Reuters - Business Today

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Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Wall St. ends strong October higher as tech, staples lead

(Reuters) - A jump in shares of consumer companies Mondelez and Kellogg after their quarterly reports on Tuesday, along with further gains for tech stocks, helped Wall Street end October on a positive note.

Buy signal blares for cell-tower stocks in 2017

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A hitch in a proposed merger of U.S. wireless carriers Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US has further boosted buoyant shares of cell tower stocks, which could benefit if there is no combined company to cut costs by reducing tower usage.

Apple could drop Qualcomm components in next year's iPhones, iPads: sources

(Reuters) - Apple Inc has designed iPhones and iPads that would drop chips supplied by Qualcomm Inc , according to two people familiar with the matter.

Videogame publisher EA's holiday-quarter sales forecast misses estimates

(Reuters) - Electronic Arts Inc's revenue forecast for the keenly watched holiday quarter narrowly missed estimates on Tuesday amid expectations of tough competition from other games that are likely to release around the same time.

Pfizer expects broad interest for consumer health business

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc, the largest U.S. drugmaker, expects no shortage of suitors for its consumer health business and said it would decide whether to sell, spin off or retain the unit next year.

Kellogg's surprise sales increase cheers investors

(Reuters) - Kellogg Co surprised investors on Tuesday with its first quarterly sales increase in more than two years, showing it was turning a corner after massive cost cuts and a shift to healthier products, sending its shares up 7 percent.

Mastercard posts record profit on higher global spending

(Reuters) - Mastercard Inc on Tuesday posted a record profit and trounced Wall Street expectations, as it battled for consumers and global market share over other payment channels including its bigger rival Visa Inc .

Exclusive - Orange is the new bank? Telecoms giant ventures into lending

PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - Telecoms giant Orange launches its own bank on Thursday, aiming to win 25 percent of France's online banking market by capitalizing on the rising use of smartphones to steal share from established lenders with inferior technology.

ADP, ISS reject Ackman's claims they exchanged non-public data

(Reuters) - Automatic Data Processing Inc rejected as "false and misleading" on Tuesday the accusation by billionaire investor William Ackman that the company gave proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services non-publicly disclosed information.

Trump says he is not looking to phase in corporate tax cut

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was not looking for the corporate tax rate reduction that the White House is seeks to be phased in over time.