Unilever Plc , one of the world’s biggest consumer goods groups, posted better-than-expected sales at the end of last year, boosted by premium beauty and home care products in key markets including the US and India. The maker of Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise said Thursday underlying fourth-quarter sales rose 4.2%, above the 4% anticipated by analysts. The results are the first after Unilever...
Unilever Plc , one of the world’s biggest consumer goods groups, posted better-than-expected sales at the end of last year, boosted by premium beauty and home care products in key markets including the US and India. The maker of Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise said Thursday underlying fourth-quarter sales rose 4.2%, above the 4% anticipated by analysts. The results are the first after Unilever spun off its ice-cream business — which included Ben & Jerry’s — and come as Chief Executive Officer Fernando Fernandez nears his first full year at the helm. Extending a turnaround plan begun by his predecessor, Fernandez is streamlining the sprawling group by selling brands that don’t scale internationally, and focusing on boosting the multinational’s most successful products in key markets. Investors have welcomed that strategy, with shares of Unilever up 9.5% this year through Wednesday’s close.
The U.S. and Japan are moving towards funding the initial three projects under Tokyo's $550B investment fund, a cornerstone of the bilateral trade deal, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The projects will be designed to channel Japanese capital into strategic U.S. sectors related to a data center infrastructure project led by SoftBank Group ( SFTBY ), a deep-sea oil term...
The U.S. and Japan are moving towards funding the initial three projects under Tokyo's $550B investment fund, a cornerstone of the bilateral trade deal, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The projects will be designed to channel Japanese capital into strategic U.S. sectors related to a data center infrastructure project led by SoftBank Group ( SFTBY ), a deep-sea oil terminal in the Gulf of Mexico, and synthetic diamonds for semiconductors, the sources said . These investments will undergo a multi-layered approval process, and discussions between U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Japanese Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa will determine the outcome. The heads are scheduled to meet in Washington on Thursday, the report added, citing Japan’s Trade Ministry. Once the projects are finalized, Japan has 45 business days to begin funding them under the terms of the agreement between the two countries. Earlier this year, the U.S. raised tariffs on most Japanese goods to 25% before reducing them to 15% after Japan committed to boosting U.S.-bound investment through the fund. Dear readers : We recognize that politics often intersects with the financial news of the day, so we invite you to click here to join the separate political discussion. More on Japan Japan's unemployment rate steady at 2.6% in November, retail sales rise Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Lazard Japanese Equity ETF Dividend scorecard for Lazard Japanese Equity ETF Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on SoftBank Group Corp. Historical earnings data for SoftBank Group Corp.
Samsung Electronics said on Thursday that it has started shipping the latest high-bandwidth memory chips, HBM4, as the chipmaker races to catch up with rivals in supplying to Nvidia. The global race to build AI data centers has fuelled demand for HBM, a type of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) that helps process massive amounts of data generated by complex artificial intelligence appl...
Samsung Electronics said on Thursday that it has started shipping the latest high-bandwidth memory chips, HBM4, as the chipmaker races to catch up with rivals in supplying to Nvidia. The global race to build AI data centers has fuelled demand for HBM, a type of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) that helps process massive amounts of data generated by complex artificial intelligence applications. Samsung, the world's top memory chipmaker, had been slow in responding to the advanced AI chip market, lagging behind rivals in supplying previous-generation HBM chips.
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images WeRide ( WRD ) and Uber ( UBER ) have launched the first commercial robotaxi service in downtown Abu Dhabi, marking the Emirate's first deployment of autonomous vehicles in its central area. The service now operates in Khalifa City, Masdar City, Rabdan, and along routes between Corniche Road and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, in partnership with...
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images WeRide ( WRD ) and Uber ( UBER ) have launched the first commercial robotaxi service in downtown Abu Dhabi, marking the Emirate's first deployment of autonomous vehicles in its central area. The service now operates in Khalifa City, Masdar City, Rabdan, and along routes between Corniche Road and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, in partnership with the Integrated Transport Centre. With this expansion, the WeRide-Uber robotaxi service now covers about 70% of Abu Dhabi’s main areas, and the fleet has quadrupled in size since operations began in December 2024. Source: Press Release More on WeRide WeRide: Well-Positioned As L4 Commercialization Expands WeRide: Autonomous Driving At A Discount WeRide: This Ride Is Getting Safer WeRide, Uber to deploy 1,200 robotaxis across the Middle East WeRide enables robotaxi booking via Tencent's WeChat in China
Dzmitry Skazau/iStock via Getty Images Market Recap The municipal bond market in 2025 demonstrated notable resilience amid a challenging macroeconomic and technical backdrop. Gross municipal issuance reached a record $565 billion for the year, including $517 billion of tax-exempt supply, yet demand remained strong enough to absorb this volume with limited disruption. Retail investors, separately m...
Dzmitry Skazau/iStock via Getty Images Market Recap The municipal bond market in 2025 demonstrated notable resilience amid a challenging macroeconomic and technical backdrop. Gross municipal issuance reached a record $565 billion for the year, including $517 billion of tax-exempt supply, yet demand remained strong enough to absorb this volume with limited disruption. Retail investors, separately managed accounts, and particularly ETFs provided consistent inflows, allowing tax-exempt municipals to outperform U.S. Treasuries during the second half of the year as interest rates declined and technical conditions improved. During the fourth quarter, yield curve dynamics were mixed. Front-end yields moved modestly higher, while longer maturities rallied, resulting in a flatter curve across intermediate maturities. One-, three-, and five-year yields rose modestly, while ten- and thirty-year yields declined, favoring longer-duration exposure. Credit spreads were largely stable, with AA and BBB spreads tightening slightly and A-rated spreads widening modestly, reflecting a measured increase in risk premiums for lower investment-grade credits. Overall, the quarter was characterized by stable credit conditions, strong performance in longer maturities, and continued investor confidence in municipal credit quality. Macroeconomic and policy uncertainty remained elevated, driven by a prolonged government shutdown, evolving federal tax and healthcare policy, and ongoing climate-related risks. Despite these headwinds, the demand for tax-advantaged income remained robust, and investor activity increasingly focused on curve positioning and selective sector rotation within the high-grade municipal universe. Portfolio Review The Touchstone Core Municipal Bond Fund (Class A Shares, Load Waived) underperformed its benchmark, the Bloomberg Municipal Bond Index, for the quarter ended December 31, 2025. Performance during the quarter was influenced by coupon and maturity positioning. Strong ...
Shirofune has added Reddit Ads to its digital advertising automation platform. The integration lets marketers manage Reddit campaigns alongside channels such as Google, Meta, and TikTok. This development expands tools available to advertisers using Reddit, which trades under ticker NYSE:RDDT. For Reddit, whose core business centers on community driven discussion boards and interest based forums, a...
Shirofune has added Reddit Ads to its digital advertising automation platform. The integration lets marketers manage Reddit campaigns alongside channels such as Google, Meta, and TikTok. This development expands tools available to advertisers using Reddit, which trades under ticker NYSE:RDDT. For Reddit, whose core business centers on community driven discussion boards and interest based forums, ad integrations like this can be important for how brands use the platform. Marketers using...
(RTTNews) - Sanofi (SAN.PA, SNY), a French pharmaceutical and healthcare company, on Thursday announced that the Board of Directors had decided not to renew the director mandate of Chief Executive Officer Paul Hudson, with his last day set for February 17, at the close of busines
(RTTNews) - Sanofi (SAN.PA, SNY), a French pharmaceutical and healthcare company, on Thursday announced that the Board of Directors had decided not to renew the director mandate of Chief Executive Officer Paul Hudson, with his last day set for February 17, at the close of busines