6 Most Important Things in Business Today: $1.6 Billion Lottery Has a Winner

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 3:57PM EST · Published Oct 24, 5:13AM EDT

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6 Most Important Things in Business Today: $1.6 Billion Lottery Has a Winner — © payphoto / iStock

At least one ticket matches the winning numbers for the $1.6 billion lottery. According to Reuters:

One ticket sold in South Carolina matched all six numbers in the Mega Millions lottery draw on Tuesday for a record setting $1.6 billion jackpot, the state’s lottery said on its website early on Wednesday.

Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DNKN) has launched new products to attack Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX). According to The Wall Street Journal:

The Canton, Mass.-based chain on Wednesday said that revamped lattes, cappuccinos and Americanos are the biggest change to Dunkin’s drinks menu since it started serving espresso 15 years ago from simpler machines.

Dunkin’ wants customers to see it as cheaper than Starbucks and just as good.

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Saudi Arabia’s plans to increase production pressed oil prices down. According to The Wall Street Journal:

“There seems to be growing concern about demand growth that’s underpinned by the equity markets and the economic outlooks,” said Gene McGillian, research manager at Tradition Energy.

Meanwhile, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told a Russian news agency Monday that his country would increase crude production to 11 million barrels a day from the current average of 10.7 million barrels.

If Saudi Arabia cuts the amounts it invests overseas, another nation may replace it. According to The New York Times:

Huge natural-resource wealth, a ruling family that is becoming more progressive, and a pot of cash to invest in diversifying the economy. That isn’t just a description of Saudi Arabia: it also applies to Qatar.

Until recently, asset managers, start-ups and governments were all attracted to Saudi Arabia by such an impressive list of features. The kingdom invested $45 billion into SoftBank’s Vision Fund and $20 billion in a Blackstone infrastructure fund.

But with Riyadh’s reputation now tarnished following the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Qatar may be the best alternative.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) will make its China business a separate operation. According to CNBC:

U.S. automaker Ford said Wednesday that it is separating its China unit from the broader Asia Pacific operations into a stand-alone business in a bid to accelerate profitable growth.

Ford also named auto industry veteran Anning Chen as president and CEO of its China business. Chen, previously with Chery Jaguar Land Rover, assumes the newly created position from Nov. 1 and will be reporting to Jim Farley, president global markets.

As a major short seller reversed his view of Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), the stock jumped. According to CNNBusiness:

Tesla’s stock soared after one of its most ardent critics started singing the car company’s praises.

Andrew Left of Citron Research reversed his negative view of Tesla and offered some glowing words about the company in a blog post Tuesday. He wrote that Tesla is “destroying the competition.”

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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.