Top stories
Rebuilding the Annual Inflation Rate Washington Could Not Publish for October Puts It at About 4 Per Cent, the Highest Since May
Waterous Energy Fund Is on Both Sides of Strathcona's C$2.9 Billion Deal for Greenfire, 119 Days After Greenfire Agreed to Buy Connacher
What Households Expect for the Next Year: Pay Up 2.6 Per Cent, Prices Up 3.9 Per Cent, the Widest Gap Since April 2023
LS Power Will Pay About $816 a Kilowatt for Six NRG Gas Plants. In March It Agreed to Pay Constellation About $1,140.
Californians Voted 60 Per Cent to Keep Taxing Top Earners and 53 Per Cent Against Taxing Billionaires' Wealth
Consumer Credit Growth Picked Up for a Third Straight Quarter, to a 4.2 Per Cent Rate: Over the Past Year, Borrowing Still Grew Less Than Prices
Berkshire Hathaway Spent About $9.6 Billion on Its Own Shares Last Quarter, Four Times What It Put Into Other Companies' Stocks
U.S. Payrolls Rose 165,000 in October. Outside Health Care, Employers Have Added 366,000 Jobs in a Year, the Most Since January 2025.
How an Aged Company Can Help a New Business Reach Bank Credit Sooner, and How to Do It the Right Way
Dr. Richard Berry's Ohio Clinic Is Adding Two Doctors and Expanding Direct Primary Care to Employers
Florida Passed Its Property Tax Cut With 157,000 Votes to Spare. Wyoming and Oklahoma Said No, and Washington Kept Its Millionaires' Tax.
The Bank of England Raised Rates to 4 Per Cent, Its First Increase in 1,190 Days. Its Staff Expect Inflation Near 5 Per Cent by the Middle of Next Year.
The Big Read
BusinessWhere Hancock Whitney and Trustmark Overlap: 14 Counties, First Place in Mississippi and One Alabama County Over the Antitrust Screen
The two Mississippi banks grew up at opposite ends of the state. We mapped every branch deposit both of them reported to the FDIC to find where they compete, and ran the regulators' old concentration screen on each shared market.
A Hancock Whitney branch on Canal Street in Mid-City New Orleans in August 2026. File photograph.
The fifth slide of the deck Hancock Whitney filed on the morning of 12 November makes the headline claim for its new deal: the No. 1 deposit position in Mississippi and No. 2 in Louisiana. The first is new. The second is where Hancock Whitney already stands, because Trustmark does not have a single branch in Louisiana.
Hancock Whitney, the Gulfport, Mississippi bank, agreed to buy Trustmark of Jackson, Mississippi in an all-stock deal valued at about $3.2 billion, the companies said on 12 November 2026. Trustmark holders will get 0.7463 Hancock Whitney shares each. The combined bank would hold about $58 billion in assets, and the deal needs shareholder and regulatory approval.
About $54.02 a Trustmark share, according to the investor presentation, a value that will move with Hancock Whitney's stock because the exchange ratio is fixed. Working backwards from the ratio, that implies a Hancock Whitney share price of about $72.38; the release says the value is based on its close on 11 November. The division is ours. Hancock Whitney's shareholders would own about 65 per cent of the combined company and Trustmark's about 35 per cent.
National News
Jobless Benefit Rolls Are Back to Their 2019 Share of the Workforce, Even as the Unemployment Rate Sits at 4.1 Per Cent
We went back through the Labor Department's state files to compare this October with the Octobers before it.
Business
42 Gigawatts of Gas-Power Orders Carried Siemens Energy to a Record Year, While Orders at Its Wind Business Fell 37 Per Cent
One company, two energy markets.
Weather
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Infrastructure Everybody Depends On Should Not Be Owned by a Competitor
Coverage Should Follow the Approval, Not the Advice
You Cannot Delegate the Thing You Have Never Done
World
Did Britain's Economy Grow as Fast as the Bank of England Expected? Yes, by 0.7 Per Cent, Though the Bank's Own Survey Gauge Pointed to 0.2
A week ago the Bank of England raised rates partly because the economy looked stronger than it had thought.
China's Factory-Gate Prices Rose 5.7 Per Cent in a Year, All of It From Mines, Fuel and Materials. U.S. Prices for Chinese Imports Are Up 3.1.
China's factory inflation is an energy and raw-materials story so far.
Seven Days Before LCI Industries Votes on Patrick, Its Board Has Turned Down a Second Cash Bid From Monomoy
We put the cash bid and the stock deal on the same footing.
