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Business news from Australia and around the world: companies, deals, earnings, regulation and the people running them.
1807 articles · page 3 of 38
The Trump administration has sued Utah to stop the state from enforcing its gambling ban against Kalshi, a prediction market platform, marking the 10th state targeted by the federal government in a push to protect such services. Utah had sued Kalshi last week, seeking to prohibit it from allowing bets on sports, elections, and other events.
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DoorDash announced Thursday it will acquire Instacart for $17 billion, or $65 per share, a 26% premium, in a deal that combines two of the biggest names in food delivery. The merger is expected to close by the end of 2027 or the first half of 2028, and the companies will operate independently until then.
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A new NASA feature details how the agency's University Student Research Challenge helped launch AG3 Labs, a startup now manufacturing thousands of military training drones per month. Co-founder Gavin Gardner, a former Michigan State student who participated in the NASA program, said the experience was a critical booster for the company.
Small avocado growers in Mexico's Michoacán state have halted harvesting and blocked inspections, cutting nearly half of scheduled shipments to the United States, as they demand a substantial increase in the price they receive from packing houses and exporters.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ordered nine US companies to provide information on how they use personal data to set individual prices and driver compensation, with Chairman Andrew Ferguson saying the agency would scrutinize opaque pricing methods. Several targeted firms said they do not use personal data to set prices.
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Oracle shares jumped 13% on Wednesday after the software company issued an ambitious long-term revenue forecast of $225 billion for fiscal 2030 and pledged to cap additional fundraising at $20 billion, easing investor concerns about debt and AI spending costs.
· 2 sourcesA string of legal battles in the NSW Supreme Court has revealed Bathla Group, a prominent Sydney property developer, missed multiple settlement deadlines on land purchases worth $130 million, forcing one seller to finance the sale himself.
· 2 sourcesMichael Chaney will step down as chairman of Wesfarmers after Thursday's annual meeting, using his farewell to investors to credit the company's culture for its record and to urge caution on artificial intelligence, warning of cyber risk and surprises from AI agents.
· 3 sourcesA new Italian-American restaurant, Vito's, opens on Friday at the former Rockpool site on Bridge Street in Sydney's CBD, promising the grandeur of 1950s and 60s New York dining with an $8 million fit-out and a kitchen led by a chef who worked at Carbone.
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Some BP board members favour breaking up the $129 billion oil giant, according to people familiar with the matter, after years of smaller spinoffs failed to assuage investor pressure for higher returns. No decision has been made, chief executive Meg O'Neill appears opposed, and a BP spokesperson said: "This is categorically false." The company is due to report earnings on Friday.
Britain's fiscal watchdog has warned that Labour's overhaul of workers' rights will have a “negative economic impact”, saying the cost to businesses will far outstrip any boost to workers' productivity.
The US Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged within the 3.75% to 4% range following its October policy meeting, but Chair Kevin Warsh denied that next week's midterm elections influenced the decision, saying 'politics played no role.' Financial markets are pricing in a quarter-point rate hike in December; Commonwealth Bank analysis expects a further increase in March.
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Ford Motor will announce third-quarter results after markets close Wednesday, with investors focused on how a September supplier disruption to F-150 production affected the automaker's performance. Analysts surveyed by LSEG expect adjusted earnings per share of 40 cents and automotive revenue of $46.24 billion.
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HP has joined Asus and Acer in moving some manufacturing capacity back to China, partially reversing its planned ‘China+1’ diversification strategy, as surging AI demand for memory chips drives component costs sharply higher, according to reports.
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Alphabet shares tumbled about 10 per cent in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the Google parent reported third-quarter earnings that missed expectations, as search revenue growth slowed amid investor concerns that artificial intelligence chatbots and agents could take share from its core business. The results were mixed: cloud revenue doubled to nearly $31 billion, but negative free cash flow widened to $9 billion and capital expenditure remains near $200 billion annually.
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Microsoft beat Wall Street expectations in its fiscal first quarter, reporting $92.3 billion in revenue and a 48% surge in Azure cloud revenue to $33.2 billion, its first disclosure of the figure in dollars, as analysts raised price targets, with one target implying 41% upside.
