Philip Hampton, Chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, is stepping down from the company only a month after the company announced a merger with Pfizer. The pharmaceutical giant said on Monday that Mr Hampton, who was appointed non-executive chairman in 2015, has “informed the board of his intention to step down” and the search for his successor has begun. No date for Mr Hampton’s departure was given. Under terms of the all-share deal, Glaxo will own 68% of the consumer healthcare joint venture, while US firm Pfizer will own the remaining 32% stake.

From trading over $300 in August, shares of the company plunged to the sub-$200 levels at the start of 2019 -- which analysts see as a buying opportunity. A strong Q4 performance by the company rekindled expectations of strong growth potential in 2019, as Arista maintains healthy routing and enterprises businesses. According to analysts, webscale spending, which slowed in the second half of 2018, didn’t have much impact on networking as it did for compute and storage, as networking didn't share in the upside in webscale capex.Further, as webscale networks get more complex and less susceptible to falling memory prices, networking is likely to gain more share and importance also. Analysts also think that with healthy cloud revenues and supporting long-term cloud spending growth, a robust ~40% 100G growth and Arista's strong 100G share of around 25% might prove pivotal for the company in 2019.

Toy making giants, Hasbro Inc. and Mattel Inc., both ended 2018 on a low after broad-based underperformance. Even still, many analysts continue to have a Buy rating on Hasbro but lowered the price target to $102 from $110.For Mattel, analysts still have a neutral rating with a $12 price target, down from $13. The reasons for pinning hopes on Hasbro to bounce back in 2019 -- despite forecasts of average growth in the new year -- are a combination of Hasbro’s strong product pipeline, on-going efficiencies, and easing revenue headwinds as well as a high single-digit dividend increase, and the possibility of more share repurchases that are likely to attract investors. A lower than estimated Q4 performance indicates that the market is still dealing with the Toys 'R' Us bankruptcy last year, but the brighter side is that stores don’t seem to have a lot of leftover toys indicating reduced inventory liquidations. In the case of Mattel, analysts are hopeful the reduced invent

After serving as chairman for more than three and a half years at GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Philip Hampton is resigning from his post. The news comes a month after the announcement from GSK’s Chief Executive Emma Walmsley that the company will be split into two businesses — one for prescription drugs and vaccines, the other for over-the-counter products. In December, it was announced that GSK and Pfizer would combine their consumer health businesses in an all-equity deal.GSK will own 68 percent of the joint venture.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned the "risk of a sharper decline in global growth has certainly increased," but also indicated that the headwind is unlikely to snowball into a global recession anytime soon.China’s macroeconomic slowdown amidst U.S. tariffs was mentioned as a potent cause of concern about global markets and economies. The IMF projects the U.S. economy to grow at 2.5% in 2019 followed by a slower 1.8% in 2020.  

New Age Beverages Corp. is joining hands with Docklight Brands to launch a line of Bob Marley-themed cannabis-infused beverages. The product line is also a collaboration with Marley – the brand formed by legendary reggae artist Bob Marley's family and  private equity firm Privateer Holdings (the latter backs cannabis-focused Docklight Brands). Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Michigan would be the initial markets to get a taste of the Marley+CBD beverages.Over time, New Age plans to make the drinks available to more places. Marley-branded CBD-infused drinks marks New Age’s expansion into the hemp space – an apparently much-coveted sector today.

DowDuPont's Agriculture Division, called Corteva Agriscience, plans the commercial launch of its Enlist E3 soybeans in the U.S., Canada and Brazil starting this year.Enlist E3 soybeans include advanced herbicide tolerance through three action modes. DowDuPont also plans to expand the availability of its Qrome products across the U.S. Corn Belt.

And now, Hostess Brands, B&G Foods and Ferrero have reportedly offered their first-round bids on the brands, according to a CNBC report citing people familiar with the matter.Some private equity firms are also reportedly eyeing the brands. In recent years, we’ve witnessed Ferrero, Hostess and B&G focus on expanding their offerings, by acquiring various snacks/cookie brands.

Apple just launched three new smart battery cases for its newest iPhones.Read More...

