AP Top Extended Financial Headlines at 2:03 p.m. EDT

Two of the nation’s largest grocers have agreed to merge in a deal that would help them better compete with Walmart, Amazon and other major companies that have stepped into the grocery business

What keeps driving inflation so high

The pace of sales at U.S. retailers was unchanged in September from August as rising prices for rent and food chipped away at money available for other things

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s third quarter profits fell by 17% from a year earlier, as the bank set aside roughly a billion dollars to cover potential losses in what CEO Jamie Dimon has said a could be a recession in six to nine months

Key financial regulators having approved U.S. Bank’s $8 billion acquisition of Japanese financial titan MUFG’s Union Bank franchise

UnitedHealth trumped third-quarter expectations and hiked its 2022 forecast again as one of the largest U.S. health insurance providers moved deeper into delivering care

Dolly Parton laughs at the idea that she is some sort of secret philanthropist

Stocks fell on Wall Street as investors weighed the latest updates on the outlook on inflation, consumer spending and corporate earnings

Dolly Parton proudly accepted the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy at Gotham Hall Thursday night, saying she was “proud and honored to be a part of anything that is going to make the world a better place.”

Inflation in the United States accelerated in September, with the cost of housing and other necessities intensifying pressure on households, wiping out pay gains and ensuring that the Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates aggressively