This Morning's Top Business Stories

Tamara Rutter, The Motley Fool
Updated

At The Motley Fool, we know our readers like to be informed. Here's a quick look at today's most relevant financial news, boiled down to what you need to know.

French oil giant invests $2.3 billion in Chesapeake Energy joint venture
The second-biggest U.S. producer of natural gas, Chesapeake Energy (NYS: CHK) , has sold an interest in its joint venture with EnerVest to French oil company Total in a deal worth $2.3 billion. The sale, which highlights international oil and gas companies' growing interest in domestic shale drilling, will give Total a 25% stake in the liquids-rich Utica Shale area of eastern Ohio.

According to Reuters, Total paid $610 million to close the deal and will pay the remaining $1.42 billion to Chesapeake by the end of 2014. The other player in the joint venture, EnerVest, is expected to earn $290 million in the deal. Read the full story at Reuters.

BP sues contractor for all costs and damages in Gulf oil spill
Oil company BP (NYS: BP) is asking contractor Halliburton (NYS: HAL) to cover all costs related to the 2010 Gulf oil spill. According to Bloomberg, BP set aside more than $40 billion to cover cleanup charges and other costs for the spill. As of Dec. 1, the oil company had spent more than $21 billion in its response to the incident. Read the full story at Yahoo! Finance.

Intel and Qualcomm fight for dominance in mobile market
Chipmakers Intel (NAS: INTC) and Qualcomm (NAS: QCOM) face off next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. Mobile-phone chipmaker Qualcomm will focus on expanding into Intel's realm of notebook computers, while Intel plans to introduce the use of its chips in smartphones, as the two tech titans compete for control over the future of mobile devices.

Intel will need to adapt its chips for efficient use in mobile components if it wants to maintain dominance in the chip market. Read the full story at Bloomberg.

That's a wrap
So there you have it -- the top financial stories of the day. If you are interested in getting all the news and commentary on these stocks, sign up to My Watchlist here -- it's free!

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Tamara Rutter does not own shares of any companies mentioned in this column. The Motley Fool owns shares of Qualcomm, Transocean, and Intel; and has bought calls on Intel. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Intel and Chesapeake Energy, as well as creating a bull call spread position in Intel. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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