6 Most Important Things in Business Today

July 13, 2017 by Douglas A. McIntyre

A French court dismissed a 1.3 billion tax bill levied on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL).

Global PC shipments dropped 4.3% in the second quarter, according to research firm Gartner:

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 61.1 million units in the second quarter of 2017, a 4.3 percent decline from the second quarter of 2016, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. The PC industry is in the midst of a 5 year slump, and this is the 11th straight quarter of declining shipments. Shipments in the second quarter of this year were the lowest quarter volume since 2007.

HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) had a 20.8% share of the market for shipments, just ahead of Lenovo at 19.9%. Dell had a 15.6% market share, followed by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) at 6.9%.

Qatar Airlines has changed a filing with U.S. regulators that will allow it to continue to seek a 10% stake in American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL).

Short sellers have begun to aggressively attack troubled social network Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP), according to the Financial Times. Their interest includes the company’s doubtful business model and the fact that the lock-up of a number of shares will begin soon.

OPEC compliance with its production cuts has started to fail and the resulting rise in exports may push oil prices down. According to CNBC:

Global oil supply rose in June as compliance with an OPEC-led deal to freeze production showed signs that it was stalling, the International Energy Agency (IEA) noted in its latest market report on Thursday.

The supply of oil rose by 720,000 barrels a day in June across the world and by 340,000 barrels a day in OPEC countries. This was driven by higher production even in those countries subject to an OPEC-led deal to cut production. Saudi Arabia has increased its flows, the IEA said, as well as Libya and Nigeria who are not part of the production freeze.

Mercedes has come up against emissions accusations similar to those which hit Volkswagen. According to German paper Sueddeutsche Zeitung (via Google Translate):

From 2008 to 2016, Daimler will have sold over one million vehicles in Europe and the USA with excessively high pollutant emissions.
The technical subtleties are similar to those of VW and Audi, the prosecutor’s office Stuttgart and the US Department of Justice are determined with great force. The question is whether the Daimler case will be something like Volkswagen 2.0.

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