Cranberry Journal — Independent Business, Technology & Culture

The headline improved by two-tenths of a point. Underneath it, the economy is being carried by exports and services while investment, property and household spending on goods go the other way.

A row of red and white ship-to-shore container cranes along the quay of the Yangshan deep-water port near Shanghai, with stacked containers stretching into the haze on the right.

Container cranes at the Yangshan deep-water port, which serves Shanghai, in 2013. File photograph.

By Margaret Holloway 3 hours ago4 min read

China's economy grew 4.5 per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier, up from 4.3 per cent in the second, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. On the previous quarter, output rose 1.2 per cent. Over the first nine months of 2026 the economy grew 4.6 per cent, to 107,107.1 billion yuan.

The headline moved the right way. The composition is more interesting. Fixed-asset investment fell 7.2 per cent in the first three quarters, private investment fell 10.4 per cent, and investment in real estate development fell 20.6 per cent. Retail sales of consumer goods rose 1.1 per cent. The growth is coming from somewhere else.

Two places, on the bureau's own figures. The first is services. Tertiary industry, which includes finance, retail, transport and other services, grew 5.2 per cent over the nine months, against 3.8 per cent for industry and construction and 3.7 per cent for agriculture. Retail sales of services rose 5.0 per cent while sales of goods rose 1.0 per cent.

Distillation columns, storage tanks and a tall stack releasing white vapour at an oil refinery under a clear blue sky, with a Valero sign near the fence.

Markets

Valero Reports Thursday Against a $21.23 Consensus. A Year Ago It Earned $3.66, and in the Second Quarter $12.54.

Refiners are the one part of the energy chain that profits from the squeeze.

By Daniel Okafor 57 minutes ago

A glass office building and an older building with a tiled roof around a paved plaza, with a large blue Merck sign standing on the plaza.

Health

Merck KGaA Will Pay $20 an ADS in Cash for Silence Therapeutics, a 130 Per Cent Premium. The Price Is Built on One Drug, Not Yet in Phase 3.

The premium is 130 per cent over Friday's close but 82 per cent over the 30-day average, which says how much of the move the market had already made.

By Thomas Gutierrez 1 hour ago

Technology

Thoma Bravo's Proofpoint Will Pay $6.3 Billion in Cash for Varonis at $49.75 a Share. The Premium Is 52 Per Cent Against June and 17 Per Cent Against September.

By Alison Acosta October 16, 2026

World

AT&T Will Sell Its Mexican Wireless Business for $2 Billion, About 0.4 Times Its 2025 Revenue. The Buyers Plan to Borrow Up to $1.4 Billion of the Price.

By Thomas Gutierrez October 16, 2026

Business

A GTCR-Led Group With Elliott Will Take CCC Private at $7.75 a Share, a $6.1 Billion Enterprise Value. Its Chief Executive and President Are Rolling Over Part of Their Stakes.

By Margaret Holloway October 16, 2026

The Numbers

Industrial Production Rose 0.7 Per Cent in September, and Utilities Supplied More of It Than Factories. Manufacturing Rose 0.3 Per Cent and Is Up 1.1 Per Cent in a Year.

By Daniel Okafor October 16, 2026

Health

One Research Firm Puts Regenerative Medicine at $41 Billion, Heading for $162 Billion. Dr. David Borenstein on Why the FDA Keeps Cracking Down on Unproven Clinics.

By Thomas Gutierrez October 15, 2026

Business

Penske Automotive Agreed to Be Taken Private at $212 a Share, a $16.3 Billion Enterprise Value. The Premium Is 8.8 Per Cent, and Its Two Buyers Are Also Its Two Largest Holders.

By Margaret Holloway October 15, 2026

Health

Labcorp Will Pay $722 Million in Cash for the Core of BioReference Health, About 2.9 Times the Revenue It Expects. OPKO Gets Up to $150 Million More if One Prostate Test Sells.

By Thomas Gutierrez October 15, 2026

Opinion

Margaret Holloway

Business

Fifth Third Earned $828 Million With Comerica Fully Folded In. Its Efficiency Ratio Is 62.4 Per Cent, Against 54.9 a Year Ago.

A bank that grew by almost half has to show it is also getting better.

2 hours ago

Business

Pentagon Contractors Lose Their Critical-Minerals Waivers on 1 January. The Aerospace Industry Says Replacement Supply Is Not Expected Until 2028 or Later.

The rule is a deadline for suppliers who may not know, today, which Chinese-origin tungsten sits inside their parts.

