[naviga:h3]Amazon buying Whole Foods[/naviga:h3]

NEW YORK — Amazon is buying Whole Foods in a deal valued at about $13.7 billion, a stunning move into brick-and-mortar retail that sets the stage for more radical store experimentation and intensified competition with grocery rivals.

The deal unites the online juggernaut with the grocery store chain that fell behind as the organic and natural foods it helped popularize expanded to more locations and shoppers found “good enough” alternatives.

Amazon already offers grocery-delivery services in five markets, but the Whole Foods purchase would let it expand to many more. Amazon also offers grocery shipments elsewhere, but that’s tough with perishable foods.

The deal has the possibility to be “transformative,” Moody’s lead retail analyst Charlie O’Shea said in a note, “not just for food retail, but for retail in general.”

[naviga:h3]Nike cuts jobs, shoes and styles[/naviga:h3]

NEW YORK — Nike says it plans to slash about 1,400 jobs, reduce the number of sneaker and clothing styles it offers by a quarter and sell more shoes directly to customers online.

The company says the changes to its business structure will help it offer more products to customers faster.

Nike said a main focus will be the 12 key cities in 10 countries that it expects to represent more than 80 percent of its projected growth through 2020.

Those cities are New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Milan, Mexico City, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Beijing.

[naviga:h3]EpiPen gets competition[/naviga:h3]

U.S. regulators have approved new competition for EpiPen, the emergency allergy medicine that made Mylan a poster child for pharmaceutical greed.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Adamis Pharmaceuticals’ product, which should go on sale later this year at a much lower price than EpiPen.

[naviga:h3]Oil, gas regulations delayed by Trump[/naviga:h3]

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is delaying two Obama-era regulations aimed at restricting harmful methane emissions from oil and gas production.

The Environmental Protection Agency says it is seeking a two-year delay for oil and gas companies to follow a new rule requiring them to monitor and reduce methane leaks from their facilities.

Meanwhile, the Interior Department is indefinitely postponing a regulation intended to reduce methane released from oil and gas wells on federal lands.