Business & Financial News, U.S & International Breaking News

U.S. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday he plans to introduce legislation to raise the minimum age for buying tobacco products, including vaping devices, to 21 from 18 to curb their "epidemic" use among teens.

Shares of Pinterest Inc surged 25 percent in their debut on Thursday, giving the online scrapbook company a market capitalization of $15.8 billion and signaling increased investor appetite for new tech listings.

Next week will go a long way in determining whether investors should be concerned about the dawning of an earnings recession or whether back-to-back quarters of negative growth can be avoided in what is the heaviest week for profit reporting by U.S. companies.

The initial earnings results of this reporting period are beating expectations by a wide margin, suggesting to some investors that the S&P 500 may be able to avoid a so-called "profit recession" this year because predicted economic bad news has failed to materialize.

North Korea said on Thursday it no longer wanted to deal with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and that he should be replaced in talks by someone more mature, hours after it announced its first weapons test since nuclear talks broke down.

Ukraine's new president could regain control over the separatist-controlled east of his country within months and get cheap gas and major investment from Russia if he does a deal with Moscow, the Kremlin's closest ally in Ukraine said.