Breaking News: Business

• Allegiant to buy rival budget airline Sun Country in $1.5 billion cash and stock deal - Budget airlines in the U.S. like Allegiant and Sun Country have faced a surge in costs following the pandemic and the increase in domestic capacity.
• Walmart teams up with Google's Gemini to make it easier for shoppers to find and buy products - The retail giant also has a similar deal with OpenAI's ChatGPT and has its own AI-powered chatbot, Sparky.
• Boeing's airplane deliveries are the highest in 7 years. Now it's about to pick up the pace - Boeing is set to outline its production increase plans later this month after it's expected to post its best year for deliveries since 2018.
• 2026 is the year of obesity pills. Here's how they could reshape the GLP-1 market - Patients can already access the first GLP-1 obesity pill from Novo Nordisk, and a rival oral drug from Eli Lilly is slated for U.S. approval later this year.
• Here’s what’s happening now with mortgage rates after Trump's latest push on housing affordability - President Donald Trump posted on social media Thursday that he is instructing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds.
• Why Trump is going after institutional homebuyers: They dominate markets like Atlanta, Jacksonville - Trump's message may be aimed at places like Atlanta and Jacksonville, metropolitan areas where investor ownership is more visible than elsewhere.
• Real estate agents say the housing market is starting to balance out - The latest housing survey shows agents slightly more optimistic about the new year, and shows a previously strong buyer's market becoming more balanced.
• Ford enters race to offer eyes-off driving tech, starting with $30,000 EV in 2028 - The target brings Ford into a race against competitors such as Tesla, General Motors and Rivian Automotive to develop and broadly launch such systems.
• WBD once again rejects Paramount offer in favor of Netflix deal - Warner Bros. Discovery's board still sees its deal with Netflix as the superior option over Paramount's recently amended hostile offer.
• Mortgage demand drops nearly 10% to end 2025, despite lower interest rates - The Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted index reported a 9.7% drop in total mortgage applications despite decreased mortgage rates.