It’s the broadest portfolio by far, and we’ll have double the R&D of any other company in the industry,” DuPont Executive Chairman Ed Breen said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Monday. Shares of IFF, which has a market value of $13.4 billion, are trading down nearly 7% Monday morning. DuPont’s stock, which has a market value of $48.3 billion, were up less than 1%. Under terms of the agreement, DuPont shareholders will own 55.4% of the shares of the new company and existing IFF shareholders w

While the Detroit giant initially put up a fight to hang onto its global sales crown, GM has now abandoned its long-time strategy of growth, almost no matter what the cost. Long the world’s largest automaker, General Motors has watched an assortment of key competitors push past it in the global sales race this past decade and may soon find itself slipping into the No. We will continue to optimize our operations market by market to further improve our competitiveness and cost base.” Under her lea

Tech was the best-performing sector among the 11 S&P 500 groupings, led by Micron Technology and Western Digital which traded 4.5% and 6.9% higher. Micron is trading at its 52-week high, on pace for its best day in two months. Micron and Western Digital surged on Monday on upgrades at Susquehanna International Group. The equity research firm upgraded Western Digital on the expected ramp-up of the 5G smartphone build cycle. “Given elevated valuations and elevated expectations for high priced stoc

Mired by allegations of racism and anti-Semitism, one of YouTube’s biggest stars, PewDiePie, announced he will take a break from the platform in 2020. In recent years, though, Kjellberg has found himself at the center of controversy as some of his racist remarks have been embraced by far-right groups. Amid growing blowback for his remarks, Kjellberg took to YouTube this weekend to announce his departure from the platform. “I am taking [a] break from YouTube next year,” he said in a video. At the

Goldman Sachs is raising its 12-month commodity returns forecast to 6.4% — a 3% increase — based on subsiding geopolitical tensions. The firm said that following clarity on the US-China trade deal and UK election, demand for commodities will increase, without any changes to supply. For oil specifically, the firm raised its returns forecast to 15% from 9.7%. “Tighter than expected agriculture markets due to supply problems and an improved outlook on oil following the OPEC+ agreement reinforce our

Financial professionals sit in the Goldman Sachs booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The investment firm highlighted a decline in stock buybacks as a risk to the market in its weekly note to clients. Goldman estimates that buybacks will be down 15% to $710 billion this year and will decline another 5% in 2020. If share repurchases fall more than expected next year, it could lead to slower earnings per share growth and increased volatility. The question about buybacks from clients

A stronger economy and a severe housing shortage have the nation’s homebuilders feeling better than they have in two decades. Builder confidence in the newly built, single-family home market jumped 5 points in December to 76, the highest reading since June 1999, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. At the worst of the housing crash, in 2009, builder sentiment hit a low of just 8. Of the index’s three components, current sales conditions rose 7

Government listens disproportionately to rich guys who don’t want to pay taxes. Elizabeth Warren: I see this as what’s the best way to grow our economy going forward? Ultimately, I think that’s an economy that’s more sustainable and an economy where we’re going to see more growth. Those federal dollars that we then put into child care, that’s money into little communities all across Iowa, all across this country. John Harwood: President Obama said recently that the country is in a mood for impro

U.S. special representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun talks with South Korea’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Lee Do-hoon during a meeting to discuss North Korea nuclear issues at the Foreign Ministry on October 29, 2018 in Seoul, South Korea. U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, urged Pyongyang on Monday to return offers of talks, dismissing leader Kim Jong Un’s year-end deadline while highlighting Washington’s willingness to discuss ”

Police stand guard during a protest at the New Town Plaza shopping mall in Shatin in Hong Kong on December 15, 2019. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam in Beijing on Monday, saying the Asian financial hub was not yet out of the “dilemma” facing the city’s economy after months of sometimes violent protests. The meetings come after Hong Kong police fired tear gas in late night street clashes with anti-government protesters on Sunday as the former British colony’s worst

