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.

Kroger mentioned that the service would be available in Scottsdale at its unit Fry's Food Stores for $5.95 with no minimum order requirement for same-day or next-day deliveries. Kroger’s move comes at a time when several U.S. grocery players upping the ante on delivery services.For instance, Walmart, Ford Motor and delivery service Postmates announced earlier this year that they partnering to deliver goods to Walmart customers’ doorsteps, and could even start using self-driving vehicles for the same in future.

T-Mobile and Sprint seem to be inching closer to their $26 billion merger. Late Monday, T-Mobile released a statement mentioning that the wireless operators have received approval on their proposed merger from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Defense have withdrawn an earlier request to postpone the deal, as revealed by T-Mobile’s statement. However, the companies still await some other approvals (such as, antitrust approval from the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission) before the deal can get finalized. If the T-Mobile-Sprint deal goes through, it would see the third and fourth largest wireless carriers in the U.S. joining forces to compete with AT&T and Verizon.

Boeing Co., the American aircraft manufacturer, announced on late Monday that it plans to increase its dividend payout by 20% to $2.055 a share and replace its existing share repurchase program with a newly authorized $20 billion share repurchase program, up from $18 billion program the board of directors approved in December 2017. The company has already repurchased shares worth $9 billion since last December, under the existing repurchase plan. With this latest increase in dividend payout, Boeing says it has increased its dividend nearly 325% over the past six years and repurchased more than 230 million shares over the same time period. Boeing shares surged nearly 2% to $322 in the after-hours trade, after Boeing’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg made the news public.

Falling for a third straight session, U.S. crude oil prices settled at their lowest since early October 2017 after dropping more than 1% last Tuesday.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures tumbled to $49.27 per barrel, dropping by 60 cents or 1.2%. Both U.S. crude and Brent have dropped more than 30% since early October amid swelling global inventories, with WTI currently trading at or below $50 levels not seen since October 2017. Some of the biggest names of the U.S. oil industry are feeling the sting, as reflected in stock prices. 

In response to rising pressure from China’s growing military strength and President Trump to spend more on American military hardware, the Japanese government on Tuesday announced that it plans to spend nearly $10 billion for fighter jets. Japan has expressed its plan to buy 147 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin, up from the previously planned 42 fighter jets, making Japan the largest customer outside the U.S. for Lockheed Martin.The announcement comes after the cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday approved an increase of Japan’s existing order, as the nation embarked on materializing its new defense strategy, which also includes the development of Tokyo’s first post-World War II aircraft carriers. According to the terms of the deal, around 40 of the jets out of the 147 will be the F-35B version – which is nearly 20% more expensive than the conventional F-35A but has the special ability of taking off and landing vertically and is expected to be used on two flat

Brazilian aerospace conglomerate, Embraer SA, confirmed on Monday that it has finalized terms of a proposed joint venture wherein the U.S. aircraft maker Boeing Co. will have 80% control over the Brazilian company’s commercial aircraft and services operations. Valued at $4.2 billion, the long-awaited deal now only needs the approval of the Brazilian government and regulatory authorities to complete the remaining formalities, which is expected to arrive in the new year. The announcement, which comes after extensive legal deliberation, has also enhanced the valuation of Embraer's commercial business to $5.26 billion – nearly 11% more than the offered $4.75 billion when the deal involving Embraer’s commercial division was originally announced in July. Embear’s defense segment has been kept outside the purview of the commercial aircraft venture to minimize the concerns of Brazilian government. However, Embraer has confirmed that both companies have also agreed to engag

Declining auto sales in China has U.S. carmakers concerned, with four straight months of declines squeezing profitability in the world’s biggest car market. According to the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers, auto sales in China fell ~14% in November over the same month in 2017.Low-end vehicles got hit the most, while premium brands have continued to see growth.

Shares of the American multinational consumer electronics retailer, Best Buy, dropped more than 5% on Monday after Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock’s rating to underperform (equivalent of a sell rating) from neutral – citing slowing industry growth trends and declining sales on key product categories such as TVs, Apple products and gaming. Further, analysts at Bank of American Merrill Lynch slashed their price target by nearly 30% from $70 to $50 a share, after its gloomy December quarterly outlook missed street estimates. Best Buy reported better-than-expected third quarter earnings by reporting an EPS of 9 cents and sales of $9.59 billion.But shares fell by 5.8% to $52.16 on Monday, thereby taking its losses for the quarter to more than 33% amid the key holiday shopping season. Consumer electronics, including iPhones and computers, accounts for more than 50% of Best Buy's US revenues.