Catch up on the weekend’s top five stories with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. Volkswagen (VLKAY) CEO Herbert Diess was told about the existence of cheating software in cars two months before regulators blew the whistle on the exhaust emissions scandal, according to Reuters, citing the German magazine Der Spiegel. 2. Walmart (WMT) and Flipkart announced the closing of the agreements for Walmart to become the largest shareholder in the Flipkart. With the completion of the investment, Walmart now holds approximately 77% of Flipkart. The remainder of the business is held by other shareholders, including Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Tencent (TCEHY), Tiger Global and Microsoft (MSFT). At the time the company disclosed the transaction, the estimated impact to FY19 EPS was a negative 25c-30c assuming the transaction closed mid-year. Consistent with guidance at the time of its second quarter earnings report, the company anticipates this level of EPS impact, prorated for the close date. In FY20, Walmart continues to anticipate a headwind to EPS of around 60c. 3. At the moment, State Street (STT) is the worst-performing major bank stock so far this year as investors have worried since it announced a $2.6B acquisition of Charles River Development, Andrew Bary wrote in this week’s edition of Barron’s. But the selloff looks overdone, Bary added, noting that State Street has one of the lower price/earnings ratios among large banks and an attractive fee-based business model of focusing on custodial services and asset management. Overall, a low valuation makes the stock attractive, Barron’s said. 4. Warner Bros. (TWX) “Crazy Rich Asians” led this weekend’s box office with a three-day North American debut of $25.2M and a five-day bow of $34M. The movie scored the top opening for a rom-com in three years and the top start of the year for any comedy. “Crazy Rich Asians” earned an A CinemaScore and sports a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score. 5. Kohl’s (KSS), BrightView (BV), Verizon (VZ), AbbVie (ABBV), LyondellBasell (LYB), Broadcom (AVGO), Regions Financial (RF), Starbucks (SBUX), CF Industries (CF), Mosaic (MOS) and Nutrien (NTR) saw positive mentions in Barron’s, while Walmart was mentioned cautiously.
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