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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.
CVS Will Split Its 9,000 Drugstores From Aetna and Caremark. A Third of the Stores' Revenue Last Year Came From the Rest of CVS.
Free AI Isn't What It Used to Be: ISACC Institute's Founder, SerVanes Wilson Sr., on the Real Cost to Solopreneurs
Carilyn Marrero of CM Freedom Finance Earned More for Five Years and Stayed in Debt. Her Holiday Advice Starts With Habits, Not the Paycheck.
Dasia Bobbs Built a Credit Repair Business. Her Biggest Lesson Is That a Cleaner Report Is Not a Safety Net.
The Big Read
The NumbersRebuilding the Annual Inflation Rate Washington Could Not Publish for October Puts It at About 4 Per Cent, the Highest Since May
The bureau left the annual column blank and pointed readers to a method for filling it. We applied that method to every major index, then tested it on the three series where October 2025 prices do exist.
Fuel prices at a station in Eugene, Oregon, on 26 September 2026. File photograph.
The October consumer price report has a hole where its most quoted number should be. In the table that normally opens with the year's inflation rate, the 12-month column for all items, for core prices, for food, for energy and for shelter carries a dash.
U.S. consumer prices rose 0.4 per cent in October, seasonally adjusted, and core prices rose 0.3 per cent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on 10 November 2026. It published no annual rate because it never collected October 2025 prices. Using the bureau's approximation method, we estimate annual inflation at about 4.0 per cent and core at 2.8 per cent.
Because there is nothing to compare October 2026 with. "BLS did not collect survey data for October 2025 because of a lapse in appropriations," the release says, and so it "cannot publish 12-month percent changes for October 2026 for indexes where October 2025 data are unavailable." The October 2025 cell in the bureau's all-items series is simply empty, sitting between September's 324.800 and November's 324.122.
World
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.
Business
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.
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
Markets
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.
How Mercer International Plans to Cut Its Debt From $1.64 Billion to About $700 Million in 52 Days of Chapter 11
We set the company's debt before and after side by side, counted the days in its timetable and compared what three of its own documents say about the interest it will save.
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
Greenfire agreed in July to buy Connacher Oil and Gas, a deal that more than doubled its output.
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
The survey came out three days after a jobs report showing unemployment falling to 4.1 per cent.
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Caterpillar's Backlog Hit a Record $78 Billion, Up 96 Per Cent in a Year. Its Dealers Plan to Cut $1.6 Billion of Inventory This Quarter.
World
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.
Money
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.
Markets
Exxon and Chevron Earned $25.3 Billion Last Quarter. Refining Made Them Almost as Much as Pumping Oil, and Both Pumped Less.
Business
DoorDash Will Pay $65 a Share, About $17 Billion, for Instacart. If Antitrust Law Blocks the Deal, DoorDash Owes Instacart $1.25 Billion.
Editor's Choice
The Cheesecake Factory Served 9.5 Per Cent More Guests Last Quarter. At Chipotle, Transactions Rose 0.8 Per Cent.
A sit-down chain whose restaurants average $13.9 million of annual sales is outgrowing the fast-casual leader on the measure that matters most: how many people come through the door.
Latest News
Everything we have published, newest firstRyanair 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.
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.
Inflation Is 3.7 Per Cent, Less Than Half Its Rate Before the 2022 Midterms. Gasoline and Mortgages Cost More Than They Did Then.
Voters go to the polls on Tuesday with the last official readings in hand. By this publication's arithmetic, prices are rising far more slowly than four years ago, but the items households buy most often, fuel and borrowing, are dearer, and pay fell behind prices over the past year.
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.
World
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.
South Korea's exports rose 93.7 per cent from a year earlier to $115.28 billion in October, the trade ministry said on Sunday 1 November. Semiconductor exports rose 259.4 per cent to $56.44 billion, 48.9 per cent of the total. The figures are preliminary, and October had more working days than a year earlier.
The central bank's hike rested partly on growth picking up.
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.
Mobico, the owner of National Express and Spain's ALSA, agreed on Friday 30 October to a cash takeover at 46 pence a share, valuing its equity at about £308 million. The bidder is a vehicle jointly owned by the Cosmen family, Mobico's largest shareholder, and the Madrid fund manager Asterion. Shareholders and a court still have to approve it.
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Ford's Electric Unit Lost $1.06 Billion Last Quarter, a Quarter Less Than a Year Ago. Per Vehicle Shipped, the Loss Rose to About $31,000.
The Fed Held Rates at 3.75 to 4 Per Cent, and Two Officials Voted for a Hike. The Next Morning, Core Inflation Came In at 3.1 Per Cent.
Weil Gotshal Brought In About $2.1 Billion Last Year. Its Leaders Now Recommend Closing the 95-Year-Old Firm.
The "Endless" Cruise Ship Paid $700 a Ton for Fuel Before the Iran War. It Stopped Sailing After Paying $2,000 to $3,000.
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.
The Bank of Japan held its policy rate at 1.25 per cent on Friday 30 October by an 8-1 vote and said underlying inflation is now "generally consistent" with its 2 per cent target, a first since the target was set in 2013. One board member wanted 1.5 per cent. The bank will also sell its ETF holdings more than twice as fast from January.
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.
Lagarde says she wants the freedom to speak and to engage beyond monetary policy. The timing also hands the choice of her successor to today's EU leaders, and turns three board vacancies into one negotiation.
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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)
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.
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.
Daniel Okafor
Markets desk (house byline)
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
Californians Voted 60 Per Cent to Keep Taxing Top Earners and 53 Per Cent Against Taxing Billionaires' Wealth
Margaret Holloway
Leadership desk (house byline)
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
Berkshire Hathaway Spent About $9.6 Billion on Its Own Shares Last Quarter, Four Times What It Put Into Other Companies' Stocks
Thomas Gutierrez
Media and Culture desk (house byline)
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
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.
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.
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