Become more informed in minutes...

Consumer goods companies are experiencing a wave of chief executive changes as they struggle with sluggish growth and shifting consumer preferences. On Tuesday, Kraft Heinz appointed Steve Cahillane as its new CEO, joining other firms like Coca-Cola, Unillever, Nestlé, and Lululemon in recent leadership reshuffles."Chief executives have had to react to all the market changes taking place and adapt," said Kim Pomoell, partner in Heidrick & Struggles' consumer markets practice. "And there's been impatience from boards, to some degree, in terms of not hitting the targets fast enough and reacting to those changes." Global CEO turnover remains elevated, according to executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates, which recently reported that, up to the end of the third quarter of 2025, there were 176 incoming CEOs worldwide, a 9% year-on-year rise. While some changes are attributed to individual executives' performances, broader economic challenges including U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and supply chain turbulence, such as the Suez Canal disruption, are also factors.

 

Reuters

Mozilla has appointed Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, a longtime company insider and most recently general manager of Firefox, as its new chief executive, succeeding interim CEO Laura Chambers, who led the organization for the past two years. The leadership change comes as Mozilla faces increasing competition from artificial intelligence (AI)-integrated browsers and evolving user expectations. Enzor-DeMeo said Mozilla plans to expand Firefox and its wider product ecosystem with AI-powered features, positioning the browser as a “modern AI browser.” The strategy aims to counter rivals such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera and newer entrants like Perplexity’s Comet, all of which are adding AI tools to help users with research, planning and other tasks.

 

Reuters

U.S. job growth slowed sharply in November, with only 64,000 jobs added and the unemployment rate rising from 4.4% in September to 4.6%, the highest in over four years. The Labor Department report, the publication of which was delayed due to the six-week federal government shutdown, also showed a net loss of 105,000 jobs in October, primarily due to federal workforce reductions. The slowdown has prompted the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates for the third time since September. Health care and construction were among the few sectors to add jobs, at 46,000 and 28,000 respectively, while manufacturing and hospitality saw losses. Wage growth remained modest at 3.5% year-on-year. “The U.S. economy is in a jobs recession,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “The nation has added a mere 100,000 in the past six months. The bulk of those jobs were in healthcare, an industry that is almost always hiring due to America’s aging population.”

 

ABC News

CNBC

NPR

Wall Street Journal

U.S. business activity decelerated in December, with S&P Global’s composite PMI falling to 53.0 from 54.2, marking the slowest pace since June. Both services and manufacturing sectors missed expectations, as new business demand hit a 20-month low and manufacturing orders declined for the first time in a year. Trade tensions, immigration policy shifts, and a prolonged government shutdown have dampened business confidence. GDP growth projections for year-end have been revised down to 2.5%, with rising input costs posing fresh challenges for the Federal Reserve. "A key concern is rising costs, with inflation jumping sharply to its highest since November 2022, which fed through to one of the steepest increases in selling charges for the past three years," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.  "Higher prices are again being widely blamed on tariffs, with an initial impact on manufacturing now increasingly spilling over to services to broaden the affordability problem."

 

Finimize

The United States could impose fees or restrictions on European service providers in response to what it called “discriminatory” actions against U.S. firms. In a post on X, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) accused the European Union and some of its member states of "discriminatory and harassing lawsuits, taxes, fines and directives against U.S. service providers." The dispute is over policies governing digital commerce, as the EU moves to regulate U.S. tech giants including Google, Meta Platforms and Amazon. The USTR named several European companies, including DHL, SAP, Amadeus IT Group, Capgemini, Publicis Groupe and Mistral AI, which it said have been able to "operate freely" in the U.S. market for years.

 

Bloomberg

Reuters

Elon Musk's X Corp has launched a lawsuit against Operation Bluebird, a start-up which is seeking to cancel Twitter's trademarks to launch its own platform named "twitter.new." X said in Delaware federal court that its Twitter brand is still "alive and well," and Operation Bluebird's attempt to "steal" the name constituted trademark infringement. Operation Bluebird founder Michael Peroff said: "Our cancellation petition is based on well-established trademark law and we believe we will be successful . . . We are prepared to take this as far as we need to in order to achieve our goal."

 

Reuters

PepsiCo and Walmart have been hit with a proposed class action in New York federal court, accusing them of a decade-long scheme that gave Walmart preferential pricing on Pepsi soft drinks while inflating prices for other retailers, allegedly harming consumers nationwide. The lawsuit, covering purchases from 2015 onwards, claims the arrangement violated antitrust laws by eliminating price competition. Both companies deny wrongdoing.