Washington's Oil Forecasters Have Raised Their 2027 Brent Price Four Months Running, From $65 to $86 a Barrel
We pulled every 2026 edition of the agency's forecast spreadsheet and lined up what each one said about next year.
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The Euro Area Grew 0.4 Per Cent Last Quarter, About 1.6 Per Cent at an Annual Rate. France Shrank, and Its Jobless Rate Rose to 8.5 Per Cent.
World
The Bank of Canada Raised Rates Expecting About 2 Per Cent Growth. Two Days Later, the Data Put the Quarter Nearer 1.2 Per Cent.
Business
National Express's Owner Agreed to a 46p-a-Share Takeover Worth £308 Million. The Buyer Is Taking On a Company Valued at £2.3 Billion, and Most of That Is Debt.
Markets
Japan's Central Bank Says Underlying Inflation Is at Its 2 Per Cent Goal. Its 1.25 Per Cent Rate Is Still 1.35 Points Below Its Forecast.
Markets
Lagarde Will Leave the ECB on 7 February, Almost Nine Months Early. Three of the Six Seats on Its Executive Board Will Change Hands by the End of May.
Editor's Choice
U.S. Wages Rose 3.1 Per Cent in the Year to September, 0.6 Per Cent Less Than Prices. Employers' Health Costs Rose 6.4 Per Cent.
The Employment Cost Index holds the mix of jobs constant, which makes it a clean read on wage pressure.
Latest News
Everything we have published, newest firstA Jacksonville Doctor Charges $135 a Month, Makes House Calls and Answers His Phone. More Patients Want That Deal.
A Jacksonville family physician charges a flat $135 a month, makes house calls and answers his phone. Here is why direct primary care is spreading.
Stocks Rose in the Year After 18 of the Last 19 Midterms, by Our Count. Congress Has 38 Days After Tuesday's Vote to Fund the Government.
Americans vote on Tuesday for all 435 House seats, 35 Senate seats and 36 governors. In the 12 months after each of the 19 midterms since 1950, the S&P 500 rose 18 times, by this publication's count of Robert Shiller's index data. The exception was 1986, when it was flat. Past returns do not predict future ones, and no result is known yet.
Business
McKesson Is Paying $1.4 Billion for Half of Option Care. The Deal Sets Up a Framework for It to Buy the Rest.
Clayton Dubilier & Rice and McKesson agreed on Monday to take Option Care Health, the largest independent home infusion company in the United States, private for $32.05 a share. McKesson is putting in about $1.4 billion for 49 per cent, and the agreement sets out a framework for it to buy the private equity firm's majority later. Lenders have committed more money to the deal than the two buyers have.
Washington's Millionaires' Tax Would Raise $11.4 Billion by 2031 From About 30,000 Payers. Voters Decide Tuesday Whether It Ever Starts.
Four states are voting on income tax on Election Day, three of them on how the highest earners are taxed. The official estimates show how few taxpayers carry the money, and by this publication's arithmetic how much each would pay.
Florida Votes on Cutting Local Property Taxes by $11.8 Billion a Year. Five Counties Account for 45 Per Cent of It.
At least four states are voting on property tax on Election Day, and they have chosen four different tools. Florida's is by far the largest.
Business
Ryanair Flew 6 Per Cent More Passengers and Earned 15 Per Cent Less. Next Year's Extra €2 Billion of Fuel Works Out to About €9 a Passenger.
Ryanair's profit after tax fell 15 per cent to €2.15 billion in the six months to September as the fifth of its fuel it had not hedged roughly doubled in price, the airline said on Monday 2 November. Passengers rose 6 per cent to 125.8 million and average fares fell 4 per cent. It expects its fuel bill to rise by about €2 billion in the year to March 2028 and gave no profit forecast.
Westpac's Operating Profit Rose $379 Million Last Year. It Set Aside $440 Million More for Bad Loans, Though Fewer of Its Borrowers Are in Trouble.
Westpac earned A$7.0 billion excluding notable items in the year to 30 September, unchanged from a year earlier, and A$6.8 billion on a statutory basis, down 1 per cent, it said on Monday 2 November. Impairment charges doubled to A$864 million. The bank expects Australian interest rates to stay elevated into 2027, a day before the Reserve Bank meets.
Voters go to the polls on Tuesday with the last official readings in hand.
OPEC+ Left Its December Oil Targets Unchanged. Brent Ended the Week at $117.64, $12.64 Above Washington's Forecast for the Quarter.