· 11 sourcesA subsidiary of Elon Musk's xAI is reportedly offering to buy 418 homes in a Southaven, Mississippi, neighborhood, but only if homeowners agree not to join a class-action lawsuit over noise pollution from the gas turbines powering its nearby AI data center. Real estate agents have been going door-to-door on behalf of the company, and renters say they are being forced out with 60 days' notice after their landlords agreed to sell.
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South Korea has fined Google and Apple a combined 63.7 billion won (€42.7m) for pushing app developers toward their in-house payment systems and holding up app reviews, adding to a string of penalties the US tech giants face over app store rules, including in the EU.
· 3 sourcesThe Trump administration is giving Constellation Energy $5 billion in loans to expand nuclear generating capacity at eight US power plants by 1.1 gigawatts, with most or all of the additional power from seven of those facilities already bought by Google, Meta or Amazon.
General Motors is moving its stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq, a bid for inclusion in the exchange's tech-heavy index that would bring new investors to its shares as the carmaker pitches itself as a technology company.
State-owned QatarEnergy has extended its force majeure on LNG deliveries to the end of 2026, leaving European and Asian buyers without contracted term supply heading into winter and pushing European gas prices to their highest level since the 2022 energy crisis.
· 2 sourcesFirst-time buyers have given a cautious welcome to the government's Your First Home scheme, saying the lower deposit requirement is a step forward but unlikely to be the decisive factor in their ability to buy. The mixed verdict comes as readers from across the income spectrum shared their experiences of the October budget, revealing persistent financial strain even among those on higher incomes.
· 4 sourcesSolidigm, the American subsidiary of South Korea's SK hynix, is in talks with the US Commerce Department over a $45 billion flash memory plant in the United States, while seeking approval to export equipment to upgrade its existing factory in Dalian, China, according to Bloomberg, which cited unnamed sources.
A group of investors led by Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management has offered $1.4 billion to take Wendy's private, sending the burger chain's shares up about 15% in premarket trading. The offer, disclosed in a regulatory filing Wednesday, would pay $7.35 per share in cash, a 20% premium on Tuesday's closing price.
Bitcoin rose above $81,000 on Wednesday, rebounding after a brief dip below $80,000, as a rally in Asian chip stocks spilled into cryptocurrency markets. The move coincided with a surge in South Korea's Kospi index, led by a sevenfold profit jump at chipmaker SK Hynix, and came as U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded a second straight day of inflows, taking in $176 million on Tuesday, according to CoinDesk.
· 2 sourcesShares in GSK slid on Wednesday, making it the biggest faller on the FTSE 100, despite the UK drugmaker reporting better-than-expected financial results for the third quarter. Investors were unnerved by weaker vaccine sales, £318m in restructuring charges and the overall outlook, including a looming patent cliff for its blockbuster HIV drug dolutegravir.
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European car giant Stellantis reported a 4 billion euro ($4.5 billion) industrial free cash flow deficit for the third quarter, even as it posted a slight increase in revenue and maintained its financial targets for 2026 under a sweeping turnaround plan. Shares rose nearly 6% in Milan and in New York premarket trading after the results, defying expectations that the automaker might cut guidance like some rivals.
Alphabet said on Tuesday that Oracle will offer Google's tensor processing units, the custom AI chips Google has developed since 2013, marking the first time customers can access the TPUs outside Google's infrastructure.
· 2 sourcesJury selection is expected to begin Wednesday in Los Angeles in a trial over alleged social media harms to teenagers, with Meta and Snap set to defend the claims after TikTok and YouTube settled with both plaintiffs and Meta settled with one.
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The Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep interest rates steady at 3.75% later today, while tech stocks are set to move higher after chipmaker SK Hynix reported record third-quarter earnings, sending its stock up 11% and lifting South Korea's KOSPI 6.63%.
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Five people are missing after the Prospector 5 drilling rig sank off the coast of Gabon on Saturday evening with 115 people on board, the rig's owner Borr Drilling has confirmed.
Qantas ground crew have gone on strike, according to reports from multiple Australian news outlets.
· 4 sourcesJohn Healey is expected to overturn a planned cut to the annual cash Isa allowance in his first budget, preferring to encourage investment in shares through education rather than reducing tax breaks on savings, the Guardian has learned.
