6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 2:46AM EST · Published Mar 5, 5:11AM EST

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6 Most Important Things in Business Today — © Thinkstock

U.S. oil production should rise over the next five years, according to the International Energy Agency. Reuters says:

U.S. shale oil output is set to surge over the next five years as drillers recover rapidly from a three-year slump, the International Energy Agency said on Monday, sharply upgrading its previous growth forecasts.

A landmark deal in 2017 between OPEC and other oil producers including Russia to curb output in order to battle a global glut materially improved the outlook for other producers as oil prices rose sharply throughout the year, the IEA said.

The Chinese government has targeted a gross domestic product growth rate of 6.5% this year. According to Reuters:

China aims to expand its economy by around 6.5 percent this year, the same as in 2017, while pressing ahead with its campaign to reduce risks in the financial system, Premier Li Keqiang said Monday.

The goal was kept unchanged even though the economy grew 6.9 percent last year and exceeded the government’s target. Sources previously told Reuters that China will maintain its growth target at “around 6.5 percent”.

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“Black Panther” was number one at the box office again. Box Office Mojo writes:

It was yet another monster weekend for Disney and Marvel’s Black Panther as the superhero feature became the third fastest film to ever reach $500 million domestic. Meanwhile, the weekend’s new wide releases came up just a bit short of Mojo’s pre-weekend forecast with Fox’s Red Sparrow taking runner-up position behind Black Panther and MGM’s Death Wish landing in third. It’s also Oscar Sunday, which means we’ll end this recap with a brief look at this some of year’s nominees and how they stack up at the box office.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) won’t sell certain Google products. According to Fortune:

Amazon will not stock new products from Google’s Nest unit, including a new Nest thermostat and a home security system. Nest, in response, will stop selling through Amazon altogether.

According to Business Insider, which broke the news, Nest employees who got the news on a conference call from Amazon were “under the impression that the decision had come from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos,” though that impression hasn’t been confirmed.

SpaceX will launch a rocket for the 50th time. According to Ars Technica:

SpaceX launched its first Falcon 9 rocket less than a decade ago, in June 2010. Early next week, the California-based rocket company will go for its 50th launch of its workhorse booster.

The launch attempt will come as soon as early next Tuesday, 12:33am ET, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX will attempt to launch the Hispasat 30W-6 communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. The mission has a two-hour launch window.

It looks more and more like Amazon will pick Washington, D.C., as its second headquarters. According to Business Insider:

The race for Amazon’s second headquarters is heating up, and Washington, DC, just might be in the lead.

The evidence is now piling up that Amazon is looking seriously at the nation’s capital for its HQ2. After all, it might be the only place large enough to capture the company’s growing ambitions across multiple sectors with its high-profile colleges, strong transportation system, and high concentration of powerful people.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.