As companies seek to close growing gaps in skills and talent,

Deloitte US CEO Jason Garzatus believes it's important for organizations to understand their baseline of skills.

There's so many organizations that can't ask and answer the fundamental questions about how much computer science or data management skills do I have or AI development skills in a given domain? By performing a

skills inventory, leaders can truly understand where their efforts should be focused. Being blind

to those gaps is the real miss. Visit Deloitte.com to learn how your enterprise can help successfully

cultivate talent. Here is your midday brief for Thursday, December 18th.

I'm Anthony Bansy for the Wall Street Journal.

Consumer inflation eased to 2.7% in November, down from 3% in September, coming in below

economist expectations.

There was no October report because of the shutdown. An economist

warned the figures for November may be understated, meaning inflation could actually have been

higher because the shutdown prevented many officials from collecting some of the data they

typically do. The Bank of England cut its key interest rate to 3.75% today and indicated more cuts could

come over the coming months.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank left its benchmark unchanged at 2%.

European officials say the Eurozone economy has held up better than expected despite the

threat of U.S. tariffs.

And Trump Media and Technology Group has agreed to merge with the Alphabet-backed fusion startup, T.A.E. Technologies.

The deal is valued at $6 billion.

The companies plan to build a fusion plant to feed the massive electricity demand created by the artificial intelligence boom, although fusion technology is not yet commercially viable.

Shares of President Trump's media company, which is behind the truth social platform,

soared more than 30% in midday trading.

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