· 6 sourcesA federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration illegally cut wages for foreign farm guest workers, giving the U.S. Labor Department until Dec. 30 to rewrite the pay formula for nearly 400,000 seasonal jobs. If the deadline is missed, wages automatically snap back to rates set under the Biden administration, and growers who paid the lower rates may owe back pay.
Chancellor John Healey has announced the abolition of standing charges on gas bills for 23 million homes, a move he said would end an "unfair and outdated" practice and save two-thirds of households an average of £45 a year. The change, to be implemented by energy regulator Ofgem next year or as soon as possible after, was unveiled ahead of his first budget statement in the Commons on Wednesday.
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Oil prices climbed Wednesday as investors weighed a widening Middle East conflict after Iran-backed Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia's largest refinery, while Israel's election appeared headed for a stalemate that could complicate the region's political outlook.
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Jio Platforms' shares rose 21.4% on their stock market debut Wednesday after completing India's largest initial public offering, which was more than 22 times subscribed.
· 2 sourcesThe Queensland operations manager of the firm building Brisbane's Olympic stadium hosted a Riverfire viewing party on the Kangaroo Point Bridge worksite in 2023 that very nearly forced the cancellation of the fireworks display, the state's inquiry into the CFMEU heard on Wednesday.
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Florida-based Villa Vie Residences has told passengers it will spend the next 60 days pursuing restructuring and recapitalisation after surging fuel costs forced it to suspend its continuous world voyage in Cambodia. Founder Mikael Petterson said the company has proposed that passengers pay roughly US$500 more a month plus a fuel surcharge as long as prices remain elevated. Around 200 residents were given just hours to leave the Villa Vie Odyssey in Sihanoukville.
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Australian steel company BlueScope has significantly raised its earnings forecast, driven largely by a near 75 per cent increase in earnings from its North American mini-mill. The windfall is attributed to US President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, which have pushed domestic US steel prices to their highest level in four years.
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Nova Minerals has secured the final permits needed to begin producing antimony from its Alaska project in 2027, with the Phase 1 development fully funded by a US$43.4 million award from the US Department of Defense. The company has completed its engineering and metallurgy work and is now focused on construction. In separate developments, True North Copper has extended its Mt Oxide copper corridor in Queensland, WhiteRock Lithium has returned thick, high-grade spodumene pegmatite intersections in Quebec, and Pursuit Minerals has recorded its best ever brine assay from the Rio Grande Sur project in Argentina.
· 2 sourcesThe Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) shocked financial markets by holding its official cash rate (OCR) at 2.75 percent in a 4-3 split decision, defying expectations of a rate rise and leaving the door open for future increases.
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Beijing has deployed billions of dollars from its network of state-owned 'national team' funds to intervene in the Chinese stock market, attempting to arrest a weekslong rout that has pushed shares into bear territory. The intervention, occurring just days before the Communist Party's Fifth Plenum, has helped stabilise prices but has failed to restore investor confidence, especially in the tech and AI sectors President Xi Jinping has championed as the future of the economy.
The UK public accounts committee has warned that the government's funding model for the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk is a 'terrible deal' for taxpayers, with costs potentially rising to nearly £48bn and consumers facing billions in extra charges.
The Star Entertainment Group has been fined $260 million by the Federal Court for serious anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing breaches, with Justice Cameron Moore describing the conduct as egregious and warning the company may need to raise further cash to pay the penalty.
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South Korea's Kospi surged 6.6% on Wednesday as SK Hynix's stronger-than-expected earnings and a substantial shareholder payout reignited investor appetite for AI stocks, with the memory chipmaker also forecasting memory shortages through at least 2030.
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General Motors said Tuesday it will invest more than $2 billion in the Lansing, Michigan region over the next several years, including $1.25 billion to prepare its Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant for future vehicle production, and it is working with the US Department of Energy to redirect a previously awarded $500 million grant toward hybrid production at the factory. The move is the latest sign that GM is shifting strategy as EV demand slows.
Insurance technology company Guidewire announced Tuesday it will acquire Hyperexponential, a U.K.-based AI startup focused on underwriting and pricing decisions, for $1.7 billion in cash, in a deal expected to close next year.
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