Kroger announced Wednesday it will acquire regional supermarket chain Giant Eagle in a $1.65 billion deal, marking the grocery giant’s first major acquisition since regulators blocked its proposed $25 billion merger with Albertsons nearly two years ago.

The acquisition will strengthen Kroger’s presence across several Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic markets as traditional grocery chains compete with Walmart and Amazon while consumers continue searching for lower prices after years of elevated inflation.

“We evaluated the opportunity carefully, and the strategic fit is clear,” Kroger CEO Greg Foran said in a statement. “Giant Eagle expands our reach into attractive adjacent markets.”

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Kroger announced Wednesday it will acquire regional supermarket chain Giant Eagle in a $1.65 billion deal. (Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Giant Eagle operates about 197 supermarkets and 11 standalone pharmacies across northern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana. Kroger currently operates roughly 2,700 supermarkets and multi-department stores, along with about 2,200 pharmacies, across 35 states.

The transaction includes $1.25 billion in cash and the assumption of approximately $400 million in Giant Eagle’s outstanding liabilities.

Giant Eagle operates about 197 supermarkets and 11 standalone pharmacies across northern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana. (Allison Farrand/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The acquisition follows the collapse of Kroger’s proposed merger with Albertsons in late 2024, when courts blocked the deal over antitrust concerns, prompting the nation’s largest traditional supermarket operator to pursue other avenues for growth.

The grocery industry remains fiercely competitive as retailers battle for market share amid persistent pressure on household budgets. Kroger has sought to keep prices competitive as shoppers remain price-conscious, while Walmart has continued to gain grocery market share and Amazon has expanded its online grocery offerings.

Kroger said it expects the Giant Eagle acquisition to increase adjusted earnings beginning in the second full year after the transaction closes, which is expected in 2027.

A Kroger grocery store in Covington, Kentucky, on June 2, 2024.  (Jeffrey Dean/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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The deal also reflects a broader wave of consolidation across the consumer sector, with companies pursuing acquisitions to gain scale and navigate inflationary pressures, changing consumer preferences and heightened competition.

Reuters contributed to this report. 

Sony is ending production of physical discs for all new PlayStation game releases beginning in January 2028, marking a significant step in the gaming industry’s ongoing transition to digital distribution. 

Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the decision Wednesday in a post on its official PlayStation Blog, saying all new games released after January 2028 will be available through the PlayStation Store and retailers in digital formats only.

The company said the move reflects changing consumer behavior as more players purchase and download games digitally rather than buy physical copies.

“As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028,” Sony said in the announcement.

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Sony is ending production of physical discs for all new PlayStation game releases beginning in January 2028. (Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images)

The change will not affect games that have already been released or titles scheduled to launch on disc before January 2028.

The decision represents another milestone in the entertainment industry’s broader migration away from physical media. Music, movies and PC gaming have increasingly embraced digital distribution over the past decade, reducing manufacturing, packaging and shipping costs while giving consumers instant access to purchases.

The change will not affect games that have already been released or titles scheduled to launch on disc before January 2028. (Jim Vondruska/Reuters)

Sony said games will continue to be available through both the PlayStation Store and retailers, though new releases after January 2028 will be sold in digital formats rather than on physical discs.

The company said the transition will allow it to better align with how most players access games today while continuing to give customers flexibility in where they purchase new titles.

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“We’ll continue to prioritize our resources to drive innovation in how players can access games and provide choices as to where players prefer to purchase new games, whether that’s at retailers or PlayStation Store,” Sony said. “We remain committed to delivering a world-class gaming experience to our fans and we thank you for your continued support.”

Home listing prices are declining at the fastest pace in at least nine years as sellers adjust to a slower market and look to attract buyers.

The national median asking price fell 2.5% in June compared with a year ago, declining to $430,000 based on the latest data from the Realtor.com monthly housing market trends report.

June marked the eighth consecutive month of price decreases, and the 2.5% asking price drop was the deepest annual decline in the history of the data set, which dates back to 2017.

“Sellers are reading market conditions and are pricing accordingly from the start rather than listing high and cutting later, and buyers are taking note and making bids,” said Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale.

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Home listing prices fell at the fastest annual rate since 2017, Realtor.com data showed. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The report found that for a buyer who bought a $430,000 home in June with a 20% down payment and an average mortgage rate of 6.49%, the typical monthly payment was $2,172.

That figure is about $132 less per month, and more than $1,500 less per year, than what the typical buyer owed in June 2025, which had a median price of $440,950 and an average mortgage rate of 6.82%.

Another notable metric suggesting the affordability pressures in the housing market are easing is that the typical home listed for sale is spending the same amount of time on the market as it did a year ago, holding steady at 53 days.

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Pending home sales have grown for more than half a year. (Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

Pending home sales also rose 3.7% year over year through June, which marked the seventh consecutive month of growth despite the share of listings with a price cut shrinking by 1.9 percentage points to 18.8%.

Other economic indicators were little changed in June, as mortgage rates settled around 6.5% and Federal Reserve policymakers unanimously held the benchmark federal funds rate steady at its current range of 3.5% to 3.75% amid elevated inflation readings.

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New homes listed for sale have risen over 2% in the last year. (David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“It was a no-news-is-good-news June,” said Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel. “While it may seem obvious now, this was far from a foregone conclusion just a few months ago.”

Sellers have also increasingly moved off the sidelines amid the price declines in a sign of confidence that they’ll find a willing buyer, as new listings increased 2.4% from a year ago.

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“Unlike last year, sellers are willing to take a slight haircut to move, and buyers get a little relief on price to offset rates that settled higher than hoped,” Krimmel said.

Just about a year after signing the One Big, Beautiful Bill with its major league tax cuts, the stock market is roaring.

