The public dispute between a major grocery chain and a key supplier over prices is escalating. Food-products provider PepsiCo and retailer Carrefour both are claiming to have started the fight, and each is disputing the other’s version of events. The WSJ’s Jennifer Maloney reports that PepsiCo says it had decided to stop supplying the supermarket chain’s European stores because the two sides hadn’t reached a new contract agreement. Carrefour maintains it had yanked Pepsi, Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos, Quaker oats and other PepsiCo products from its shelves. The battle comes as tensions between suppliers and customers have been simmering in the wake of rising commodities costs and consumer pushback over inflation at stores. France's government has gotten involved, forging an agreement to reduce prices, but says suppliers Unilever, Nestlé and PepsiCo haven’t acted fast enough. PepsiCo suspended shipments to Loblaw in Canada for more than a month in 2022.

• Newell Brands will slash about 7% of its office roles and pare its real-estate footprint. (WSJ)
• Retailers Crocs, Lululemon and Abercrombie & Fitch raised their quarterly sales outlooks on a stronger-than-expected holiday season. (WSJ) 

Inspections of Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets are finding potentially troubling results. United Airlines says it found loose bolts on some of the planes in its fleet after U.S. safety regulators ordered inspections of the aircraft following a midair emergency. The WSJ’s Andrew Tangel, Doug Cameron and Alison Sider report the disclosure comes as Boeing and regulators are still investigating what caused a door panel plug to detach from an Alaska Airlines jet in flight, leaving it with a gaping hole. United says its inspections “had found instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug—for example, bolts that needed additional tightening.” The airline says those would be remedied by its maintenance staff to return the planes to service. Regulators have ordered the MAX 9 jets to be grounded, which has resulted in hundreds of flight cancellations as carriers took their planes out of service.

Creating resilience in supply chains by moving away from China may not be removing risks from global trade. New research suggests that much of the resiliency that supply-chain measures are designed to create may be illusory, and in fact may be creating new risks. The WSJ’s Nathaniel Taplin reports that a study from data provider CEIC found China’s exports to Europe and major developed democracies like the U.S. fell in November to the lowest level in a decade. At the same time, U.S. imports from Vietnam, Mexico and other third countries have shot up. There’s plenty of evidence that the shift has made supply chains more complicated, and that the downsides of complexity are outweighing some of the benefits. That means higher costs for U.S. buyers. Factories in new locations may have advantages, but for now it appears that Asian supply chains are simply lengthening rather than growing more resilient.

German factory orders rose a less-than-expected 0.3% in November. (WSJ)

Oil prices fell sharply as Saudi Arabia cut crude prices. (WSJ)

U.S. consumers are growing more optimistic about the housing market. (MarketWatch)

Booming commodities exports pushed Brazil to its largest trade surplus in 30 years. (Bloomberg)

Chinese state-owned Cosco Shipping suspended transport to Israel through the Red Sea. (CNBC)

Two crewmembers died and a third was injured in a fire on a small, aging containership at Port of Houston. (KHOU)

Maersk Tankers acquired U.S. operator Penfield Marine and its around 80 vessels operating in pool services. (Splash 247)

FedEx is cutting flight hours for its pilots and offering early retirement incentives amid ongoing contract negotiations with its unionized crews. (Simple Flying)

United Parcel Service is cutting a sorting shift at an Indianapolis sorting facility, its second such action at a package hub this month. (Supply Chain Dive)

Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power is weighing the purchase of a 10% stake in a Louisiana liquefied natural gas project alongside a 20-year supply agreement. (Nikkei Asia)

Berkshire Hathaway settled a dispute with Pilot Travel Centers over valuation of the truck stop chain. (Reuters)

Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at paul.page@wsj.com.

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @bylizyoung and @pdberger. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on X at @WSJLogistics.