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Chevron and Exxon mentioned merger final 12 months: stories

A vehicle drives past an Exxon Mobil Corp. gas station in Arlington, Virginia, United States on Wednesday, April 29, 2020.

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The CEOs of Chevron and ExxonMobil discussed the possibility of a merger of the two companies last year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing unnamed people familiar with the talks.

The newspaper reported that Chevron CEO Michael Wirth and Exxon CEO Darren Woods spoke about the prospect after the Covid-19 pandemic negatively impacted oil prices.

The talks do not continue and have been described as preliminary, according to the journal. Representatives of the two companies declined to comment. The conversations were later reported by Reuters.

A Chevron-Exxon merger would be among the largest in history and likely subject to antitrust scrutiny by the Justice Department under President Joe Biden. Both companies descend from John D. Rockefellers Standard Oil, which was dissolved by the Supreme Court in 1911.

Chevron’s market cap is $ 164 billion and Exxon’s is $ 189 billion, meaning the combined company would be valued at more than $ 350 billion. The combined company would be the second largest oil and gas company in the world after Saudi Aramco.

Oil prices have made up much of their losses since crater formation in March, though they have remained somewhat depressed amid slower-than-expected vaccine rollouts and concerns about new coronavirus variants.

– CNBC’s Pippa Stevens contributed to this report.

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Business

GameStop, Chevron, Mondelez & extra

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

These stocks make some of the biggest moves in midday trading:

Mondelez International – Mondelez, which owns snack brands like Oreo and Ritz, was down 2% despite better-than-expected gains. According to Refinitiv, Modelez earned 67 cents per share, beating estimates by one cent. Revenues of $ 7.30 billion were above expectations of $ 7.16 billion.

Chevron – The oil giant’s stocks fell more than 3% after falling short of analysts’ expectations for sales and earnings in the fourth quarter. Excluding items, the company recorded a loss of one cent per share, according to analysts surveyed by Refinitiv, which was below the expected profit of 7 cents per share. Revenue was $ 25.25 billion, also below the expected $ 26.2 billion.

GameStop, AMC Entertainment, Koss – stocks targeted by a legion of retail investors this week continued their feverish surge on Friday. Names like video game retailer GameStop and headphone maker Koss rose on the last trading day of the week. By 11:38 a.m. ET, GameStop was up 62%, AMC was up 61%, and Koss stock had doubled in value.

Johnson & Johnson – The drugmaker’s shares were down 3.9% after phase three data showed the company’s Covid-19 vaccine was 72% effective in the US but other regions, including South Africa less effective. Mutations in the virus, including one found in South Africa, have raised concerns that vaccines cannot stop various strains of Covid.

Novavax – Novavax shares rose more than 65% in midday trading after the biotech announced Thursday that its Covid-19 vaccine candidate had an 89.3% effectiveness in a UK study. If the stock ended the day at its current price, it would be Novavax’s highest closing price since August 2015.

Skyworks Solutions – Skyworks stock rose 8.3% after earnings results were released Thursday and a forecast that exceeded analysts’ expectations. The semiconductor components company posted net income of $ 509.3 million for the first quarter compared to $ 257.1 million a year earlier. Skyworks also announced a share buyback program.