The daily business briefing: April 29, 2019

1. Avengers: Endgame shatters records with $1.2 billion global opening

Avengers: Endgame smashed box office records on its opening weekend. It had the biggest domestic debut ever, bringing in an estimated $350 million. The film soared beyond forecasts of North American ticket sales between $260 million to $300 million, which would have been enough to set a new high mark. Endgame also rocketed past the previous international opening weekend record of $640.6 million set by Avengers: Infinity War, piling up $1.2 billion in global ticket sales. That international total is already more than blockbusters such as Skyfall, Aquaman, and The Dark Night Rises made in their entire cinematic runs. Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn praised Marvel Studios for challenging "notions of what is possible at the movie theaters."

USA Today BuzzFeed News

2. Southwest says Boeing delayed mentioning safety feature was turned off

Boeing didn't tell Southwest and other airlines that it had disabled a safety feature in its 737 MAX jets until after the October Lion Air crash in Indonesia, Southwest said. Federal Aviation Administration inspectors also reportedly were not aware of the disabling of the standard feature, which is designed to warn pilots when sensors monitoring the pitch of a plane's nose malfunctioned and gave bad data. Southwest said it turned the feature back on in its planes after receiving the information. The popular 737 MAX planes were grounded worldwide after a second deadly crash that investigators have linked to problems with an automated flight control system that automatically pushed down the plane's nose to avoid a stall when sensors said the nose was rising too sharply.

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The Wall Street Journal The Associated Press

3. Stocks flat following last week's records

U.S. stock index futures struggled for direction early Monday after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite posted fresh records on Friday on strong corporate earnings and economic growth that exceeded expectations. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were essentially flat early Monday despite a boost from optimism over U.S.-China trade talks, which Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said were "getting into the final laps." "I think both sides have a desire to reach an agreement," Mnuchin said. "We've made a lot of progress." Futures on the S&P and Nasdaq fluctuated between tiny gains and losses in the hours before the opening bell.

CNBC The New York Times

4. Anadarko looks at selling itself to Occidental despite Chevron deal

Anadarko Petroleum has decided to start negotiations to sell itself to Occidental Petroleum Corp., instead of to Chevron as agreed earlier this month, Reuters reported Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter. The board of Anadarko, a U.S. oil and gas exploration and production company, had agreed to a $33 billion deal with Chevron, but has now determined that Occidental's $38 billion cash-and-stock bid could result in a better deal. Occidental had been pushing to buy Anadarko before Chevron reached its deal. The Anadarko board's determination was necessary for it to start talks with Occidental under the terms of the Chevron deal, but there is no guarantee that Anadarko and Occidental will be able to agree on a sale.

Reuters

5. Oil prices fall further as Trump calls for OPEC to boost output

Oil prices dropped by up to 0.8 percent on Monday after President Trump demanded that OPEC increase output to offset the anticipation of lost production from Iran as the U.S. steps up sanctions. "Gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC, I said you've got to bring them down," Trump said. Trump later tweeted: "Spoke to Saudi Arabia and others about increasing oil flow. All are in agreement." Brent crude futures were down by 0.8 percent. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were down by about 0.6 percent. Both of the key benchmarks fell by 3 percent on Friday after Trump called for lower prices from OPEC members.

CNBC