Seven core OPEC+ members kept their December oil production targets unchanged at an online meeting on Sunday 1 November, Reuters reported, citing the group. Most Gulf members are still pumping below their targets because of the Iran war. All 21 members meet on 29 November to set 2027 quotas.
China's Factory Index Fell to 49.3 in October. Construction New Orders Fell 5.7 Points, to 40.
China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to 49.3 in October from 50.1 in September, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday 31 October. The non-manufacturing index fell to 49.7. Construction new orders dropped to 40.0, down 5.7 points in a month.
South Korea Exported $115.3 Billion in October, 93.7 Per Cent More Than a Year Ago. Chips Supplied Almost Three-Quarters of the Increase.
The headline growth rate is flattered by last year's Chuseok holiday. Adjusted for working days, exports still rose 76 per cent, and by this publication's arithmetic chips and computers account for more than four-fifths of the dollar increase.
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Cory Chamberlain
Senior Writer
AI Researchers Moved Their Date for Human-Level Machines 13 Years in One Survey. Nova Reach Founder Rishabh Singh Has Stopped Picking a Year.
JPMorgan Reports Tuesday After a Quarter With $5.6 Billion of One-Off Gains. Analysts Expect Revenue of About $51 Billion.
Devon Is Selling 4 Per Cent of Its Production for $4.2 Billion. The Buyer Has Now Made 10 Eagle Ford Deals Since 2023.
Alison Acosta
Technology desk (house byline)
42 Gigawatts of Gas-Power Orders Carried Siemens Energy to a Record Year, While Orders at Its Wind Business Fell 37 Per Cent
Washington's Oil Forecasters Have Raised Their 2027 Brent Price Four Months Running, From $65 to $86 a Barrel
LS Power Will Pay About $816 a Kilowatt for Six NRG Gas Plants. In March It Agreed to Pay Constellation About $1,140.
Daniel Okafor
Markets desk (house byline)
Did Britain's Economy Grow as Fast as the Bank of England Expected? Yes, by 0.7 Per Cent, Though the Bank's Own Survey Gauge Pointed to 0.2
China's Factory-Gate Prices Rose 5.7 Per Cent in a Year, All of It From Mines, Fuel and Materials. U.S. Prices for Chinese Imports Are Up 3.1.
Rebuilding the Annual Inflation Rate Washington Could Not Publish for October Puts It at About 4 Per Cent, the Highest Since May
Margaret Holloway
Leadership desk (house byline)
Jobless Benefit Rolls Are Back to Their 2019 Share of the Workforce, Even as the Unemployment Rate Sits at 4.1 Per Cent
Seven Days Before LCI Industries Votes on Patrick, Its Board Has Turned Down a Second Cash Bid From Monomoy
What Households Expect for the Next Year: Pay Up 2.6 Per Cent, Prices Up 3.9 Per Cent, the Widest Gap Since April 2023
Thomas Gutierrez
Media and Culture desk (house byline)
Where Hancock Whitney and Trustmark Overlap: 14 Counties, First Place in Mississippi and One Alabama County Over the Antitrust Screen
How Mercer International Plans to Cut Its Debt From $1.64 Billion to About $700 Million in 52 Days of Chapter 11
Waterous Energy Fund Is on Both Sides of Strathcona's C$2.9 Billion Deal for Greenfire, 119 Days After Greenfire Agreed to Buy Connacher
The Story So Far
The Hormuz Closure30 stories
- 11 Nov Washington's Oil Forecasters Have Raised Their 2027 Brent Price Four Months Running, From $65 to $86 a Barrel
- 1 Nov OPEC+ Left Its December Oil Targets Unchanged. Brent Ended the Week at $117.64, $12.64 Above Washington's Forecast for the Quarter.
- 10 Oct Oil Fell on Trump's Pledge of No Iran Strike, Then Closed Higher on a Hurricane. Tanker Attacks Are Running at a Wartime High.
- 3 Oct Oil Is Up 61 Per Cent Since February. American Natural Gas Costs What It Did a Year Ago.
- 3 Oct The Trucking Companies Going Bankrupt Are Small. Diesel Is Paid in Days, Freight in Months.
- 3 Oct The G-7 Will Release 100 Million Barrels. Some May Already Have Been Promised in March.
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Editors’ Picks
America Imported a Record $421 Billion in August. Without Computers, Chips and Telecom Gear, Imports Are Down This Year.
Schneider Is Paying a 42% Premium for PTC. The Price Is Still Below Where PTC Traded a Year Ago.
Customs Took In $333 Billion in Fiscal 2026. Refunds Sent About $147 Billion Back Out.
The Cranberry Brief