A small Singapore opposition party has corrected online posts critical of the government following an order by the labor ministry under a new ‘fake news’ law that rights groups say is being used to chill dissent. Seeking to stir support ahead of a parliamentary election expected within months, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), which has no seats in parliament, posted articles in recent months on its website and Facebook arguing that an increasing number of white-collar workers were losing th

Protests over a new Indian citizenship law based on religion spread to student campuses on Monday as critics said the Hindu nationalist government was pushing a partisan agenda in conflict with the country’s founding as a secular republic. Critics say the law, which does not make the same provision for Muslims, weakens India’s secular foundations. Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the main opposition Congress party, said the Modi government was dividing up Indian society through the citizenship law an

Their comments pour skepticism on the farm purchases that are part of the phase one trade deal recently announced by both countries. U.S. and Chinese officials announced on Friday that both countries finally reached an agreement after a contentious 18-month trade war. But as part of the deal, U.S. President Donald Trump insisted that China buy more U.S. crops, saying that Beijing will purchase $50 billion worth of agriculture goods “pretty soon.” For his part, he vowed not to pursue a new round

European stocks traded higher Monday after the U.S. and China agreed a ‘phase one’ trade deal, offering some optimism for risk assets. The pan-European Stoxx 600 added 1.1% by mid-morning to surpass 416.6 and hit an all-time high. Banks and financial services stocks climbed 1.4% and 1.5% respectively. Washington and Beijing announced on Friday that an agreement had been reached pending legal procedures, a significant step forward after a bruising 18-month trade war. U.K. flash readings showed th

With Xi’s speech blockchain technology can now be added to this list,” Hileman told CNBC. Since March, over 500 blockchain projects have been registered with the Cyber Administration of China. “Blockchain technologies have not yet lived up to the hype and most enterprise blockchain projects are stuck in experimentation mode,” Avivah Litan, research vice president at Gartner, said in a recent report. China vs the rest of the worldChina appears to be the biggest nation to have come out with a bloc

Wall Street points toward higher open on growing trade hope1 Hour AgoU.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open Monday morning as investors continue to digest the phase one trade deal struck between the U.S. and China last week. CNBC’s Rahel Solomon reports.

Workers during the production process of pipes at the Nord Stream 2 facility at Mukran on Ruegen Islandon in Sassnitz, Germany. Essentially, Gazprom has been constrained to fall back on its Ukraine transit route, and to strike a new or extended deal with Naftogaz amid strained commercial and geopolitical relations. The dealWary of being locked into a long deal, Gazprom has offered Ukraine’s Naftogaz a one-year gas transit deal to continue the transit of Russian gas. As such, any delay to NS2 wou

International Flavors & Fragrances on Sunday said it will merge with DuPont’s nutrition & biosciences unit in a deal that will create a new consumer giant valued at more than $45 billion. Under terms of the agreement, DuPont shareholders will own 55.4% of the shares of the new company and existing IFF shareholders will own 44.6%, IFF said in a statement. Industrial materials maker DuPont will also receive a one-time cash payment of $7.3 billion upon closing of the deal, IFF added. Ireland’s Kerr

A winter storm barreling across the country’s middle section Sunday created dangerous conditions for drivers, with traffic grinding to a halt in some places as authorities reported dozens of crashes. The storm was dropping snow and freezing rain from the Rockies to the Midwest, the National Weather Service said. About 13 million people from Colorado to Connecticut were under winter storm warnings and weather advisories Sunday night, but the system could eventually affect as many as 39 million pe

China’s state-run broadcaster CCTV canceled the broadcast of a soccer game on Sunday after a star player criticized the country’s treatment of Muslims. The match between England’s Arsenal and Manchester City teams was removed from CCTV’s schedule after Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil posted comments on social media about the treatment of Uighur Muslims in China. According to U.S. thinktank the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), around a million Uighur Muslims have been detained in “re-education”