China is expected to report on Monday that economic growth cooled to its slowest in 28 years in 2018 amid weakening domestic demand and bruising U.S. tariffs, adding pressure on Beijing to roll out more support measures to avert a sharper slowdown.Read More...

Disney isn't launching its new streaming service until later this year, but investors are already learning the economic challenges of the business.Read More...

This brought total paid members by the end of the year to 139 million, up 26% on a y-o-y basis. Out of the total 29 million new members Netflix added in 2018, 8.84 million joined during the company's fourth quarter.The company's decline in EPS came as Netflix's operating margin narrowed from 7.5% in the year-ago quarter to 5.2%, reflecting significant content investments during the quarter. Further, the company added that its cash burn is expected to in 2019 and then likely to drop off in years ahead.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit confirmed on Thursday that it is set to buy about $40 million worth of smartwatch technology from the watch-making giant Fossil Group Inc. Although neither Google nor Fossil has yet confirmed what this new technology exactly is, the head of Google’s Wear OS division, who oversees a version of Google’s Android operating system for smartwatches and other wearables, suggested ‘wellness’. He said that technological wearables built for ‘wellness’ and simplicity have the power to improve lives by bringing the information people need at a quick glance.The addition of Fossil smartwatches is expected to diversify Google’s portfolio of wearable technology that is now on the rise catering to mobile customers. Fossil ended 2018 on a high after emerging as the second-best performing retail stock.

Falling a little short of 2016's total withdrawal of $320 billion, 2018’s record outflow clocked a total of $301 billion. Morningstar senior analyst Kevin McDevitt remarked that December outflows extended to asset classes, with taxable-bond funds performing the worst.Among active strategies, bond funds were hit the hardest in December with total outflow clocking $44.3 billion. Investors appear to have shifted to passive strategies instead, as higher expenses of active management put extra pressure on their returns.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock indexes jumped on Friday, with Wall Street posting a fourth straight week of gains, and the dollar had its first positive week since mid-December as optimism increased that an end is in sight to the U.S.-China trade conflict. READ MORE...

(Reuters) - U.S. online luxury reseller The RealReal Inc is talking to investment banks about the possibility of an initial public offering (IPO) later this year, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. READ MORE...

America’s journey to preeminence in the global oil trade is about to hit another milestone. Propelled by the shale-oil boom, the U.S. is already producing more crude than either Russia or Saudi Arabia, who until recently vied for the top spot.Read More...

Bank of America’s Q4 2018 profit tripled to a record $7.3 billion, owing to strong performance from its consumer-banking business and the lower corporate tax rate. On the back of this better-than-expected performance, shares of the company rose by +7.16% on Wednesday of last week.Credit and debit card spending also expanded by 6%. However, like most banks BAC faltered in the fixed-income trading business, where revenue fell by 15% to $1.45 billion compared to analysts estimates of $1.62 billion.

Shares of Snap Inc. plummeted nearly 13.8% on Wednesday following the announcement of the exit of its CFO, Tim Stone, after only eight months on the job.Over the past year, the company has witnessed the exit of several top-level executives as it faced a steady decline in users and tough competition from Facebook Inc.'s Instagram. Losing more than 65% of its value since its IPO almost two years ago, the market value of Snap after the exit of CFO fell from $8.5 billion before the start trading to about $7.3 billion by the end of the day. On Wednesday, RBC Capital Markets analysts have downgraded the stock from outperform to sector perform, while Summit Insights Group lowered its price target by 17% to $5. According to analysts, Snap’s 28-year-old Chief Executive Evan Spiegel’s increasing centralized control could be driving the heavy turnover in the executive ranks. The only positive news, in Tuesdays filing, was that the company expects its quarterly results would be

Chevron, the U.S-based energy company, has temporarily halted the third liquefaction train at its Gorgon LNG plant on Barrow Island in Western Australia, apparently due to some mechanical issue.In fact, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, the past ten days have shown a record temperature in Australia. Reuters also believes that this temporary shutdown will benefit Asian LNG prices that have been experiencing the lowest phase in the past two years due to mild winter in East Asia. Currently, Gorgon is one of the world’s largest natural gas projects, with a capacity to produce 15.6 million metric tons/year of LNG from its three trains.