Consumer companies rose sharply after surprisingly strong property-market data.

Housing starts, a measure of U.S. home building, jumped 15.8% in December to a rate of 1.50 million, even as they slowed from the same month a year earlier.

U.K. retail sales volumes were 0.3% lower in December than in the prior month, the Office for National Statistics said Friday.

Economists expected sales to be flat, according to a poll by The Wall Street Journal.

The Federal Trade Commission on Friday sued PepsiCo in a last-minute blitz of lawsuits before the end of the Biden administration, alleging that the beverage giant forced many consumers to pay higher prices by giving Walmart unfair pricing advantages.


Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

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