Facebook has been hit with yet another data protection probe, this time by the New York State Attorney-General, after the social media network improperly harvested the personal email contacts of 1.5m users.

Starbucks’ expansion into China helped drive a jump in quarterly sales, underlying the importance of the world’s second-biggest economy to the US chain as it faces off against homegrown rival Luckin Coffee.

Ford on Thursday reported a stronger first-quarter profit than expected on robust demand for trucks in the US and predicted a stronger year overall, driving shares sharply higher.

US stocks were mixed on Thursday after earnings reports set a test for the lofty valuations on Wall Street — where the S&P 500 was shy of a fresh record while the Nasdaq Composite hit a fresh high — and on global markets.

Industrial products group 3M said it plans to shed jobs globally as part of a restructuring and reduced this year’s earnings guidance after it reported first-quarter earnings that missed Wall Street expectations.

Chipotle Mexican Grill shares fell on Thursday after the restaurant chain disclosed a new subpoena it received over the outbreak of a foodborne illness at one of its stores last year.

Polish teachers said on Thursday that they would suspend a strike that has closed thousands of schools across the country, but threatened that they could still take further action alongside other groups later in the year.

Wirecard sought to put an accounting scandal behind it on Thursday as the German payments group announced that auditor EY signed off its 2018 accounts and that the supervisory board had agreed measures to improve its processes. 

Canadian regulators have announced plans to take Facebook to court to force the company to change its privacy practices after the social media network allegedly breached local privacy laws and “refused to address deficiencies” in its practices.

Turkey’s financial markets suffered a new blow on Thursday as the country’s central bank unnerved investors by signalling a growing reluctance to raise interest rates and disclosed a further drop in its foreign currency reserves.

French retailer Casino said on Thursday after market close that solid performance from its second-largest market of Brazil helped the group slightly beat market expectations in the first quarter, despite flat overall sales in its home market of France.

China’s Citic Metals has announced plans to invest a further $450m into Ivanhoe Mines, the Canadian-listed company developing a high-grade copper deposit in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Investors smacked down shares of World Wrestling Entertainment on Thursday after the company revealed a surprise drop in quarterly revenue, hurt by weaker attendance and television ratings.

Novatek, Russia’s top independent gas producer, Thursday signed binding deals on the conditions to sell a 20 per cent stake in its second Arctic gas liquefaction project to Chinese partners, equally split between China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corporation and China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

Heineken unveiled plans to spend a record amount on transforming dozens of its pubs in the UK as the Dutch brewer searches for growth opportunities in a mature market even as the prospect of Britain leaving the EU looms.

Microsoft has joined the four comma club, as investors cheered the company’s latest quarterly results and pushed its valuation above $1tn for the first time, making it the biggest publicly traded company in the world by market capitalisation.

US orders for long-lasting manufactured goods bounced back sharply in March from their steepest drop in four months, topping market expectations and adding to a view the American economy may be more resilient than a recent run of patchy economic data have suggested.

Bristol-Myers Squibb raised forecasts for the full year after it beat expectations on earnings and revenue in the first quarter, driven by soaring sales of its stroke prevention and cancer drugs.

Package delivery company UPS, often seen as an economic bellwether, stuck to its full-year guidance even as severe weather in the US earlier this year contributed to its first-quarter results missing market expectations.

UK bus and rail operator Stagecoach has announced that it will launch a share buyback programme worth up to £60m over the next year.

The UK government has not proposed a bill designed to implement the prime minister’s fragile Brexit withdrawal treaty.

Southwest Airlines reported better than expected first-quarter results despite being hit by a plethora of problems during the period — not least the crisis that has led to the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam’s powerful president and communist party leader, has fallen ill, Vietnam’s government said on Thursday, confirming for the first time widespread reports that the 75-year-old leader was in ill health.

Hit films like Us and How to Train Your Dragon boosted Universal Studio sales at the start of the year, while parent company Comcast surpassed forecasts for earnings in the first quarter.