This comes after U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken said the investors could sue the company as a group. In their lawsuit, shareholders accused the hedge fund/asset management firm of misleading investors by concealing the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probes into the company’s potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.The lawsuit, filed in 2014, covers investors who owned Och-Ziff shares from February 2012 to April 2014.  Och-Ziff ‘s settlement against its shareholders’ lawsuit  follows the company’s $412 million settlement in Sept. 2016 for the U.S. Department of Justice criminal probe.    

Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. sales chief Mark LaNeve is not nervous about competition with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV." LaNeve seemed to attribute the recent decline in Ford vehicle sales mostly to the -11% drop in sales to rental car agencies. But he is looking forward to revamped models of its SUVs, the Escape and Explorer, to be launched in the middle of 2019 and hopes these to boost sales.

Tesla had record car sales, even as U.S.-China trade war apparently looms large over the carmaker’s China market. The company confirmed numbers leaked to an industry news site on Monday that it produced around 80,000 cars in Q3.What's more, beating Wall Street expectations of 80,000, deliveries peaked at 83,500 - including almost 56,000 of the Model 3 sedan whose market is seen as critical to the company’ profit potential. However, Tesla admitted that it had missed its weekly Model 3 production target. Tesla is also apparently concerned about the 40% tariff China has slapped on imports of its cars - something that could potentially thwart the firm's sales and/or income from  the world' s biggest consumer of electric vehicles.

PepsiCo, Inc. reported earnings higher than expected, as new strategies for the North American market paid off, along with growing sales in emerging markets. Excluding one-time items, the company raked in $1.59 per share earnings, beating analysts' estimates of $1.57 for the third quarter ending September 8.Total net income of $2.49 billion (or $1.75 per share) was up a whopping 16% from $2.14 billion (or $1.48 per share) a year earlier. Net revenue increased 1.5 percent to $16.49 billion, which is higher than analysts' average projection of $16.36 billion. By shifting its beverage portfolio more towards healthier options such as non-carbonated drinks and sparkling water (including its launch of brands Bubly and Lifewtr), Pepsi managed to revive sales in an increasingly health-conscious consumer segment of  North America.

Google’s advertising business will have a new leader. Sridhar Ramaswamy ,Senior Vice President of Ads & Commerce at Google, is leaving the company to join venture capital firm Greylock Partners.Raghavan was a vice president of engineering for Google's Cloud apps. Google and Facebook together rake in 60% of U.S. digital ad spending last year, according to research firm eMarketer. Last quarter, Google parent company Alphabet's 86 percent of $32.65 billion in revenue was attributed to its advertising segment.

Amazon is hiking its minimum wage to $15 an hour for all U.S. employees - full-time, part-time and temporary workers.The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009. Amazon's wage raise policy, which will take effect from November 1, is expected to benefit more than 250,000 Amazon employees, plus 100,000 seasonal workers.  Given Amazon's  size, its expansive internal supply chains and technology, alongwith the rapid growth in its businesses and networking, Amazon’s move on wages could potentially impact the overall U.S. labor market to a substantial degree.The e-commerce giant has added the most number of jobs in the U.S. the past decade. Amazon will also increase minimum wages for its U.K. employees to £10.50 ($13.60) for the London area and £9.50 ($12.30) for the rest of the country.

Ryanair is cutting its profit projections, as the European low-cost airline struggles with flight cancellations, fuel costs and staff strikes. It announced profit forecast for the current fiscal year in the range of  €1.1 billion ($1.27 billion) to €1.2 billion ($1.39 billion) – which is around €150 million ($174 million) lower than the company’s previous expectation.Spike in fuel costs further pressured margins for the company. As for cabin crew strikes - something it's been facing since December 2017 - the airline has yet to settle disputes with union officials in countries such as Spain, Portugal, Germany and Belgium.

Tesla stock jumped +15% in early trading hours on Monday, on news of Tesla’s settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the latter’s allegations against Elon Musk. Late last week, the SEC alleged Tesla CEO Elon Musk of making "false and misleading statements" to investors through his August tweet which said he had secured funding for taking Tesla private.The SEC was planning to ask a federal judge to prevent Musk from serving as an officer or a director of a public company.  But the weekend’s event has led to results potentially less dire than expected for Musk and Tesla: as part of his settlement with the SEC, Musk will give up his position as the chairman, while he can still continue to operate as the CEO of Tesla.

Hackers got access to 50 million user accounts on Facebook, the company announced Friday. Exploiting a vulnerability in the“View As” feature on the social networking website, the cyber attackers got hold of 50 million users’ access tokens - digital keys which allow people stay logged in without having to re-enter their password into the website.Facebook became suspicious of a sudden spike in website usage on Sept. 16., following which it started probing into the matter. The company has reset the affected 50 million token keys.  In addition, it has reset the keys  for another 40 million accounts (that used the “View As” feature) as a precautionary measure.

