Walgreens slashes offer for Rite Aid, pushes back deadline

Walgreens substantially lowered its offering price for drugstore rival Rite Aid and, facing resistance from U.S. regulators, raised the number of stores it would be willing to unload to ease monopoly concerns.

The companies initially expected to sell no more than 500 stores, but that was pushed to 1,200 under the new terms announced Monday.

Mexico gas protests, looting leave 2 dead, 600 arrested

Anger over gasoline prices hikes in Mexico fueled more protests and looting Thursday, and officials said the unrest had resulted in the death of a policeman and a bystander, the ransacking of 300 stores and arrests of over 600 people.

The country's business chambers said the combination of highway, port and terminal blockades and looting this week forced many stores and businesses to close and threatened supplies of basic goods and fuel.

China's top phone maker Xiaomi unveils new flagship handset

China's leading smartphone maker, Xiaomi, unveiled Wednesday its new flagship device, the Mi 5, which it hopes will strengthen its hold on the world's biggest domestic market for handsets.
 
Staying with Xiaomi's strategy of undercutting global giants like Samsung and Apple, the Mi 5 aims to provide speedy processing and light weight at a relatively low cost.

Oil keeps falling. And falling. How low can it go?

The price of oil keeps falling. And falling. And falling. It has to stop somewhere, right?

Even after trending down for a year and a half, U.S. crude has fallen another 17 percent since the start of the year and is now probing depths not seen since 2003.

"All you can do is forecast direction, and the direction of price is still down," says Larry Goldstein of the Energy Policy Research Foundation, who predicted a decline in oil in 2014.

As oil plunges, energy companies cut jobs, postpone projects

The world's biggest oil companies are slashing jobs and backing off major investments as the price of crude falls to new lows — and there may be more pain to come.

Companies like BP, which said Tuesday it is cutting 4,000 jobs, are slimming down to cope with the slump in oil, whose price has plummeted to its lowest level in 12 years and is not expected to recover significantly for months, possibly years. California-based Chevron said last fall that it would eliminate 7,000 jobs, while rival Shell announced 6,500 layoffs.