BUSINESS

Oil giant Saudi Aramco said Tuesday its first-quarter net profit dipped 14.5 percent on year to $27.27 billion as the Gulf kingdom kept production cuts in place.

Swiss banking giant UBS on Tuesday said first quarter net profit rose 71 percent to nearly $1.8 billion, far exceeding expectations, after two quarters in the red due to the mammoth takeover of Credit Suisse.

Struggling French tech group Atos, an Olympics partner and key French defence contractor, said Monday it would make a decision on financial restructuring offers by May 31.

Apple on Thursday said its quarterly profit ebbed but topped market forecasts as it announced an unprecedented $110 billion share buyback.

TikTok and Universal announced a new licensing agreement Thursday, ending a months-long dispute that saw popular music expunged from the social media platform.

British energy major Shell on Thursday posted sharply lower first-quarter net profit on sinking revenues, but adjusted earnings topped expectations and it unveiled another bumper stock buyback.

Pfizer reported a drop in profits on lower sales of Covid-19 related profits Wednesday as it steers investments to other pharmaceutical areas and implements previously announced cost cuts.

Starbucks reported lower profits on falling sales on Tuesday as the coffee giant pointed to weakening consumer sentiment and lackluster conditions in China as factors behind an earnings miss.

E-commerce titan Amazon on Tuesday said profit in the first three months of 2024 tripled as its cloud, ads, and retail businesses thrived.

Tesla plans hundreds of additional job cuts beyond a recent company-wide layoff as it cracks down on costs in a tough electric vehicle market, according to a US media report.

French media baron Arnaud Lagardere resigned Tuesday as chief executive of the sprawling group of the same name after being charged with misuse of corporate funds.

Global bank HSBC announced Tuesday the shock departure of chief executive Neil Quinn, who will retire after overhauling the group in an "intense" five-year tenure weathering a Covid fallout, simmering geopolitics, and shareholder pressure to spin off Asia assets.

US federal prosecutors are calling for ex-Binance chief Changpeng Zhao to be sent to prison when he appears Tuesday for sentencing on money laundering charges.

Hong Kong on Tuesday launched trading of Asia's first spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), moving forward in the city's race to become a regional virtual asset investment hub.

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman and CEO of DP World Group, signed a significant partnership deal in Malaysia and also opened two new facilities in the Philippines.

Tesla received a key security clearance from China during Elon Musk's whistlestop visit to the world's biggest electric car market, which wrapped up on Monday.

Chinese tech giant ByteDance has said it has no plans to sell TikTok after a new US law put it on a deadline to divest from the hugely popular video platform or have it banned in the United States.

Microsoft, the tech titan most closely associated with AI, has announced nearly $10 billion in investments in artificial intelligence abroad in recent months, the price it is willing to pay to remain a top player in this crucial market.

Japanese auto giant Honda announced Thursday the largest automotive investment in Canada's history, worth Can$15 billion (US$11 billion), for a massive new EV battery and vehicle assembly plant.

Chinese car giants locked in a cut-throat price war descended on the capital for the start of the Auto China show Thursday, vying to draw consumers and headlines in the world's biggest electric vehicle market and abroad.

Strong sales in Ford's fleet business offset deep losses in electric vehicles where the Detroit auto giant has delayed some investments, according to results released Wednesday.

Facebook-owner Meta on Wednesday said its quarterly profits soared last quarter, but worries about the cost of artificial intelligence saw its share price take a hit on Wall Street.

Starbucks is set to hold talks with labor representatives from stores that have voted to unionize in a key step towards reaching contracts, both sides said Tuesday.

Italy's competition authority said Wednesday it had fined two Amazon companies 10 million euros ($10.6 million) for unfair commercial practices, for pushing customers into agreeing to "recurring" rather than "one-time" purchases online.

Donning hijabs and floor-length abaya gowns over shorts and tank tops, Chinese students at an e-commerce school perform into a smartphone camera as they learn how to sell the clothes to overseas TikTok users.

Frenchman Christophe Fouquet takes the reins of Dutch chip giant ASML on Wednesday with a daunting to-do list, top of which will be steering business with China as semiconductors become a geopolitical battleground.

Business activity in the eurozone picked up in April thanks to "increasingly robust" growth in the services sector, a closely watched survey showed Tuesday.

Karim Beguir launched the artificial intelligence start-up InstaDeep in Tunisia in 2014 with just two computers and $2,000.

Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC announced Thursday a nearly 9 percent increase in net profits in the first quarter of 2024, buoyed by global demand for its microchips used to power everything from mobile phones to AI technology.