The daily business briefing: December 13, 2023

1. Inflation slows slightly ahead of Fed meeting

Inflation edged lower last month thanks largely to falling gas prices, the federal government reported Tuesday. The Consumer Price Index rose 0.1% on a monthly basis and 3.1% compared to a year earlier. That was just under the 3.2% annual pace in October and far below a peak of more than 9% in summer 2022. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, held steady at 4%. The report came as the Federal Reserve started its last two-day meeting of the year. It is expected to end Wednesday with a decision to keep interest rates unchanged amid the mounting evidence that inflation is cooling. The New York Times, The Associated Press

2. Apple update to offer Stolen Device Protection feature

Apple is introducing a new iPhone security setting to prevent thieves from breaking into devices and gaining access to all their data, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The rollout of the new Stolen Device Protection setting came after the Journal reported about a series of thefts in numerous cities, including New York, Chicago and New Orleans, in which the criminals watched iPhone users tap their passcodes into their phones. The thieves then stole the phones and changed the passcode, allowing them to change the owner's Apple accounts and other saved passwords, steal money, and otherwise disrupt their lives. The new setting, designed to prevent these attacks, will be included in a software update. The Wall Street Journal

3. Choice Hotels launches hostile takeover bid for rival Wyndham

Choice Hotels International on Tuesday launched a hostile bid to buy rival Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Wyndham rejected a friendly, unsolicited offer of nearly $8 billion, citing regulatory concerns. Choice's hostile takeover bid offers the same terms. It seeks to buy Wyndham, with its 9,000 hotels across 24 brands, with a swap of $49.50 in cash and 0.324 shares of Choice common stock for every Wyndham share, with a total value of about $90 per share. Choice initially proposed a price of $80 per share in April, then upped it to $85 and finally $90 before Wyndham turned it down. Fox Business

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4. Stock futures edge up ahead of Fed decision, wholesale inflation data

U.S. stock futures rose slightly early Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve's latest decision on interest rates. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were up 0.1% at 7 a.m. ET. The Nasdaq was up 0.2%. The Dow and the S&P 500 gained 0.5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.7% on Tuesday as the latest Consumer Price Index provided fresh evidence that inflation is cooling. Investors also will be watching November's Producer Price Index, due for release at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect a rise of 0.1%, up from a 0.5% decline in October. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the wholesale price gauge is expected to be up 0.2%. It was flat in October. CNBC

5. Judge approves bankrupt Yellow's sale of shipping centers

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Goldblatt on Tuesday approved trucking company Yellow's plan to sell most of its shipping centers and other real estate for $1.88 billion, calling the price a "tremendous outcome" for Yellow. The sale will generate enough money to pay off the $1.2 billion in debt the shipping company had before seeking bankruptcy protection. The debt includes $700 million that Yellow owed on a federal Covid-19 relief loan. The judge's decision to allow the sale to multiple buyers ended a bidder's effort to keep the company intact. Sarah Riggs Amico, executive chair of trucking company Jack Cooper Transport, led the bid and said she still wanted to buy some of Yellow's terminals and rehire as many as 15,000 of its workers. Reuters