On Friday, the Dutch Cabinet proposed a draft law that would grant a right to listed firms to take a 250-day grace period on considering an offer of hostile takeover.
The former US basketball player, Ulysses Lee "Junior" Bridgeman, is likely to buy Sports Illustrated magazine, being the first to lead among potential buyers, from the American media company Meredith for around $150M.
The German Finance Ministry is looking at possible merger scenarios between Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank, as it seeks to ensure that the EU largest economy has a decent lender capable of supporting its firms abroad.
India's Tata Steel and Germany's Thyssenkrupp are nearing a decision on picking the leader of their planned EU steel joint venture, after it had been postponed due to the CEO change at the German industrial conglomerate.
The chat-service company Slack Technologies has selected Goldman Sachs Group, the investment bank, to lead the firm's initial public offering planned for the next year, sourced reported.
Airbus has announced that the company most likely will meet their set airplane production and delivery targets for 2018. Up to November, the company had delivered 673 airplanes. In December, 109 were left to be delivered to meet the target.
On Saturday, Japanese authorities enacted a major policy change. Namely, the country allowed foreign blue collar workers to more easily immigrate into the country to decrease the shortage of labour.
On Saturday, General Electric announced that it is shutting down at the least 18 of the company's new gas turbines. The shutdown is needed to repair the turbines.
On Friday, the death stock pattern was noted by technical analysts of US stocks. Namely, the 50-day simple moving average crossed the 200-day average signalling an upcoming decline.
Representatives of Facebook late on Friday announced that the company will buy back the company's shares. The buyback will amount to nine billion USD.
The incoming Minister of Infrastructure of Brazil announced on Friday that the BR-163 highway, which is set to boost agriculture in the country, will be finished by 2021.
The CFO of Huawei, who was detained in Canada on the request of US authorities, is being charged with covering up her company's deals with a firm that sold tech to Iran against sanctions.
Reuters has announced that a source of theirs has confirmed that the ride sharing Uber Technologies firm has filed for its initial public share offering. The company filed the needed paperwork on Thursday.
It was announced by Japanese officials on Friday that their military spending has reached a record level. Moreover, the country will continue to buy US arms. The news boosted US defence stocks.
On Friday, the Supreme Court of Mexico suspended a new law, which was set to decrease public sector employee wages. The law was set to stipulate that public servants cannot make more than the President.
The South Korean Parliament on Friday approved a budget plan for next year, which pressuposed a 9.5% increase to 469.6 trillion won from 428.8 trillion won.
On Friday, the Italian government managed to win a vote in the Chamber of Deputies on next year budget proposal, which pressuposed increase of deficit to 2.4% from 1.8%.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the US President Donald Trump is planning to appoint General Milley as the new Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Crude oil prices surged by $1.1 or 2% on Friday, reaching $52.59 a barrel, as Saudi Arabia, Russia and other OPEC countries agreed to cut production by 1.2M barrels per day starting from next year.
On Friday, Wall Street plunged about 1.5%, led by technology stocks, as concerns about the US-China trade war offset the effect of a surge in crude oil prices.
On Friday, Ray Kelvin, the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Ted Baker, said he would take a leave of absence, as the investigation about his conduct continues.
On Friday, the US President Donald Trump said in a tweet that trade negotiations between the United States and China "are going very well".
On Friday, Switzerland ignored the European Union deadline to sign a new treaty, as Swiss government said it would seek for more consultations on the draft deal.
On Friday, the European antitrust watchdog has granted its approval for Armstrong World Industries' ceilings business purchase by Knauf on condition that it sells Armstrong's tiles factories in the UK.