Daily's Pre-Market: Inflation, Humana, Macy's, Tech Layoffs, Saudi Arabia.

Fed’s favorite inflation gauge rose 0.2% in December and was up 2.9% from a year ago

• The core personal consumption expenditures price index for December, an important gauge for the Federal Reserve, increased 0.2% on the month and was up 2.9% on a yearly basis.

• Including volatile food and energy costs, headline inflation also rose 0.2% for the month and held steady at 2.6% annually.

• Consumer spending increased 0.7%, stronger than the 0.5% estimate. Personal income growth edged lower to 0.3%, in line with the forecast.

Humana stock plunges on dismal 2024 forecast, as insurers face soaring medical costs

• Shares of Humana plunged after the health insurer issued a full-year earnings guidance that was about half of Wall Street’s expectations.

• The company cited soaring medical costs that dogged insurance companies last year and will likely pressure them again in 2024.

• Those higher costs reflect an increasing number of older adults returning to hospitals to undergo procedures they had delayed during the pandemic, such as joint and hip replacements. 

Arkhouse has financing in place for a Macy’s take-private, managing partner Kahane says

• Arkhouse has the financing in place to take Macy’s private at a bid of $5.8 billion, managing partner Gavriel Kahane told CNBC Thursday.

• But the activist investor has run into roadblocks without the department store retailer’s cooperation on due diligence.

• “At this stage, based on public information, there isn’t a bank in the world that would give you committed financing, and that’s just par for the course,” Kahane said on CNBC’s “Money Movers.”

Tech layoffs balloon in January as Wall Street rally lifts Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft to records

• So far in January, some 23,670 workers have been laid off, the most in any month since March, according to the website Layoffs.fyi.

• The downsizing comes at the same time as investors are becoming more bullish on tech.

• The Nasdaq is at its highest since early 2022, and Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft have all reached fresh all-time highs.

Saudi Arabia’s first alcohol store is a big step, but also aims to tackle a longstanding problem: Booze smuggling

• Saudi Arabia’s first alcohol store has opened in the diplomatic quarter of its capital Riyadh, accessible to non-Muslim diplomats. 

• The regulation of alcohol quotas for diplomatic missions are being put in place to “counter the illicit trade of alcohol goods,” Saudi Arabia’s Center of International Communication reportedly said in a statement.

• “Everyone knows which embassies sell booze … some of them have made a whole side business out of it,” one Saudi investor told CNBC.