
By Rajesh Kumar Singh CHICAGO (Reuters) - Caterpillar Inc will close two facilities in Texas and Panama and is also considering shutting its engine manufacturing plant in Illinois as part of a strategy to boost profitability and better handle business cycles, but the move could cut 880 jobs. The plant closures, which were announced internally over the past two months, were confirmed to Reuters by a company spokeswoman on Friday.
Qualcomm Incorporated today announced that Dr. Paul Jacobs will not be re-nominated to the Qualcomm Board of Directors at Qualcomm’s Annual Meeting of Stockholders on March 23, 2018. The Board reached that decision following his notification to the Board that he has decided to explore the possibility of making a proposal to acquire Qualcomm. Following the withdrawal of Broadcom’s takeover proposal, Qualcomm is focused on executing its business plan and maximizing value for shareholders as an independent company. Dr. Jacobs has been a valued employee and director of Qualcomm since 1990, rising to the level of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, and he has been one of the great innovators in our industry.
President Donald Trump’s deliberation of imposing indefinite tariffs on Chinese imports has placed the U.S.-China trade relations on tenterhooks. Trump is also considering investment as well as travel restrictions on China. Per CNBC, Trump has rejected a tariff proposal worth $30 billion (Euro 24.23 billion roughly) on Chinese imports for a much steeper figure of almost $60 billion (approximately Euro 48.46 billion).
Stormy Daniels may face more than $20 million in damages for violating a "hush agreement" that requires her to remain silent about an affair she alleges she had with President Donald Trump in 2006 and 2007. The potential damages against Daniels, an actress in adult films whose real name is Stephanie Cliffords, were disclosed Friday in a filing in federal court in Los Angeles by Essential Consultants LLC, an entity that was set up by Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in 2016 to pay her $130,000 in exchange for her silence. The company moved the lawsuit, filed by Daniels last week in California state court against Trump, to federal court, saying that neither Daniels, Trump nor the LLC are

Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for the first time this year as the spring home buying season begins. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages slipped to 4.44 percent from 4.46 percent last week. The benchmark rate averaged 4.30 percent a year ago.
CNBC’s Sharon Epperson speaks with Diane Oakley, National Institute on Retirement Security executive director, about millennials facing problems with saving for retirement.

Reuters reports that Wells Fargo (WFC) is facing fresh sanctions after it tricked customers, this time in the auto sector. Regulators found that while Wells already requires its customers to have auto insurance, it was using a loophole to force more than half a million consumers who had a lapse in insurance, to double up and then made profits on those payments. Disney (DIS) is prepping for CEO Bob Iger’s retirement.
Companies from billionaire Kelcy Warren’s Energy Transfer Partners LP to pipeline giant Enterprise Products Partners LP issued a slew of statements following Thursday’s declines on Wall Street as they sought to downplay the significance of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s ruling that master-limited partnerships can no longer get credit for income taxes they don’t actually pay. The affected assets are large, interstate pipelines that, generally speaking, were built in an era of little competition in shipping America’s fossil fuels -- back when government oversight of shipping rates was essential. “The initial sell off was an overreaction that assumed all pipelines in the U.S. are FERC-regulated and that their cash flows were immediately going to fall,” said Rob Thummel, managing partner at Tortoise Capital Advisors.
Semiconductor giant Broadcom Ltd. (AVGO) is still on the M&A hunt after withdrawing its hostile takeover bid for Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) in the face of opposition on national security grounds from President Trump. "We don't see this week's events putting
Former gambling mogul Steve Wynn and his ex-wife Elaine settled a six-year-long dispute over who controls their shares in the casino company they once ran, freeing both to sell the stock. Wynn Resorts Ltd. said in a filing Thursday that the pair, who together control 21 percent of the company, have told a Las Vegas court they no longer consider a 2010 stockholder agreement valid. The filing also said Steve Wynn may seek to sell all or a portion of his shares.
There are still relatively few women who are CEOs of companies in almost all industries — with one major exception. Women CEOs are leading the way in the nonprofit world and, in some areas, they outnumber male CEOs. • Women in 2015 made up 57% of the CEOs of nonprofits with an annual budget of less than $250,000, up from 53% in 2005.
Johnson & Johnson JNJ announced that the FDA has granted breakthrough therapy designation to its late-stage pipeline candidate, erdafitinib for the treatment of urothelial cancer, a type of bladder cancer. The designation from the FDA is intended to expedite the development and review of drugs with early evidence of substantial potential clinical benefit to patients, or benefit patients without current treatment options. The designation for erdafitinib was primarily based on efficacy findings from a phase II study, evaluating it in advanced urothelial cancer indication and showed an overall response rate of 42%.
On Wednesday evening, the Senate passed a bill that would roll back some banking regulations. Indirectly, the bill addresses Equifax’s historic data breach in which Social Security numbers and other personal data of 150 million people were exposed — a number that comprises well over half the U.S.’s adult population. Mark Warner (D-Virg.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) had put forth a bill in January that would hold credit reporting agencies responsible for breaches, it did not progress and Congress had failed to issue a legislative response to the Equifax breach.
Temperatures near negative 24 degrees celsius in Yakutia, the coldest region in Russia, are not putting off would-be treasure hunters who literally saw gold fall from the sky on Thursday. A nine-ton treasure of gold and silver alloy called doré bars fell from the back of an AN-12 cargo plane flying from Yakutsk to Krasnoyarsk in an area largely at and around the airport, the Siberian Times reported.
Jim Chanos, the short seller famous for betting against Enron, has said he thinks Tesla Inc.’s stock is “worthless.” Chanos got some new evidence this week that may support his short sales against Elon Musk’s car company. A string of executives have headed for the exits, including a surprising number from the company’s finance team, as Tesla is dogged by questions about whether it can meet its production targets. The chief financial officer left abruptly last year in a curious turn of events, where he was replaced by his predecessor: Deepak Ahuja served as Tesla’s CFO from 2008 to 2015 and then took over the job again in March 2017, according to his LinkedIn.
Goldman tells its clients to buy high growth companies at reasonable valuations.
Technology company Zuora released its IPO prospectus on Friday, revealing plans to trade on the public market. The cloud-computing company, which helps businesses manage subscription services, was backed by major investors like Blackrock and Benchmark. Its founder and CEO Tien Tzuo was an early Salesforce employee, and has been an outspoken advocate of subscriptions in the journalism business. It plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "ZUO." Here are stats for its most recent fiscal year, which ended January 31: - Revenue: $167.9 million, up about 49 percent from a year ago - Net loss: $47.2 million - Recurring profit margin: 28 percent - 950 customers in over 30 different

