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President-elect Donald Trump selected former NFL player for Cabinet positionSTOCK MARKET SNAPSHOT FOR 12/12/2024
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and MATT BROWN WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Defense Department, said he had a “wonderful conversation” with Maine Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday as he pushed to win enough votes for confirmation. He said he will not back down after allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct. Related Articles National Politics | Donald Trump will ring the New York Stock Exchange bell. It’ll be a first for him National Politics | The Trump and Biden teams insist they’re working hand in glove on foreign crises National Politics | ‘You don’t know what’s next.’ International students scramble ahead of Trump inauguration National Politics | Trump is threatening to raise tariffs again. Here’s how China plans to fight back National Politics | Trump won’t be able to save the struggling US beef industry Collins said after the hourlong meeting that she questioned Hegseth about the allegations amid reports of drinking and the revelation that he made a settlement payment after being accused of a sexual assault that he denies. She said she had a “good, substantive” discussion with Hegseth and “covered a wide range of topics,” including sexual assault in the military, Ukraine and NATO. But she said she would wait until a hearing, and notably a background check, to make a decision. “I asked virtually every question under the sun,” Collins told reporters as she left her office after the meeting. “I pressed him both on his position on military issues as well as the allegations against him, so I don’t think there was anything that we did not cover.” The meeting with Collins was closely watched as she is seen as more likely than most of her Republican Senate colleagues to vote against some of Trump’s Cabinet picks. She and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a fellow moderate Republican, did not shy from opposing Trump in his first term when they wanted to do so and sometimes supported President Joe Biden’s nominees for the judicial and executive branches. And Hegseth, an infantry combat veteran and former “Fox & Friends” weekend host, is working to gain as many votes as he can as some senators have expressed concerns about his personal history and lack of management experience. “I’m certainly not going to assume anything about where the senator stands,” Hegseth said as he left Collins’ office. “This is a process that we respect and appreciate. And we hope, in time, overall, when we get through that committee and to the floor that we can earn her support.” Hegseth met with Murkowski on Tuesday. He has also been meeting repeatedly with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a military veteran who has said she is a survivor of sexual assault and has spent time in the Senate working on improving how attacks are reported and prosecuted within the ranks. On Monday, Ernst said after a meeting with him that he had committed to selecting a senior official to prioritize those goals. Republicans will have a 53-49 majority next year, meaning Trump cannot lose more than three votes on any of his nominees. It is so far unclear whether Hegseth will have enough support, but Trump has stepped up his pressure on senators in the last week. “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!” Trump posted on his social media platform last week.Council chiefs have been warned they may be breaking the law by sending thousands of people on housing waiting lists in London to the North and the Midlands. Authorities have been accused of “exiling” poor families to areas where home costs are cheaper. Up to one in 10 residents in Ferryhill, Co Durham, are believed to be refugees from the capital, with “whole streets” in other towns in the region being filled with Londoners desperate for a home. Chris Bailey, campaign manager for charity Action on Empty Homes, said: “It is as if the towns of Co Durham and Teesside are being turned into the equivalent of London’s modern day leper colonies.” He added families were “sent into exile up there, through no fault of their own”. Councils in the capital moved 15,280 households to other areas in just one year, Freedom of Information requests by Nottingham University found. Many were moved to neighbouring boroughs but others were sent hundreds of miles away. Areas receiving homeless families each year also include Walsall, Sheffield and Liverpool. Section 208 of the Housing Act requires councils that move households to inform the local authority the family is being sent to, but MPs in the North have accused boroughs in the capital of failing to do this. Grahame Morris, MP for Easington, in Co Durham, is to lead a Commons debate highlighting the issue. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has also written to every council chief executive in England to remind them they are required by law to notify the receiving local authority of any out-of-area placement. Research has been led by Dr Steve Iafrati, assistant professor in social policy at Nottingham, who said families are expected to start a new life away from friends and family, with children forced to change school. Any that refuse can be classed as “voluntarily homeless” and lose the right to help. Meanwhile, the areas receiving London’s homeless face extra demand for school and healthcare services. Dr Iafrati said: “People who are moved have got children or they are pregnant, they may have a mental or physical disability. “I have spoken to households who then could not get a school for their child in the area they were moved to. “I have spoken to people who have lost their job. “The biggest group moved are women with children and that adds to demand for school places.”
After the recent correction in Indian equity markets, investors should expect "some undercurrent back in the market", given BJP's lead in Maharashtra and Haryana elections, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. said. The brokerage expects the election outcome to start a mini-risk-on rally with Maharashtra, one of the most important states politically and economically, being comfortably won by BJP, it said. A risk-on rally is when investors have a high-risk appetite and commonly drive up some asset prices. In this environment, stocks outperform bonds. With elections now behind and BJP getting a strong boost from Haryana and Maharashtra elections, both capex and consumption could see a bounce-back, according to Motilal Oswal. While midcaps and smallcaps are still trading at expensive valuations, according to the brokerage firm, it said given the recent correction, valuations for large-caps are quite reasonable now. The brokerage's preferred sectors include Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (private as well as PSU and non-lending NBFCs), capital goods, real estate, manufacturing, consumer discretionary, IT and healthcare. Among large caps stocks the brokerage likes Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Indian Hotels Co., ABB, Dixon Technologies Ltd., Bharti Airtel Ltd., Trent Ltd., Hindalco Industries Ltd., Titan Co., and HCL Technologies Ltd. The brokerage also listed its midcap ideas in its note, which included Angel One Ltd., BSE Ltd., Amber Enterprises Ltd., Ipca Labs, Cummins India, Page Industries Ltd., Godrej Properties Ltd., Coforge Ltd., JSW Energy Ltd., and Gravita India Ltd. Motilal expects the government to spring into action and start the spending (1H FY25 government spending is flat YoY and is down 17% for Capex spending). "This, coupled with recovery in rural spending (on the back of good monsoon and expected strong Kharip output), should improve the demand narrative at the margin," it said. "Wedding season in the 2HFY25 (30% higher weddings YoY) could also provide a fillip to demand." The last two months of correction in the market, with Nifty, Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 correcting by ~10%, is on the back of moderate corporate earnings in 1HFY25, relentless FII selling since October (FII’s have sold $17 billion since October), fragile geopolitical backdrop and strengthening dollar index post the victory of Donald Trump in US, according to Motilal Oswal. Anxiety around Maharashtra elections had further muddied the waters, it said. Last five years in Maharashtra were characterised by political instability, the brokerage said. "With this verdict, the chronic instability is over in one of the most industrialised and economically the most important state of India."
