Trump imposes new sanctions on Iran
U.S. futures were slightly lower on Tuesday after President Donald Trump imposed hard-hitting fresh sanctions against Iran, targeting the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, the president said the sanctions are aimed at denying “the Supreme Leader and the Supreme Leader’s office, and those closely affiliated with him and the office, access to key financial resources and support.”
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the new sanctions show Trump administration’s “desperation” and it is bound to fail.
Meanwhile, Reuters quoted a top U.S. official as saying that Trump feels “comfortable with any outcome” when he holds trade discussions with China’s President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit later this week.
At around 6:01 a.m. ET, futures on blue-chip Dow were down 27 points, or 0.1% to 26,735. Futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 declined 21.75 points, or 0.28% to 7,737 while those on the broader S&P 500 were seen losing 4.62 points, or 0.16% to 2,947.38.
AbbVie to buy Allergan in a $63 billion deal
AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) is buying rival pharmaceutical company Allergan PLC (NYSE: AGN) in a cash-and-stock deal for about $63 billion, the companies announced early Tuesday.
Under the terms of the deal, shareholders of Allergan will receive 0.8660 AbbVie shares and $120.30 in cash for each share held, for a total consideration of $188.24 per Allergan share.
Shares of Allergan shot up $38.90, or 30.02% to $168.47 in premarket trading hours, while those of AbbVie declined 7.58% to $72.50.
FedEx files lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Commerce
FedEx Corp (NYSE: FDX) has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Commerce, arguing that it shouldn’t be required to follow the most recent restrictions that the Trump administration imposed on doing business with Chinese tech giant Huawei.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, asks the court to stop the Commerce Department from enforcing restrictions in the Export Administration Regulations against the logistics giant.
“This puts an impossible burden on a common carrier such as FedEx to know the origin and technological make-up of contents of all the shipments it handles and whether they comply with the EAR,” the Memphis-based company said in the lawsuit.
Amazon confirms Prime Day 2019 will run for 48 hours
Amazon Prime Day 2019 will run for two entire days, the online retailer announced on Monday. The popular annual sales event will begin at 3:00 a.m. ET on Monday, July 15 and end on 2:59 a.m. ET on Tuesday, July 16. Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) plans to offer over a million deals around the world, including steep discounts on Alexa-enabled devices.
Prime members in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Mexico, Singapore, Netherlands, Italy, China, Australia, United Arabs Emirates, Japan, Luxembourg, India, Canada, Belgium, Austria, and Australia can enjoy non-stop deals action during the 48-hour discount holiday.