In this year’s second quarter, the S&P 500 is up 15 percent and the NASDAQ up 21 percent — the best performance in 6 years. The small-cap Russell 2000 had the best first half in 35 years. The Dow Jones index is above 52,000.

Business is booming and profitable. Employment is rising. Oil and gas prices are coming down. The dollar is strong.

America is getting ready to celebrate the July 4th signing of the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago. Here’s what President Reagan said to the Republican National Convention in 1980, on the eve of his landslide victory over President Carter.

“Can we doubt that only a Divine Providence placed this land, this island of freedom, here as a refuge for all those people in the world who yearn to breathe free?”

Reagan loved to talk about freedom. It’s a wonderfully powerful word.

So is the most important sentence in history from the Declaration of Independence, that we “are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I keep coming back to this because it’s so important. And I keep thinking about freedom and free-enterprise, I keep thinking about liberty and limited government, the rule of law and private property, free market competition, and individual incentives.

They all go together. They all underscore the greatness of American core values and our economy. We reward the entrepreneurial spirit and the risk takers who define it. It’s so important.

Yet we must defend freedom and free-enterprise. We must avoid the burdens of taxation and regulation and foolish socialist government giveaways.

Instead, we must reward work — for work itself is a core value. Like Reagan and President Trump and the founders, I believe America’s best days are ahead. Yet we must fight for these freedoms.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has agreed to pay $600 million and enter into a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) after admitting it failed to prevent tens of thousands of illegal product sales into the U.S. through its online marketplaces.

The DOJ announced Wednesday that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and its U.S.-based payment processor, AUS Merchant Services, will pay a combined $600 million to resolve allegations they failed to stop merchants from selling and importing illegal pharmaceuticals, controlled substances, regulated chemicals and pill-making equipment through Alibaba.com and AliExpress.com.

As part of the agreement, Alibaba admitted that between January 2016 and December 2024, roughly 80,000 unlawful product sales involving imports into the U.S. violated the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and other federal laws.

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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and its U.S.-based payment processor, will pay a combined $600 million to resolve recent Justice Department allegations. (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images, File / Getty Images)

The company acknowledged those transactions generated more than $200 million in gross merchandise value.

Court documents say the company failed to fully incorporate certain wire transfer data into its transaction monitoring system, causing it to miss some high-risk transactions. In at least one instance, a merchant continued selling prohibited products to U.S. buyers after AUS investigated and reported the seller. 

Federal investigators conducted more than 40 undercover purchases of pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical counterfeiting equipment that were illegal to import into the U.S., the DOJ noted.

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AUS Merchant Services, formerly known as Alipay U.S., also admitted shortcomings in its anti-money laundering compliance program.

According to court documents, the company failed to fully incorporate certain wire transfer data into its transaction monitoring system, causing it to miss some high-risk transactions. In at least one instance, a merchant continued selling prohibited products to U.S. buyers after AUS investigated and reported the seller.

“Companies operating online marketplaces — whether based in the United States or abroad — must implement appropriate safeguards to prevent bad actors from exploiting their platforms,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said in a statement. “If they fail to do so, the Department will hold them accountable.”

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Allegations included failing to stop merchants from selling and importing illegal pharmaceuticals, controlled substances, regulated chemicals and pill-making equipment through Alibaba.com and AliExpress.com. (iStock / iStock)

Alibaba said it cooperated fully with the Justice Department’s investigation and has agreed to strengthen compliance measures governing products sold by third-party merchants on its e-commerce platforms.

“Alibaba reached a mutually satisfactory resolution with U.S. regulators on bringing stricter compliance to the sale of products in the United States by third-party merchants on its e-commerce platforms,” an Alibaba spokesperson told FOX Business on Wednesday. “This settlement reflects a thorough regulatory process with Alibaba’s full cooperation and our commitment to best-in-class standards of control, policies, and measures against non-compliant product sales.”

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Under the agreement, Alibaba will pay a $125 million criminal penalty and forfeit $200 million, while AUS Merchant Services will pay an $85 million criminal penalty and forfeit $190 million.

Both companies also agreed to strengthen their compliance programs and continue cooperating with federal investigators.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More than 13,000 air conditioning units were recalled for posing fire and burn hazards, as Americans attempt to stay cool during a heatwave for the Fourth of July weekend.

Texas-based Daikin Comfort Technologies Manufacturing, Inc. issued the recall last week for about 13,514 Amana Window-Room-Air-Conditioners and Through the Wall air conditioners or heat pumps sold nationwide, as well as about 53 that were sold in Canada.

“The heating element can remain energized during a ground fault, despite being turned off, posing a risk of fire or burn injury to consumers,” the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said.

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More than 13,000 air conditioning units were recalled for posing fire and burn hazards. (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission)

No injuries have been reported thus far in connection with the products, but the company received one report of plastic on the unit melting.

The products are white, with the brand name printed on most of the units’ control covers. The model number is located on a white sticker on the front edge of the units’ base plate.

Recalled units have a model number beginning with PB, AH or AE.

No injuries have been reported thus far in connection with the products, but the company received one report of plastic on the unit melting. (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission)

The units were sold through direct sales and heating and cooling dealers nationwide from April 2025 through December 2025 for between $850 and $1,500.

They are typically installed at hotels, apartment buildings and commercial spaces.

Consumers are urged to stop using the recalled products immediately and contact Daikin Comfort Technologies Manufacturing, Inc. for a full refund.

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The units are typically installed at hotels, apartment buildings and commercial spaces. (Getty Images / Getty Images)

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The recall was announced ahead of a dangerous heatwave that began to intensify through much of the central and eastern parts of the U.S.

About two-thirds of the country is expected to be exposed to the extreme heat during the Fourth of July weekend, according to The Weather Channel.