North America:

  • Cintas makes $5.1 billion takeover bid for uniform supplier UniFirst.
  • The Goodyear will sell its Dunlop brand to Sumitomo Rubber Industries for $701 million.
  • Exxon Mobil estimates that oil price variations will reduce its fourth-quarter upstream earnings by $500 to $900 million.
  • Angi, a subsidiary of Handy Technologies, has agreed to pay $3 million to settle allegations by the FTC and New York Attorney General that it misled gig workers about their earning potential through misleading advertisements.
  • The Toronto-Dominion Bank questions the future of its 10.4% stake in Charles Schwab.
  • AWS (Amazon) to invest around $11 billion to expand its infrastructure in the USA (Georgia) to support cloud and AI technologies.
  • Financial stocks declined, influenced by a lawsuit against landlords like Cushman & Wakefield for alleged pricing schemes and Blackstone's acquisition of a stake in Citrin Cooperman, amidst broader financial market volatility.
  • The UK competition regulator is considering approving Synopsys' $35 billion acquisition of Ansys, contingent on the divestiture of certain business units.
  • Flutter Entertainment has reduced its 2024 revenue and adjusted EBITDA forecasts, citing unfavorable sports betting results in the US, particularly due to customer-friendly outcomes in Q4.
  • Tesla faces multiple challenges including a potential impact on its partnership with CATL due to U.S. military linkage concerns, investigations into its remote driving features and crash allegations, and high execution risks affecting its valuation, alongside an incident involving a Cybertruck explosion planned using AI chatbot ChatGPT.
  • Meta terminates its fact-checking program in the USA.
  • Merck & Co announces that its HPV vaccine for men has been approved by the Chinese Drug Regulatory Authority.

Europe and Asia:

  • RBC Capital Markets has lowered its Q4 2024 estimates for Shell due to significantly lower projected earnings in its integrated gas division, reduced production guidance, a $1.3 billion cash-flow impact from emission certificate payments, and concerns from shareholders about LNG sales amid emissions reduction goals.
  • Novo Nordisk and Valo Health have expanded their partnership to utilize human data and artificial intelligence in discovering and developing new treatments for obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
  • Volkswagen's management plans to cut their salaries by over 300 million euros by 2030 to aid the company's restructuring efforts, while Scout Motors' EV line is receiving more orders for gas engines than pure electric vehicles.
  • Roche Holding, a Swiss pharmaceutical giant, has finalized its acquisition of Poseida Therapeutics, a US biotech firm focused on gene editing and CAR-T therapies, for $1.5 billion.
  • Teamviewer's Q4 2024 earnings exceeded expectations with a revenue of approximately 671 million euros, a 9% currency-adjusted growth, leading to a surge in its stock price.
  • Deutsche Bank AG Sona Asset Management achieved an 18% return in European debt markets due to a rise in corporate refinancing, while Deutsche Bank acquired $800 million in bad loans from First Abu Dhabi Bank.
  • Assa Abloy, a Swedish firm, has expanded its security and identification business by acquiring US-based 3millID and UK-based Third Millennium Systems, both providers of physical access control products and technologies, for an undisclosed sum.
  • Standard Chartered plans to issue $1 billion in fixed-rate perpetual subordinated contingent convertible securities on January 16, even as Hong Kong banks, including Standard Chartered, hold onto cash despite government calls to increase lending to small businesses, and the bank also repurchased 522,017 shares in the UK at an average price of 9.89 pounds each.
  • Lufthansa is scheduled to acquire a 41% stake in the state-owned Italian airline ITA Airways for 325 million euros on January 13, while also planning to recruit 10,000 people in 2025, primarily focusing on its maintenance business and subsidiaries.
  • Samsung Electronics forecasts fluctuating financial performance with periods of both increased and decreased sales and operating profits in Q4 across multiple fiscal years, alongside challenges like slowing demand for memory chips, rising costs, and significant investments in research and development.
  • Tencent Holdings Limited Following its addition to the Pentagon's blacklist, Tencent executed its largest share buyback since 2006, purchasing 3.9 million shares, amidst concerns of potential further sanctions and trade restrictions.
  • Technology stocks experienced fluctuations, with gains in premarket trading Wednesday but declines by late Tuesday afternoon, while Apple faced a sales ban on its iPhone 16 in Indonesia due to insufficient local content.
  • BP PLC has secured a 10-year contract as the technical service provider for India's Mumbai High oil field, aiming to increase production by up to 60%.
  • BYD, a Chinese electric vehicle producer, launched a new multi-purpose vehicle named Xia with a starting price of $34,000, shipped 5,000 new energy vehicles to Europe, and faced controversy for using Chinese workers on irregular visas to construct a factory in Brazil.
  • The Commonwealth Bank of Australia did not inform regulators before transferring a million customers to new accounts, updated electronic banking terms to shift overpayment refund responsibilities to customers, and caused some to incur fees for accessing cash in branches.
  • Accenture has acquired Percipient's digital twin platform to boost its banking modernization capabilities.
  • Walt Disney Company's LinaBell character is gaining popularity in China by capitalizing on the trend of 'emotional consumption,' which is significantly driving the company's success in the toy and character market.
  • Merck's Gardasil vaccine has been approved for use in males in China.
  • BHP Group and Ivanhoe Electric have initiated a geographical survey in Arizona to search for copper deposits.