SYDNEY, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Google agreed on Monday to pay a A$55 million ($35.8 million) fine in Australia after the consumer watchdog found it had hurt competition by paying the country's two largest telcos to pre-install its search application on Android phones, excluding rival search engines. The fine extends a bumpy period for the Alphabet-owned internet giant in Australia,...

01:07 PM EDT, 08/12/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Cenovus Energy ( CVE ) and Indigenous groups in Canada are in talks on acquiring a $2 billion Canadian dollar ($1.45 billion) stake in oil sands producer MEG Energy, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the discussions. The joint bid from Cenovus and a group of First Nations and Metis communities. including...

01:08 PM EDT, 08/12/2025 (MT Newswires) -- E.J. Antoni, President Donald Trump's choice to be the next Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner, told Fox Business in an interview published Tuesday that the BLS should suspend publication of the key monthly employment report until issues with its methodology can be addressed. Antoni, currently the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, said...

01:08 PM EDT, 08/12/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Consumer stocks were rising Tuesday afternoon, with the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLP) up 0.1% and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) adding 0.8%. Redbook US same-store sales rose by 5.7% from a year earlier in the week ended Aug. 9 after a 6.5% year-over-year increase in the previous...