BP (LON: BP) will buy US shale oil and gas assets from BHP (ASX: BHP) in a $10.5 billion deal. The deal represents the biggest deal for BP in over a decade and will increase BP’s onshore oil and gas resources by 57 percent. BHP put the US shale oil and gas assets up for sale last August. According to analysts and investors, the price of sale is better than expected. Craig Evans, co-portfolio manager of the Tribeca Global Natural Resources Fund, said: “It was the wrong environment to have bought the assets when they did but this is the right market to have sold them in.” The sale is an important step for BP, who is currently pursuing an impressive growth plan. “This is a transformational acquisition for our Lower 48 business, a major step in delivering our upstream strategy and a world-class addition to BP’s distinctive portfolio,” said BP in a statement. The deal will increase BP’s barrels a day of oil and gas production by 190,000 and 4.6 billion barrels of discovered resources to BP’s asset base, leading to output growth into the next decade. BHP shares rose 2.3 percent after the announcement.  

Theresa May will travel to Austria on Friday after Michel Barnier rejected the UK’s post-Brexit customs proposals. The prime minister will meet with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the Czech prime minister Andrej Babis and attempt to gain support for her Chequers Brexit blueprint. Barnier spoke at a joint press conference with Brexit minister Dominic Raab to warn against May’s Brexit plan. “Maintaining control of our money, law and borders also applies to the EU’s customs policy,” he said. “The EU cannot – and will not – delegate the application of its customs policy and rules, VAT and excise duty collection to a non-member, who would not be subject to the EU’s governance structures.” “Any customs arrangement will also have to be workable and must protect EU and national revenue, without imposing additional costs on businesses and customs authorities,” he added. Barnier also expressed concern over the UK’s proposals on a backstop agreement for the Irish border, where the UK hopes to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The UK has rejected the EU’s proposals on Ireland, saying that it will risk dividing Northern Ireland with the rest of the UK. Raab said: “We have designed our proposals both to respect the result of the referendum, and the core principles of the EU. We have considered the innovative approaches the EU has taken in the past with other third countries – when the political will has been there.” Whilst Raab also tried to claim the £39 billion divorce bill was conditional on future trade agreements, Barnier made clear that the sum of money had been “agreed for good”. Barnier and Raab plan to meet again in mid-August and will then hold weekly discussions until October.  

American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) has issued a profit warning for the second quarter, after higher fuel costs weighed. The U.S-based airline said it expects to earn an adjusted per-share profit of between $4.50 and $5 a share for the year, down from previous April estimares of between $5 and $6. During the quarter, American said revenue passenger miles rose 1.8 percent, with capacity also increasing 1.5 percent. Meanwhile, average fuel prices increased 38 percent to $2.23 per gallon across the period. American Airlines Chairman and CEO Doug Parker said of the quarter: “This was perhaps the most challenging quarter for the American team since our merger with US Airways in 2013,” Parker attributed the worse-than-expected performance to a disruptions from a subsidiary, alongside cost pressures relating to rising fuel costs. “We had an operational disruption at our PSA Airlines subsidiary that was extremely trying for our customers and our team members; higher fuel prices increased our expenses by more than $700 million versus last year; and our revenues, while increasing, have begun to trail the rate of increase at our largest competitors for the first time since early 2016. Because fuel expenses are expected to increase by more than $2 billion this year, we expect 2018 earnings to be lower than last year.” Looking forward, Parker remained optimistic of the long-term potential of the air carrier. “These near-term challenges do not dampen our long-term excitement about the future of American Airlines. We are taking aggressive action now to return American to prior profitability levels even at these much higher fuel prices. ” Detailing the measures taken, Parker noted that American were “deferring aircraft deliveries and capital expenditures, lowering our 2018 capacity growth and reducing non fuel-related expenses.” The company’s profit warning follows the announcement from European low-cost airline, Ryanair, that 300 jobs may be at risk. Ryanair announced the move amid cabin crew strikes which had led to the cancellation of some 600 flights. The airline also noted that higher fuel costs and lower fares had also proved a concern for profits. American Airlines shares are currently +0.29 percent during pre-trading, as of 14.02PM (GMT).

Facebook shares (NASDAQ:FB) plunged more than 20 percent on Wednesday amid slowing revenue growth. Monthly active users rose 11 percent year over year to 2.23 billion, alongside daily active users, at 1.47 billion. Growth remained in the US and Europe, which constitute the company’s largest advertising markets. However, this proved the social media’s slowest growth in more than two years. Facebook are still dealing with the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which data from the social media site was harvested by to create targeted voter advertising for the Vote Leave and US Election campaigns. In response to the incident, the European Union introduced the General Data Protection Regulation, which ultimately had a knock-on effect on user growth and engagement. Specifically, European daily active users fell 3 million in the quarter, alongside a drop in month active users. This proved the company’s first full quarter reporting since the privacy scandal was exposed back in March. The results proved behind analyst expectations, resulting in shares plunging 24 percent during after-hours trading, shedding $130 million in value. Wall Street analysts had been expecting user growth of around 1.49 billion, with revenues of $13.3 billion. This proves the first time in Facebook’s history that it has missed analyst expectations. The chief financial officer, David Wehner, said: “Our total revenue growth rates will continue to decelerate in the second half of 2018, and we expect our revenue growth rates to decline by high single-digit percentages from prior quarters sequentially in both Q3 and Q4.” Explaining the disappointing growth, Wehner attributed weaker results to currency changes, privacy laws and different advertising strategies. He added: “We expect currency to be a slight headwind in the second half versus the tailwinds we have experienced over the last several quarters. We plan to grow and promote certain engaging experiences like Stories that currently have lower levels of monetisation, and we are also giving people who use our services more choices around data privacy, which may have an impact on our revenue growth”. Shares in Facebook trading +1.32 percent as of 10.29 (GMT).    

Broadcasting giant Sky (LON:SKY) reported an “exceptional” financial year on Thursday, boosted by strong demand for its Sky Q service. Revenues came in 5 percent higher for the full year, hitting £13.6 billion, up for the 29th consecutive year. Statutory operating profit rose by 7 percent to £1.034 billion, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were up 9 percent to more than £2.3 billion. The results were supported by strong customer demand for its Sky Q television service, which has now been installed in 3.6m homes. Group chief executive Jeremy Darroch commented: “In the UK and Ireland, our largest market, we’ve delivered an excellent operational and financial performance whilst scaling our new initiatives. In Germany and Austria, we have comprehensively upgraded all our services as part of our plans for sustained long-term growth in what is Europe’s largest TV market. “In Italy, we’ve had a ground-breaking year, opening up significant new growth opportunities for our business by offering new services over DTT and fibre, allowing us to reach new segments of the market. “ Shares in Sky rose at market open, before trading down slightly at 0.06 percent at 1,506.00 (1012GMT).