 

Bloomberg Law

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

The U.S. government has launched an early career hiring and talent development program to bring more technology and artificial intelligence employees to the public sector. The “U.S. Tech Force” initiative is designed to address a technical and early career talent gap across the government, said Scott Kupor, the director of the Office of Personnel Management. Participants will commit to a two-year employment program working with teams that report directly to agency leaders in “collaboration with leading technology companies,” including Amazon Web Services, Apple, Google Public Sector, Dell Technologies, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle, Palantir, Salesforce and others, according to an official government website. “If you’re thinking about, long term, a career in technology, there is no bigger and more complex set of problems than we face in the federal government,” Kupor said.

 

CNN

CNBC

Reuters

Spirit Airlines has secured an additional $100m in emergency financing to bolster its operations during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, which includes an immediate $50m for day-to-day expenses. Despite concerns about its future, the airline insists operations are "business as usual" and plans to use the funds to either reorganize or potentially sell its assets. CEO Dave Davis noted that the additional liquidity demonstrates progress in the carrier's recovery efforts, as the company continues to manage flight schedules and ticket sales without major disruptions.

 

Reuters

KPMG reported global revenue of $39.8bn for the year ending September, marking a 5.4% increase, and outperforming its Big Four competitors. KPMG's tax business saw a 7.5% revenue increase as clients navigated global tax reforms. The assurance division also grew by 6%, attributed to enhanced audit quality and artificial intelligence (AI) investments. Global chair and chief executive Bill Thomas commented: "Our results show that the multibillion-dollar investments we've made are driving sustainable growth across KPMG globally." KPMG still trails behind its rivals in overall revenue.

 

Bloomberg Tax

Financial Times

Andersen Group, the tax and consulting firm started by alumni of Enron’s collapsed accounting firm Arthur Andersen, is set to make its market debut today after raising $176m in an IPO. On Tuesday, the company sold 11m shares in its IPO at $16 apiece, compared with the marketed range of $14-$16 each, valuing the company at $1.75bn. Andersen reported a net income of $65.7m on revenue of $668.3m in the nine months ended September 30th, compared with a net income of $144.5m on revenue of $589.2m in the same period a year earlier.

 

Financial Times

Reuters

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has ruled out allowing a House vote to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, despite pressure from moderate Republicans in swing districts. Those lawmakers had sought a vote to show constituents they were trying to prevent higher insurance premiums for millions of Americans starting January 1st. After initially signaling openness to debate, Mr. Johnson said Republicans could not agree on key details of an extension, including how to pay for it and whether abortion restrictions should apply. The House Rules Committee ultimately rejected the moderates’ proposal, clearing the way instead for a narrow Republican health care bill that allows the subsidies to lapse while making limited cost-focused changes. The decision angered centrist Republicans, some of whom called it “political malpractice,” and highlighted deep GOP divisions over health care policy. According to the Congressional Budget Office, failing to extend the subsidies could leave about 2m more Americans uninsured next year. With time running out before the end of the year, attention is shifting to potential Senate efforts in early 2026 to revive the subsidies through a bipartisan deal.

 

The Hill

CNBC

NBC News

New York Times

Global assets in the shadow banking sector now exceed $250tn, according to new data from the Financial Stability Board (FSB). Non-bank financial institutions had a record $256.8tn of assets at the end of 2024, up 9.4% year-on-year, and now account for 51% of total financial assets. The FSB identified a lack of data around the growth of the private credit sector. Officials sought to compile information on eight jurisdictions - Canada, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland and Hong Kong - but said there were substantive gaps in the data available. The FSB said it lamented the absence of a standard global definition for private credit and finance. 

 

Bloomberg

Diageo has agreed to sell its stake in its Kenyan business to Japan’s Asahi in a deal worth $2.3bn, as the struggling drinks giant looks to reduce its debt load through divestments. The sale of its 65% shareholding in East African Breweries (EABL) and 54% stake in distiller UDVK should complete in the second half of 2026, and will lower Diageo's debt by a net debt to earnings ratio of 0.25 times. Asahi said the deal, which will see EABL remain listed on the Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda stock exchanges, gives it “a leading platform in Kenya and the east African market, which is expected to deliver long-term growth driven by population increase and economic expansion.”

 

Financial Times

Reuters

Wall Street Journal