European Midday Briefing : Stocks Up But Mood -2-

Rovio, which helped pioneer the now-booming mobile-gaming industry with its 2009 "Angry Birds" hit, said the 9.05 euro-a-share bid represented a sweetened offer, following an earlier, undisclosed 8.50 euro bid by Playtika. Playtika specialized in casino-style mobile games before moving into casual games similar to "Angry Birds." Rovio said it isn't engaged in deal talks with Playtika, and said there was no assurance a deal would be reached.

UK Retail Sales Fell for Second Straight Month in December

Retail sales in the U.K. fell again in December, adding to evidence of weakening consumer spending at year-end.

Retail sales volumes fell 1% in December on month after dropping by a revised 0.5% in November, data from the Office for National Statistics showed Friday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected sales to increase 0.3% on month.

U.K. Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Deteriorated in January

U.K. consumer confidence unexpectedly took a dip in January after improving at year-end, highlighting persisting woes as high inflation and rising interest rates erode Britons' purchasing power.

Research firm GfK said its consumer-confidence barometer declined to minus 45 in January from minus 42 in December, ending a string of three consecutive monthly increases. The reading misses economists' expectations of a further improvement in sentiment to minus 40.

GLOBAL NEWS

Consumer Prices Plateau as Inflation Slows to Prepandemic Levels

After a period of steep inflation, Americans have seen monthly price growth ease, but when will things get back to normal?

The inflation benchmark, measuring price growth over a year, hit a 40-year high in June after months of sustained price increases. Since then, monthly gains have slowed. While December 2022 prices were up 6.5% from a year earlier, a Wall Street Journal analysis of Labor Department data indicates that annual growth has eased to levels that existed before the pandemic. Inflation observed during the past six months would extend to prices rising 1.9% over the course of a year, close to the average annual rate of 1.7% between 2010 and 2020.

California Has a Gas-Price Mystery: Too High, But Why?

Why do California's drivers pay so much for gas?

California's retail gas price was $4.32 a gallon in December 2022, while it was $3.09 a gallon on average elsewhere in the U.S. That is a $1.23-per-gallon difference. There are some quantifiable sources of the California premium. Higher state gas taxes are one reason. The state's clean air policies are another. These include a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse-gas emissions, a low-carbon fuel standard and a fee for the abatement of leaking underground storage. California also mandates a cleaner-burning gasoline, which adds around 10 cents a gallon.

China Shares May Provide Bright Spot in First Half

China offers a bright spot for equities investors in the first half of 2023, as the country's reopening transcends rising interest rates and looming recession elsewhere, Citi's wealth management strategists say.

"At least for the first half, there's no doubt that it's the best," Ken Peng, head of Asia investment strategy at Citi Global Wealth Investments, the bank's wealth-management platform, said in a recent interview, referring to shares of Chinese companies listed on both the domestic and offshore markets.

China's Central Bank Keeps Benchmark Lending Rates Unchanged

China's central bank on Friday kept its benchmark interest rates unchanged as the Chinese economy recovered from the country's Covid reopening quicker than expected.

The People's Bank of China kept the one-year loan prime rate at 3.65% and five-year LPR at 4.3%, both unchanged from last month.

Japan Core Inflation Hits 4% for First Time in Four Decades

TOKYO-Core consumer-price inflation in Japan reached a fresh 41-year high of 4% in December, adding to pressure on the Bank of Japan to unwind its decadelong monetary easing.

Although the BOJ stood pat on policy this week, the rise in inflation is likely to fuel market expectations that the central bank will abandon its policy of setting a cap on the 10-year government bond yield. It raised the cap to 0.5% in December.

U.S. Covid-19 Pandemic Enters Fourth Year With Hospitalizations on the Decline

Three years after health authorities announced the first known Covid-19 case in the U.S., the virus behind the disease remains persistent but thus far hasn't triggered the severity of the waves seen in prior winters.

A recent climb in hospitalizations and Covid-19 wastewater readings-two key metrics for spotting trends-appears to have stalled following the quick rise of the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant. The U.S. was gripped in significantly more deadly waves at this point in the last two winters, though currently there are still hundreds of deaths reported each day.

How New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern Went from Pandemic Hero to Political Casualty

SYDNEY-Jacinda Ardern's tough response to the Covid-19 pandemic catapulted her party to a historic election landslide in late 2020. But about a year later, her popularity began to wane.

New Zealand's strict border closure, designed to keep out the virus, was hurting tourism businesses, educational institutions and other sectors that relied on visitors, foreign students and workers from overseas. Auckland, the country's biggest city, was still locked down for several months near the end of 2021. New Zealanders were frustrated that their bigger neighbor, Australia, appeared to be reopening faster.

FAA Says Contractor Unintentionally Caused Outage That Disrupted Flights

The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that a contractor working for the air-safety regulator had unintentionally deleted computer files used in a pilot-alert system, leading to an outage that disrupted U.S. air traffic last week.

The agency, which declined to identify the contractor, said its personnel were working to correctly synchronize two databases-a main one and a backup-used for the alert system when the files were unintentionally deleted.

Joe Biden Says 'There's No There There' About Classified Documents Found at Office, Home

WASHINGTON-President Biden defended his administration's handling of the discovery of classified documents at his Delaware home and former private office, seeking to play down the significance of the disclosures. "There's no there there," he told reporters.

Mr. Biden was asked Thursday about the documents investigation after he surveyed storm damage at a California coastal community.

Peruvian Protesters March in Capital Against Government

LIMA, Peru-Thousands of antigovernment protesters descended on Peru's capital, seeking to ratchet up pressure on embattled President Dina Boluarte to resign after weeks of deadly clashes in mountains of the country's Andes.

The protesters from Peru's largely indigenous and poor highlands arrived aboard buses and marched through the streets of downtown Lima, saying the government was responsible after several dozen people died in clashes with state security forces in the past several weeks.

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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-20-23 0628ET