15 hours ago

Business

The Navy Lent Six Pearl Harbor Welders to Electric Boat and 95.5 Per Cent of Their Weld Tests Passed. About 130 More Public-Yard Workers Are Coming.

The submarine builders hold new awards put at $76.6 billion, and a workforce problem.

16 hours ago

Business

A $4.5 Million Shore-Power Hookup in Jacksonville Is Meant to Switch Off Ship Generators That Can Burn 4,000 Gallons of Fuel a Day

Ships at the pier still run their own generators for lights, air conditioning and refrigeration.

16 hours ago

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A hand holds a smartphone whose screen shows a pink heart pierced by an arrow, against a green textured fabric. — A heart graphic on a smartphone screen. Illustrative file photograph; the app shown is not Bumble.

A large office building on ASML's campus in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, clad in angular white aluminium panels, under a partly cloudy sky.

Markets

ASML Reported a Record €11.7 Billion Quarter and Guided the Next One to Between €14.2 Billion and €15.2 Billion. It Still Does Not Publish Orders.

By Daniel Okafor October 14, 2026

The upper floors of 1585 Broadway, Morgan Stanley's headquarters tower in Midtown Manhattan, with the Morgan Stanley name near the top of its glass facade against a pale blue sky.

Markets

Morgan Stanley Earned $3.03 a Share on $20.3 Billion of Revenue. Equities Supplied $1.7 Billion of the $2.1 Billion Increase.

By Daniel Okafor October 14, 2026

Petrol pumps under the canopy of a Shell station on a sunny day, with the station's price sign on a pole to the left.

Money

Consumer Prices Rose 3.7 Per Cent in September, Up From 3.4. Core Rose 2.6 Per Cent, and Gasoline Alone Was Up 34.2.

By Daniel Okafor October 14, 2026

A single-storey Bank of America branch with its red, white and blue sign, seen across a road junction under traffic lights at State Road 520 and A1A.

Business

Bank of America Took a $1.2 Billion Treasury Penalty the Day Before It Reported. The Charge Cost 17 Cents a Share, and Earnings Still Missed Without It.

By Margaret Holloway October 14, 2026

Editor's Choice

The curved glass tower of 388 Greenwich Street, Citigroup's headquarters in Tribeca, under a clear blue sky, seen across an empty paved plaza at Pier 26.

Markets

Citi Reported Its Best Third-Quarter Revenue in a Decade, $23.8 Billion. Its Return on Tangible Equity Fell to 11.5 Per Cent From 13.0 in the Second Quarter.

By Daniel Okafor

The growth was broad, and last year's Banamex write-down flatters the comparison.

Latest News

Everything we have published, newest first

Business

Penske Automotive Agreed to Be Taken Private at $212 a Share, a $16.3 Billion Enterprise Value. The Premium Is 8.8 Per Cent, and Its Two Buyers Are Also Its Two Largest Holders.

Penske Automotive Group said on Thursday 15 October that it will be acquired by Penske Corporation and Japan's Mitsui & Co. for $212.00 a share in cash, an enterprise value of about $16.3 billion. The price is 8.84 per cent above Wednesday's close and $2 above the $210 the buyers proposed in July. The deal needs regulatory approval and two shareholder votes, and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027.

By Margaret Holloway October 15, 2026

A row of new dark SUVs parked on a dealership lot at dusk.

Health

Labcorp Will Pay $722 Million in Cash for the Core of BioReference Health, About 2.9 Times the Revenue It Expects. OPKO Gets Up to $150 Million More if One Prostate Test Sells.

Labcorp said on Thursday 15 October that it will buy select assets of BioReference Health from OPKO Health for $722 million in cash at closing, plus up to $150 million tied to revenue from the 4Kscore prostate test. Labcorp expects the businesses to bring in about $250 million in revenue in the first year after closing. The deal needs regulatory approval and has no stated closing date.

By Thomas Gutierrez October 15, 2026

Rows of blood sample tubes with coloured caps in a laboratory rack.

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.

By Margaret Holloway October 7, 2026

A bag of blood with a drip chamber and tubing hanging from a stand in a clinical setting.

Japan Will Pay Up to $21 Billion for Two New Fabs in Upstate New York. GlobalFoundries Will Run Them, and Washington Will Own About 4 Per Cent of the Company.

The company contributes technology and operations; Japan contributes the capital; Washington takes a slice of the company. What the release leaves out is who will own the plants and what GlobalFoundries is paid to run them.

Alison Acosta

Philadelphia Factories Fell to 20.9 in October From 37.8, but Prices Received Hit a 17-Month High. 52.2 Per Cent of Firms Plan to Spend More Next Year and None Plan to Spend Less.

