Shares in the food and beverage giant fell nearly 25% in Friday trading, Berkshire Hathaway has been particularly hard hitShares in the food and beverage giant Kraft Heinz fell nearly 25% in Friday trading, a day after the company wrote down by $15.4bn the value of its Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands.The company, which has disclosed that in October it received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has been battling pressure on the value of its brands since it came into ex...

SEC asks judge to act after car boss allegedly breached deal to pre-approve his messagesThe US financial regulator has asked a judge to hold Tesla’s billionaire boss, Elon Musk, in contempt of court for tweeting misleading information in breach of a deal that saw him fined $20m (£15.2m) for inaccurate tweets last year.The Securities and Exchange Commission said Musk had “once again published inaccurate and material information about Tesla to his over 24 million Twitter followers”, according t...

Bezos, who holds Amazon stock valued at about $137bn, contributed a total of $2bn in 2018Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man and one frequently tagged a cheapskate when it comes to giving away money, has emerged as a leading philanthropist. Related: Jeff Bezos: the Amazon billionaire and Trump bete noire Continue reading...

When personal finance expert Jean Chatzky was buying a house years ago with her husband, she got the shock of her life: His credit score was better.

U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to delay raising tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods has helped push global stock markets broadly higher as investors hope for a resolution in the...

Buying near-13% share is acting like unfriendly corporate raider, says French governmentA minor diplomatic row appears to be building after the Dutch government snapped up a near-13% stake in Air France-KLM, prompting the French government to accuse The Hague of acting like an “unfriendly” corporate raider.The Dutch finance minister said the Netherlands had spent €680m (£581m) on a 12.7% stake in the company, which was formed in 2004 when the two flag-carrier airlines merged. Continue reading...

Japan still dominates the global cultured pearl market, despite a fall in specialised pearl farmers. In the past 10 years it has produced annually about 20 tonnes of farmed pearls Continue reading...

Annual review shows low consumer confidence and high business rates remain a hurdleMore than 900 pubs vanished from communities in Britain last year, as the industry was hit by intense cost pressures and business rate increases.A total of 914 pubs disappeared in 2018, according to the real estate data company Altus Group’s annual review, due to be released this week. Continue reading...

Campaigners say houses now among UK’s least affordable owing to rise of holiday rentals‘Nothing is affordable’: buying a home now just a dream on Arran Campaigners on the Isle of Arran have called for help to cope with a housing crisis that has left hundreds of people without permanent homes.The Arran Economic Group (AEG) hopes to be the first community organisation in Scotland to use government funds to build dozens of affordable homes aimed at local workers, which will be given out based on...

Bone-headed reforms and deep cuts have left our education system is a scandalous state of disrepairLast summer, as the politics of Britain’s exit from the EU staggered on and England’s World Cup run offered some kind of respite, I spent an afternoon in Brownhills, near the West Midlands town of Walsall. I was there to try to get beyond the deafening inanities of Brexit, and report on the mounting financial crisis facing England’s education system. At Millfield primary school, everything once ...