Kroger and Albertsons' plan for the largest U.S. supermarket merger in history crumbled Wednesday, with Albertsons pulling out of the $24.6 billion deal and the two companies accusing each other of not doing enough to push their proposed alliance through. Albertsons said it had filed a lawsuit against Kroger, seeking a $600 million termination fee as well as billions of dollars in legal fees and lost shareholder value. Kroger said the claims were “baseless” and that Albertsons was not entitled to the fee. The bitter breakup came the day after two judges halted the proposed merger in separate court cases. U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson in Oregon issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday blocking the merger until an in-house judge at the Federal Trade Commission could consider the matter. An hour later, Superior Court Judge Marshall Ferguson in Seattle issued a permanent injunction barring the merger . Ferguson ruled that combining Albertsons and Kroger would lessen competition and violate consumer-protection laws. The companies could have appealed the rulings or proceeded to the in-house FTC hearings. Albertsons' decision to pull out of deal instead surprised some industry experts. “I’m in a state of professional and commercial shock that they would take this scorched earth approach,” said Burt Flickinger, a longtime analyst and owner of retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group. “The logical thing would have been for Albertsons to let the decision sink in for a day and then meet and see what could be done. But the lawsuit seems to make that a moot issue.” Albertsons is unlikely to find another merger partner because it has significant debt and underperforming stores in most of its markets., Flickinger said. Consumers will feel the most immediate impact of the deal's demise, he said, since Albertsons charges 12% to 14% more than Kroger and other grocery rivals. “They had so much debt they had to pay it off it's reflected in their pricing and promotional structure,” Flickinger said. Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran testified during the federal hearing in September that his company might consider “structural options” like laying off employees, closing stores and exiting certain markets if the merger with Kroger didn’t go through. “I would have to consider that,” he said. “It’s a dramatically different picture with the merger than without it.” But in a statement Wednesday, Sankaran said Albertsons would “start this next chapter in strong financial condition with a track record of positive business performance." In the company's most recent quarter, Albertsons' revenue rose 1% to $18.5 billion and it reported $7.9 billion in debt. Kroger and Albertsons first proposed the merger in 2022 . They argued that combining would help them better compete with big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, which are gaining an increasing share of U.S. grocery sales. Together, Kroger and Albertsons would control around 13% of the U.S. grocery market. Walmart controls around 22%. Under the merger agreement, Kroger and Albertsons — who compete in 22 states — agreed to sell 579 stores in places where their locations overlap to C&S Wholesale Grocers , a New Hampshire-based supplier to independent supermarkets that also owns the Grand Union and Piggly Wiggly store brands. But the Federal Trade Commission and two states — Washington and Colorado — sued to block the merger earlier this year, saying it would raise prices and lower workers' wages by eliminating competition. It also said the divestiture plan was inadequate and that C&S was ill-equipped to take on so many stores. On Wednesday, Albertsons said that Kroger failed to exercise “best efforts” and to take “any and all actions” to secure regulatory approval of the companies’ agreed merger transaction. Albertsons said Kroger refused to divest the assets necessary for antitrust approval, ignored regulators' feedback and rejected divestiture buyers that would have been stronger than C&S. “Kroger’s self-serving conduct, taken at the expense of Albertsons and the agreed transaction, has harmed Albertsons’ shareholders, associates and consumers,” said Tom Moriarty, Albertsons’ general counsel, in a statement. Kroger said that it disagrees with Albertsons “in the strongest possible terms.” It said early Wednesday that Albertsons was responsible for “repeated intentional material breaches and interference throughout the merger process.” Kroger , based in Cincinnati, Ohio, operates 2,800 stores in 35 states, including brands like Ralphs, Smith’s and Harris Teeter. Albertsons , based in Boise, Idaho, operates 2,273 stores in 34 states, including brands like Safeway, Jewel Osco and Shaw’s. Together, the companies employ around 710,000 people. Kroger sued the FTC in August in federal court in Ohio, claiming that the federal agency’s in-house administrative hearings were unlawful because the FTC was also able to challenge the merger in federal court in Oregon. In paperwork filed Wednesday, the FTC said it expected to update the court on its next steps in that case by Dec. 17. In Colorado, which also sued to block the merger, Attorney General Phil Weiser said Tuesday that he still was awaiting a decision from a state judge. In that case, Colorado also was challenging an allegedly illegal no-poach agreement Kroger and Albertsons made during a 2022 strike. Shares of Albertsons were down less than 1% in late trading Wednesday, while Kroger's stock was up less than 1%.Sean Dyche insists he doesn't need a set-piece coach and his old-school methods are the way forward - claiming he's 'got the wrong staff' at Everton if they can't work things out for themselvesHow major US stock indexes fared Thursday, 11/21/2024