Alphabet Inc.’s Google has invested $1 billion in futures-exchange giant CME Group Inc. and struck a deal to move the company’s core trading systems to the cloud. Under the deal, the technology giant’s Google Cloud unit would eventually power markets that handle trillions of dollars in trades each day.

The Federal Reserve approved plans to begin scaling back its bond-buying stimulus program this month and end it by June, a major step toward withdrawing its aggressive, pandemic-driven economic support amid a recent inflation surge.

GDP grew at a historically fast annual rate of 6.7% in the second quarter as an infusion of government stimulus, widespread business reopenings and rising vaccination rates fueled spending. Those spending drivers faded in the third quarter as the U.S. economy grew by 2.0%.

Federal Reserve officials are set to wind down their $120 billion-a-month bond-purchase program in November.

Apollo Global Management Inc. said it expects its assets under management to double to about $1 trillion by 2026.

Credit-card spending at restaurants and retailers excluding gasoline stations rose 1.5% between August and September. In particular, spending at restaurants and bars rose 2.3%, the data showed, suggesting that customers didn’t let the Delta variant hold them back.

U.S. inflation accelerated slightly in September, rising 5.4% from a year before as supplies and labor continued to drive up prices.

A national survey AHLA commissioned this summer found 67% of U.S. business travelers are likely to take fewer trips, and 68% plan shorter trips. The survey of 2,200 adults, a group that included 414 regular business travelers, found that just over half of the business travelers planned to cancel their existing travel plans and not reschedule.

Banks have announced more than $54 billion in deals through late September. That puts industry mergers and acquisitions on pace for their biggest year since 2008, when some big banks had to sell themselves to stave off collapse.

Apollo unit backs Hong Kong insurer FWD’s $3 billion U.S. IPO. Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li’s FWD Group landed a $400 million investment as part of the Asian insurer’s plans for a multibillion-dollar U.S. listing.