When Walgreens announced its merger with Boots six years ago, it also told investors that the company would generate at least $9 billion in profit in 2016.Investor shock led the firm’s stock to plummet more than 14% at the time. Following SEC’s allegations that it misled  investors with an unrealistic profit expectation, Walgreens reached a settlement with the SEC by agreeing to pay a $34.5 million penalty - as announced on Friday.

Jeff Bezos-backed startup Blue Origin just clinched a major contract - with United Launch Alliance (ULA). Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines will power ULA's Vulcan Centaur - a new suite of rockets touted to potentially undercut Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets on price.ULA, on the other hand, is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and manufactures sensitive national security satellites for the US government. Blue Origin’s winning the Vulcan Centaur deal would likely lead to the former opening a  200,000 square foot plant that will create 400 new manufacturing jobs, as indicated by Blue Origin in July last year.

The SEC is asking a federal judge to prevent Musk from serving as an officer or a director of a public company, among other penalties. According to the SEC, Musk had not even discussed any important deal term (such as price) with any private funding source – an allegation that denounces Musk’s August 7 tweet of “funding secured” at a per-share price of “$420”.Elon Musk however made a U-turn within only a few weeks of posting the tweet: he said that he would like Tesla to remain a public company after considering shareholders’ opinions.

Carnival Corp. reported solidly positive growth in its earnings, but hinted at the possibility of higher fuel costs pulling down profits throughout the year. The cruise line operator’s fiscal third-quarter profit increased 28% to $1.71 billion,.Per share earnings of $2.41 beat Wall Street expectations of $2.31 per share. Revenue jumped 5.8 % to $5.84 billion – topping consensus estimate of $5.82 billion. But as the firm is wary of fuel costs eating into profits, it projected its per-share earnings to range from 65 cents to 69 cents for the current quarter ending in November – which is a lower range compared to Wall Street estimates for 73 cents per share.  

Next month, shareholders will vote on whether to approve board nominees Robert Knowling Jr., Louis Miramontes and Arun Nayar – who, if elected, would replace current directors David Jessick, Myrtle Potter and Frank Savage.The shakedown of management comes close on the heels of failure of two buyout attempts - by the grocer Albertsons and pharmacy chain Walgreens respectively. Walgreens, however, did buy nearly 2,000 stores from Rite Aid Corp.

Geron Corp. shares plunged more than -70% on Thursday, as Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Biotech unit ended partnership with it on the cancer drug imetelstat. About the collaboration not coming through,  Janssen said, "The decision not to continue the collaboration is the result of a strategic portfolio evaluation and prioritization of assets within the robust Janssen portfolio" ." Geron's stock price  dropped to $1.99 at 9:44 a.m. in New York, with the company losing  $750 million in market value.    

McDonald's is stripping artificial ingredients from most of its burgers, amidst an increasingly health-conscious consumer market. The fast-food chain’s seven classic burgers -- the hamburger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger, McDouble, Quarter Pounder with Cheese, double Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Big Mac -- will be free of artificial preservatives, flavors and coloring. Plus, McDonald's said it is removing artificial preservatives including potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate and calcium disodium EDTA without "sacrificing that signature taste" of its popular Big Mac Special Sauce. The company had earlier replaced frozen beef with fresh beef in its Quarter Pounders and revamped its Happy Meal offerings with healthier choices. Industry peers such as Taco Bell, Subway and Panera Bread have recently taken steps to reduce artificial components from their menus as well.      

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the third time in 2018, leading to U.S. President Donald Trump commenting he’s “not happy about that”. The central bank increases its policy rate in an attempt to prevent the economy from getting too hot or inflation spiraling off target levels.Trump also expressed that he’s happy for savers since they are likely to earn higher interest rates. Trump’s comments seem to be a departure from tradition. Since the Fed is regarded as independent of political interference,  presidents usually avoid commenting on its monetary policy decisions.

 Facebook unveiled its new virtual reality headset called The Oculus Quest. The product will have some of the functionality of Oculus Rift alongwith the mobility of Oculus Go - which means, Quest will not need a PC to work.In 2014, Facebook bought Oculus VR for $3 billion. Other tech companies such as Snap (which acquired virtual reality software firm PlayCanvas) and Alphabet's Google (with sells Daydream View headsets) are also trying to secure their spots in  the 'new reality' space.

Novavax, Inc.’s stock price jumped +7.6% in the latest trading session.This follows the biotech company's recent announcement of the initiation of phase 2 clinical trial of its flu vaccine NanoFlu in older adults. What's more,Novavax's current ratio - a metric of how well a company can meet its short-term obligations - is at 4.50x, which is higher than some of its peers GlaxoSmithKline (0.90x) Novartis (1.10x) and Sanofi (1.20x) as suggested by a Market Realist report.  

"In light of the premium Comcast has agreed to pay for Sky, we and Disney have decided to sell 21CF's existing 39% holding in Sky to Comcast," Fox announced." Comcast’s final bid for Sky was £17.28 ($22.65) per share – which is  25% higher than its previous offer of £14.75 ($19.43) per share.