TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including what investors are watching and why a judge blocked a mega-merger in the grocery industry.
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00:00I'm Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.
00:02Here's what we're watching on the street today.
00:04Investors are taking the latest inflation numbers in stride,
00:08even as the report lifts hopes of a December interest rate
00:11cut.
00:12Consumer prices rose 0.3% in November, as expected,
00:16and gained 2.7% from a year ago.
00:18Notably, food inflation is still a problem.
00:22Food costs were up 2.4% compared to last year.
00:26It is the biggest jump since January.
00:29Sticking with the world of food and groceries,
00:32a mega supermarket merger has been blocked by the courts.
00:35The $25 billion marriage of Kroger's and Albertson's,
00:39which would have created the biggest supermarket merger ever,
00:43has been nixed.
00:44The ruling judge said the tie-up would have hurt competition
00:47and been a negative for consumers.
00:49The consumer impact loomed large in the decision,
00:53with food inflation already making it
00:54hard to put food on the table.
00:56To assuage those concerns, Kroger
00:58had pledged to lower grocery bills by a billion dollars.
01:03The two companies claimed the merger
01:05was necessary to fight competition
01:06from non-traditional grocery sellers
01:09like Walmart, Amazon, Costco, and new players such as Aldi.
01:14The Federal Trade Commission, several states,
01:15and both Republican and Democratic lawmakers
01:18opposed the deal.
01:19Albertson's is furious the merger has been blocked,
01:23blaming Kroger for not offering enough concessions.
01:26The combined entity would have had 5,000 locations
01:29across the country.
01:31Albertson's is suing Kroger and wants
01:33a payment of a $600 million merger termination fee.
01:38That'll do it for your daily briefing
01:39from the New York Stock Exchange.
01:41I'm Conway Gittens with The Street.