A senior executive said Microsoft Corp thoroughly investigates issues raised by women in the workplace and fired about 20 employees last year over complaints of sexual harassment as the company seeks to counter claims that it treats female workers unfairly. In an email to employees publicly released late on Thursday, Microsoft Chief People Officer Kathleen Hogan said Microsoft had 83 harassment complaints in 2017 out of a U.S.-based workforce of over 65,000 employees. Microsoft denies it has ever had such a policy.
The U.S. Treasury has been stealthily weakening the dollar. It isn’t clear if it is doing so consciously, but since a weaker dollar suits Treasury leadership, there probably isn’t too much concern. The key is that the Treasury is flooding the market with short-term debt that neither domestic nor foreign investors are very interested in buying.
Andrew Liveris, the outgoing chairman of DowDuPont Inc., nearly tripled his compensation last year to $65.7 million, bolstered by payments related to Dow Chemical’s merger with DuPont Co. Liveris’ compensation included a $1.9 million salary, $4.17 million annual bonus and equity grants of $16 million, some of which are tied to total-return performance, according to a regulatory filing Friday. He also got $43 million in deferred compensation and benefit distributions related to the merger. Liveris’s 2016 compensation was $23 million. Liveris, the longtime Dow CEO, initiated merger talks days after Ed Breen was named DuPont chief executive officer in October 2015. The deal temporarily created the
For President Trump, quashing the deal would be a victory against nemesis CNN, which is part of Time Warner. Opening statements begin March 21 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Why is the government suing AT&T?
H&R Block says the IRS is actually six times more likely to challenge returns than what is commonly reported. One of the most intimidating things about filing your tax return is the possibility of getting audited. H&R Block, the tax preparation company, says the IRS is actually six times more likely to challenge returns than what is commonly reported.
(1:20) - United Airlines Pet Failures (9:00) - Apple Acquires Digital Magazine Texture: Apple Services Growth(13:20) - Ford Vehicle Recall and Analyst Upgrade(16:00) - Weekly White House Drama(21:00) - Episode Roundup: Podcast@Zacks.comOn today’s episode
Zscaler Inc. (ZS) sells cloud security software that lets IT departments monitor all the traffic on your corporate network while protecting it and (hopefully) the workers. Zscaler’s pitch focuses on it being a cloud native, while established rivals have had to adapt to “networks” becoming distributed global data centers supporting employees who log on from a variety of devices to a multitude of apps. Zscaler is priced its IPO late Thursday at $16, above an already elevated range, according to IPO Boutique.
Ten years ago today, JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced it would buy collapsing investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. for pennies on the dollar after a weekend of emergency talks brokered by the government to avert a financial crisis. The collapse of a bigger investment bank -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. -- six months later without any emergency takeover or government bailout tipped global markets into a tailspin. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was once the global market leader in fixed-income trading, generating about twice as much revenue from that business as JPMorgan.