

Verizon Communications reported its first quarter earnings that surpassed expectations, on the back of solid subscriber growth in its postpaid services. The telecom giant's earnings for the three months ending March came in at $1.22 per share, beating Wall Street analysts' estimates by 3 cents.The figure reflects a +9.9% jump from the year-ago quarter. Net revenues came in at $32.12 billion – unchanged from the prior year period, but in line with analysts' estimates. The company had a net 61,000 addition of retail postpaid subscribers over the quarter.