Prices were at $3.99 figures released Thursday showed, continuing a downward trend for almost two months. Costs have fallen with cheaper oil and relatively weak demand. By one measure, fuel consumption has recently been

TreeHouse Foods Inc. said Thursday it agreed to sell for $950 million a "significant portion" of its Meal Preparation unit to London-based investment firm Investindustrial Advisors Ltd. The Oak Brook, Ill., company did not provide a specific figure on the size of the stake in the business it sold. The purchase price of $950 million amounts to about 13.6 times the Meal Preparation unit's projected 2022 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) of $70 million. The business is expected to generate about $1.6 billion in sales in 2022. The purchase includes $530 million in cash and $420...

Workers at Starbucks have held over 55 different strikes in at least 17 states in the US in recent months over the company’s aggressive opposition to a wave of unionization.

According to an estimate by Starbucks Workers United, the strikes have cost Starbucks over $375,000 in lost revenue. The union created a $1m strike fund in June 2022 to support Starbucks workers through their strikes and several relief funds have been established for strikes and to support workers who have lost their jobs.

EUR/USD has been trading within a range over the course of the past three weeks, with the price spending much of this week rising back towards the confluence of trendline and 200 simple moving average (SMA) resistance. The wider bearish trend does bring expectations of another turn lower before too long, with this afternoons US consumer price index (CPI) reading bringing the potential for major dollar volatility today.The fact that we have trendline, SMA, and horizontal resistance up ahead does bring a heightened risk that the pair heads lower here. As such, a bearish short-term outlook holds unless we see the price push up through the $1.0294 swing high.Source: ProRealTime

NEW YORK, Aug 10 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) is set to post a gain of $34.1 billion by reducing its stake in Alibaba Group Holding (9988.HK) from 23.7% to 14.6%. read more

But the Japanese conglomerate will not sell its shares directly in the market. It is using a complex security called "prepaid forward contracts," which is a derivative largely used by investors.

Here's how these contracts work:

EUR/JPY bounces off weekly lows in the 136.60/50 band and reclaims part of the ground lost on Wednesday’s strong retracement.

So far, the August recovery appears to have met some initial resistance in the 138.40 zone (August 10). If the cross regains upside traction and surpasses this level, it could then extend the move to, initially, the 55-day SMAs, today at 139.06.

While above the 200-day SMA at 133.87, the outlook for the cross is expected to remain constructive. This contention zone also appears underpinned by the proximity of the August low at 133.39 (August 2).

Aug 11 (Reuters) - The average price of U.S. retail gasoline fell below $4 per gallon on Thursday for the first time in months, giving some relief to drivers in the world's largest consumer of the fuel.

The national average price for regular unleaded gas fell to $3.990 a gallon on Aug. 11, according to the American Automobile Association.

Gasoline prices peaked at a record $5.02 in June. That high cost curbed spending, and prices have also dropped as market fears of severe restrictions on supply have ebbed since Russia first invaded Ukraine in February.

KYIV, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Artists have painted brilliant sunflowers over heaps of burnt-out cars destroyed in Russia's invasion of Ukraine - upsetting some locals who wonder if it is too soon to beautify the wreckage of war.

The group of painters from Ukraine and the United States say they plan to sell digital images of the work as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and raise money for Ukrainian artists, rebuilding projects and other causes.

The cars were largely recovered in the city of Irpin, on the outskirts of the capital, from a bridge destroyed by Ukrainian forces to halt the advance of Russian tanks, Trek Kelly, a Los Angeles-based muralist who helped initiate the project, said.

Michael Brush is a columnist for MarketWatch. At the time of publication, he had no positions in any stocks mentioned here. Brush has suggested Seagen, Merck, BioMarin, Biogen, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Zimmer Biomet in his newsletter, Brush Up on Stocks

You are tempted to increase exposure to stocks because of the market’s strength. But you are still gun-shy because of the painful sell-off. Plus, you are worried about a recession. What should you do? 

Buy...

Markets surged last night on the back of lower-than-expected US inflation. Markets globally rallied, anticipating a slowdown in the pace of Fed Interest Rate Hikes, and a resumption of the long bull Equity market. Bonds rallied. Joy, joy… joy..

Oh dear. It may be well to remember the Happy Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz singing “Ding Dong, Inflation’s Dead…” but, that occurs right at the start of the film… before things get “challenging”. I’m not saying End-of-the-World.. just not-quite-as-rosy-as-you-hope!

The pace of US consumer price inflation fell to 8.5% y-o-y, down from 9.1% in June. It’s well to remember what the CPI number shows is fast prices are rising, not how much they have risen – it’s a subtle, but critical difference…

8.5% Inflation means prices are still rising, (Doh!), just less quickly than last month. Rising prices mean the Fed, and other Central Banks still have to address them. (Which is why expecting Central Banks to mellow rate...

Aug 11 (Reuters) - The average price of U.S. retail gasoline fell below $4 per gallon on Thursday for the first time in months, giving some relief to drivers in the world's largest consumer of the fuel.

The national average price for regular unleaded gas fell to $3.990 a gallon on Aug. 11, according to the American Automobile Association.

Gasoline prices peaked at a record $5.02 in June. That high cost curbed spending, and prices have also dropped as market fears of severe restrictions on supply have ebbed since Russia first invaded Ukraine in February.

Zimbabwe is considering establishing a currency board to support the Zimbabwean dollar, as inflation surges.

“The issue of the currency board is being looked at,” Ashok Chakravarti, a member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee, said Thursday at an economic conference in the resort city of Victoria Falls. “It’s been done by 40 countries before, but it also requires a substantial amount of reserve money. It is being considered.”

Aug 11 (Reuters) - Insurer Aegon (AEGN.AS) raised its forecasts for full-year operating capital generation and 2021-2023 free cash flow on Thursday after a quarterly earnings beat, lifting its shares more than 8%.

The Dutch group, which has significant operations in the United States, forecast full-year operating capital generation of around 1.4 billion euros ($1.44 billion), from about 1.2 billion previously.

It said cumulative free cash flow over the period 2021 to 2023 was expected to be at least 2.2 billion euros, well above its previous target of 1.4 to 1.6 billion.

A Las Vegas bartender coping with a recent cancer diagnosis is fearing eviction. A young professional in Tucson is skipping car payments to afford her higher rent. A researcher in Miami signed the lease for her new apartment sight unseen. 

Rental costs in the US are soaring at the

ZURICH, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Siemens (SIEGn.DE) said on Thursday it continued to see strong industrial demand during its third quarter, as costs related to its Siemens Energy investment and decision to quit Russia pushed the engineering group into the red for the first time in nearly 12 years.

The maker of industrial software and trains reported higher revenue and orders for the three months to the end of June, a positive sign for the health of the broader industrial sector.

In factory automation, all regions reported orders 20% higher than a year earlier, Siemens said, while elevated component and logistics costs were being tackled by passing on the costs to customers.

EUR/USD climbed to its highest level in a month at 1.0368 on Wednesday. A sustained break above the 1.0360 area would clear the way towards June 27 high near 1.0615, economists at BBH report.