Yahoo Finance Morning Brief: Facebook cuts ties with third-party ad targeters
Thursday, March 29, 2018
What to watch today
Thursday is only March 29, but it will mark the final day of trading for the week, the month, and the first quarter of 2018. Heading into the final trading day of the quarter, the S&P 500 is down 2.5% for the year, the Dow is down 3.5% for the year, and the Nasdaq — which has been the recent source of so much market strain — is still up 0.6% this year. Wall Street analysts, we’d note, were calling for another year of double-digit gains for the S&P 500 after 2017’s stellar run.
Top news
Facebook cuts ties to data brokers in blow to targeted ads: Facebook (FB) said it would end its partnerships with several large data brokers who help advertisers target people on the social network, a step that follows a scandal over how Facebook handles personal information. The world’s largest social media company is under pressure to improve its handling of data after disclosing that information about 50 million Facebook users wrongly ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. [Reuters]
Nissan, Renault in talks to merge: Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. are in talks to merge, seeking to solidify their two-decade-old alliance under a single stock as an unprecedented shift toward electric and shared cars transforms the industry, people with knowledge of the matter said. A deal would end the current alliance between the companies and marry them as one corporation, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the details aren’t public. [Bloomberg]
CME Group to buy Britain’s NEX for $5.5 billion: U.S. exchange operator CME Group (CME) said on Thursday it had reached an agreement to buy Michael Spencer’s NEX Group, valuing the British firm at about 3.9 billion pounds ($5.5 billion) and creating a cross-border trading powerhouse. The offer by CME, one of the world’s biggest exchange groups and owner of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, represents a 2.9% premium to Wednesday’s share close of 972 pence. [Reuters]
Defense contractor CACI pulls offer for CSRA: U.S. defense contractor CACI International Inc. (CACI) withdrew its offer to buy peer CSRA Inc. (CSRA) on Wednesday, losing a month-long bidding war to General Dynamics Corp. (GD) The move comes a week after General Dynamics raised its all-cash offer for CSRA to $6.9 billion from $6.8 billion, making it difficult for CACI to match up. [Reuters]
For more of the latest news, go to Yahoo Finance
Morning Brief is taking a break on Good Friday. It will resume Monday, April 2.
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