On the same day New York reported its best factory reading in almost five years, the Philadelphia survey points the other way on activity and the same way on prices. Manufacturers say they are still raising prices and, mostly, still planning to spend.

Daniel Okafor

A three-storey glass and stone office building at 101 Albright Way, part of Netflix's headquarters campus in Los Gatos, California, with a red Netflix sign by the road and a traffic signal in the foreground.

Media

Netflix Is Cutting About 1,000 Jobs, 6 Per Cent of Its Staff. Most Fall in Product, Technology, Legal and HR, Six Days Before It Reports.

Netflix told employees on Wednesday 14 October that it is cutting about 6 per cent of its staff, roughly 1,000 jobs, according to a company email seen by NBC News. The Wall Street Journal reported the cuts first. Netflix posts third-quarter results on Tuesday 20 October.

By Thomas Gutierrez October 15, 2026

Business

New York Factories Posted Their Best Reading Since December 2021, 25.5. Delivery Times Are Lengthening, Supply Is the Scarcest Since 2022, and Hiring Is Only Modest.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said on Thursday 15 October that its Empire State Manufacturing Survey general business conditions index rose 18 points to 25.5 in October, the highest since December 2021. New orders rose 21 points to 23.2, while the employment index held at 10.3, pointing to modest hiring, and supply availability fell to its lowest since June 2022.

By Margaret Holloway October 15, 2026

Two machined metal flanges resting on engineering drawings.

The headline value is for the whole company.

Business

Agility Bought Tristar for About $7 Million in 2003. It Is Selling It at a $1.5 Billion Enterprise Value, and Says the Bet Returned More Than $1 Billion.

By Thomas Gutierrez October 15, 2026

Money

Retail Sales Rose 0.8 Per Cent in September and Are Up 6.3 Per Cent in a Year. Leave Out Cars and Gasoline and the Gain Was 0.2 Per Cent.

The Census Bureau said on Thursday 15 October that U.S. retail and food services sales were $745.0 billion in September, up 0.8 per cent from August and 6.3 per cent from a year earlier. Once autos and gasoline stations are removed, the gain was 0.2 per cent, a figure the bureau flags as statistically indistinguishable from zero. August was revised up to 1.3 per cent.

By Daniel Okafor October 15, 2026

What We’re Following

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Pope Leo XIV, in a white cassock and zucchetto with glasses and a pectoral cross, stands smiling with his hands clasped in front of a bronze sculpture in the Paul VI Audience Hall.

Pope Leo XIV Has Lung Cancer, the Vatican Says. Surgeons Removed Part of His Right Lung Without Complications.

The granite entrance of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse at 500 Pearl Street, with its name in gold letters above bronze doors and bollards along the pavement.

The FTC Says Martin Shkreli Traded Shares in at Least 60 Drug Companies Despite a Lifetime Ban. It Wants His Profits, With No Offset for Losses.

The glass-and-steel tower of Goldman Sachs's headquarters at 200 West Street, seen from below against a blue sky with white clouds.

Goldman Earned $17.01 a Share Against a $13.02 Consensus. Equities Revenue Alone Ran About $1.8 Billion Above the Preview Estimate.

The entrance to JPMorgan Chase's headquarters at 270 Park Avenue in New York, with the company's name above glass doors and wide stone steps in front.

JPMorgan Earned $5.57 a Share, Its First Miss Since 2023. Take Out a $658 Million Securities Loss and It Still Missed.

Money

Wholesale Prices Rose 1.3 Per Cent in One Month, the Most Since 2022, and Are Up 6.3 Per Cent in a Year. Retail Gasoline Margins Fell 30.3 Per Cent.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Thursday 15 October that the Producer Price Index for final demand rose 1.3 per cent in September and 6.3 per cent from a year earlier. Energy rose 10.8 per cent and accounted for more than 80 per cent of the increase in goods prices. The measure that excludes food, energy and trade rose 0.5 per cent in the month and 5.0 per cent over the year.

By Daniel Okafor October 15, 2026

Silhouette of an oil refinery and cooling towers across an estuary at sunset, with tidal flats in the foreground.

BlackRock Took In $205 Billion in the Quarter and Ended at $15.5 Trillion. GAAP Earnings Were $10.57 a Share, and the Adjusted Figure Was $15.93.

The $5.36 gap between the two earnings figures is mostly a $564 million charge on acquisition earn-outs. Underneath it, base fees grew as fast as revenue, and a single hedge fund lifted performance fees.

Daniel Okafor