Warburg Pincus turned to investment giant Apollo Global Management Inc. for a $1 billion loan to pay down bank facilities involving an older fund.

Choice Hotels International’s hostile buyout offer of rival Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has entered a new phase: recriminations. Choice Hotels said on Wednesday that institutional shareholders representing 40% of Wyndham’s total outstanding shares have talked with Choice about its recent offer to exchange their shares for Choice shares or cash.

U.S. Steel, the Pittsburgh steel producer that played a key role in the nation’s industrialization, is being acquired by Nippon Steel in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $14.1 billion. The transaction is worth about $14.9 billion when including the assumption of debt. The price tag for U.S. Steel is nearly double what was offered just four months ago by rival Cleveland Cliffs.

Return-to-office rates have stalled for most of 2023. The average office attendance is about half of its prepandemic level in the 60% to 65% range, but the return rate has seemed to have topped out.

In the U.S., tax receipts at all levels of government climbed to nearly 28% of GDP last year, up from 25% in 2019 and the highest level since at least 1965.

The VIX gauge of implied volatility this week reached its lowest since before the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. The ratio of put options written to protect a portfolio to bullish call options has plunged back to what counted then as unusually low levels. Each of the past three years had a similarly strong consensus that proved entirely wrong.

Consumer spending showed unexpected strength at the start of the holiday shopping season, as Americans shopped in-person and online, shrugging off signs of economic cooling. Retail sales, which include spending at stores, restaurants and gas stations, rose 0.3% in November from the month before, while economists had expected sales to fall. Sales rose 4.1% in November from a year earlier, outpacing inflation.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased to 7.07% from 7.17%, with points falling to 0.59 from 0.60 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. That was the lowest level since July.

Choice Hotels is launching a hostile takeover offer for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts after repeatedly being rebuffed in its effort to strike a friendly deal.

Many investors are still keeping too much of their assets in cash, advisers said. Households held 17% of their financial assets in cash or cash-like investments such as money-market funds or certificates of deposits in 2022—the highest share since 2012.