MORNING NEWS

French distiller Pernod Ricard expects sales trends to improve in the second half of fiscal 2026 as it works through inventory destocking in the U.S. and tackles weak consumer demand in China.

Nvidia sales set a fresh record on Wednesday, as the world’s most valuable public company continued to capitalize on strong demand for AI computing, but the company’s lackluster outlook stoked jitters about future demand, sending its share price lower. Sales in the July quarter hit $46.7 billion, roughly in line with analyst estimates.

AT&T agreed to buy certain wireless spectrum licenses for about $23 billion in cash from EchoStar after pressure from federal regulators on the satellite-and-wireless company. Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission told EchoStar that it would investigate the company’s compliance with federal requirements to build a nationwide 5G network.

UniCredit said it converted part of its position in peer Commerzbank into stock, raising its equity stake in the German bank it hopes to engineer a merger with to 26%. The Italian lender said Monday that it converted financial instruments it holds in the bank into physical shares, consolidating the equity stake into its accounts.

The U.S. government is taking a 10% stake in Intel, a deal that caps a two-week frenzy for the troubled chip maker and marks the latest in a series of extraordinary private-sector interventions by President Trump.

Beijing and Washington are discussing a trade deal that could include fresh orders totaling hundreds of Boeing jets, people familiar with the matter said. The purchase is envisioned as a component of a more expansive trade deal if the world’s two largest economies can reach an agreement in the next few months, they said.

Chinese search-engine giant Baidu reported lower quarterly revenue amid a weaker performance in its core advertising business, though profit was better than expected. Revenue for the second quarter fell 3.6% from a year earlier to 32.71 billion yuan, equivalent to $4.55 billion, the Beijing-based tech company said Wednesday, roughly in line with analysts’ estimates.

Peabody Energy said it called off a $3.78 billion agreement to buy Anglo American's steelmaking coal operations due to the shutdown of a mine central to the deal, striking a blow to the U.K. miner's restructuring efforts.

Advent International agreed to buy Swiss tech company U-blox for about $1.30 billion via a public tender offer, U-blox said. The provider of wireless and positioning semiconductors said Advent subsidiary ZI Zenith would launch an offer to buy it for roughly 1.050 billion Swiss francs, or 135.00 francs a share, in cash.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sold shares in Apple during the second quarter, further paring its position in the iPhone maker, while adding UnitedHealth Group to its portfolio.