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By Nelson Bocanegra BOGOTA (Reuters) – Lower oil prices could reduce Colombian state-run oil firm Ecopetrol’s profits by up to 12 trillion pesos ($2.76 billion) this year, the company’s president warned on Friday. Ecopetrol may also have to scrap production at some fields and focus on those with lower costs, president Ricardo Roa told journalists on the sidelines of an industry event. Crude oil prices were headed for their second-consecutive weekly loss on Friday, with … Read more…

BEIJING (Reuters) -Tesla has suspended taking new orders for Model S and Model X vehicles on its Chinese website, Reuters checks showed on Friday, as the world’s two largest economies exchange blows in a trade war. Both models are made in the U.S. and imported to China. New orders for the two models were also no longer available on the automaker’s WeChat mini programme account in China. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request … Read more…

By Amina Niasse and Bhanvi Satija (Reuters) -UnitedHealth Group is demanding that healthcare providers repay the loans they received from the company after a cyberattack at its tech unit Change Healthcare last year, according to two providers on Friday. The largest U.S. health insurance company loaned out $9 billion to providers who had been struggling after the massive ransomware attack in February last year shut down payment and processing systems, some of which took months … Read more…

(Reuters) -Vaccine maker Novavax’s shares plunged over 22% on Thursday after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raised concerns about the company’s COVID-19 vaccine in an interview with CBS News. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, an agency that is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, missed its deadline last week for deciding on the traditional approval of the vaccine. The vaccine has been sold under an emergency … Read more…

PARIS (Reuters) – French automotive suppliers Novares and Valeo are asking customers to cover the full cost of new U.S. duties upfront, company executives said, underlining the hit to global carmakers from President Donald Trump’s tariffs on car imports. The U.S. began collecting tariffs of 25% on foreign auto imports from April 3, which Trump says will boost U.S. manufacturing and jobs. But the measure, which remains in place even after Trump paused reciprocal tariffs … Read more…

By Greg Bensinger and Deborah Mary Sophia (Reuters) – Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy on Thursday justified the company’s billions of dollars in outlays for artificial intelligence development, saying the investment was necessary to remain competitive. “If your mission is to make customers’ lives better and easier every day, and you believe every customer experience will be reinvented by AI, you’re going to invest deeply and broadly in AI,” Jassy wrote in his letter to … Read more…