MORNING NEWS

Hearing aid manufacturer Sonova is sticking to its current guidance.

Three years ago Constellation Energy was spun out of the utility Exelon, hived off as an unwanted company running nuclear power plants that might close. This past week, Constellation’s stock hit a record high, and it signed one of the power industry’s largest acquisitions. Constellation, the country’s biggest producer of nuclear power, agreed to buy the private-equity-owned Calpine, a major generator of natural gas-fired and geothermal power for $16.4 billion, plus debt. Shares rose 25% on Friday, and it was the second-best performer in the S&P 500 that day. It is part of a remarkable turnaround for Constellation, Calpine and other power producers, which have emerged from years of ho-hum electricity demand as the newly popular kids.

UBS is set to pay at least hundreds of millions of dollars to settle violations by Credit Suisse of an earlier agreement with the U.S. Justice Department over American clients who evaded tax, people familiar with the matter said.

Shell warned of significantly lower earnings in its integrated gas division and cut production guidance across its oil and gas segments. The London-based energy giant said that it expects earnings from its core integrated gas division to fall significantly in the fourth quarter compared with the previous one due to expiring hedging contracts. The division reported $2.87 billion in adjusted earnings in the third quarter. In a trading update ahead of its earnings due on Jan. 30, Shell said it expects to book a noncash post-tax impairment of between $1.5 billion and $3.0 billion owing to macroeconomic and operational changes.

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said it was attempting to restore free expression on its platforms.

Nvidia chief Jensen Huang held forth at a consumer-electronics showcase in Nevada on Monday, touting his inroads in AI agents, self-driving cars and robotics on a day when his company’s valuation reached its highest level.

Microsoft plans to invest $80 billion in data centers for artificial intelligence technology in the fiscal year ending in June, continuing its strategy of shoveling money into the infrastructure behind the technological boom.

Tesla’s global vehicle deliveries fell in 2024 for the first time in more than a decade, after a surge of promotional deals in the fourth quarter failed to stimulate sales enough to top the prior-year results. The electric-car maker delivered 495,570 vehicles in the fourth quarter, leaning heavily on promotions, such as interest-free financing deals and free Supercharging, to entice buyers. The result - a quarterly record - was up about 2% from a year earlier, but it fell short of the roughly 515,000 vehicles it needed to sell in the fourth quarter for Tesla to top its 2023 performance on a full-year basis.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has increased its overall stake in VeriSign, a provider of Internet domain-name registry services. Berkshire insurance unit Geico and pension plans of other Berkshire businesses bought a total of 143,424 VeriSign shares from Dec. 20 through Tuesday for a total of $28.5 million, an average price of $199.05 each. Geico added 14,921 of the shares to lift its investment to 7,920,402 VeriSign shares, while the pensions bought 128,503 shares to boost their stake to 5,272,947 VeriSign shares.

Xerox Holdings has struck a deal for Lexmark International that values the maker of printers and printing software at $1.5 billion, including debt. An acquisition of closely held Lexmark was announced Monday, confirming an earlier report from The Wall Street Journal. Xerox’s takeover of the business would bring Lexmark back under U.S. ownership. The company’s current owners are printer maker Ninestar Corp. (formerly known as Apex Technology), listed in Shenzhen, China; private-equity firm PAG Asia Capital; and asset manager Shanghai Shouda Investment Centre.