By Julia Horowitz, CNN Business Supply chain bottlenecks are weighing on economic growth in Europe. The same problem is hitting China as it battles an energy crunch and concerns about its huge real estate sector. And in the United States, factories can’t produce as much as they’d like due to shortages of workers. What’s happening:
Continue Reading By Michelle Toh, CNN Business Evergrande has made a crucial payment that allows it to stay out of default, at least for now, according to Chinese state media. State-run financial newspaper Securities Times reported Friday that the embattled property conglomerate had made an $83.5 million interest payment on a dollar-denominated bond that was due last
Continue Reading By Alexis Benveniste, CNN Business The Financial Stability Oversight Council released a report on climate change Thursday, outlining the danger that a warming planet will have on the financial future of the United States. Climate change is an “emerging threat to the financial stability of the United States,” Stephen Ledbetter, the executive director and director
Continue Reading By Matt Egan, CNN Business The Federal Reserve announced new trading rules on Thursday following a controversy over trades made by senior officials. The Fed said the new rules will ban policymakers and senior staff from buying individual stocks and bonds and will restrict active trading. The central bank pledged to also increase the frequency
Continue Reading by Matt Egan, CNN Business Senator Elizabeth Warren urged the Federal Reserve on Thursday to release a March 2020 ethics warning provided to Fed officials that could shed light on the central bank’s trading scandal. “I am writing to ask that you release this information immediately, so that Congress and the public can evaluate the
Continue Reading By Anna Bahney, CNN Business After the housing market finally started cooling off a bit over the summer, sales rebounded in September. The tight inventory of homes, which had been improving earlier in the year, worsened again in September and prices continued to climb, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. September
Continue Reading By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business President Joe Biden faces a number of economic concerns, from supply chain disruptions to inflation. But the White House will soon need to tackle another major financial issue: whether or not to nominate Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell for a second term. Powell’s tenure as Fed chair is
Continue Reading By Matt Egan, CNN Business Former President Donald Trump is planning a return to Wall Street. Trump, whose companies have a long history of filing for bankruptcy, announced a deal Wednesday night to bring a new media company public through what’s known as a SPAC, or a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation. Trump Media & Technology
Continue Reading By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN Business If you’re thinking of buying a home or refinancing one, a big question will be whether to get a 30-year mortgage or opt for a shorter term loan. Most people get a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, which offers lower monthly payments. But there are some instances when it might make
Continue Reading By Matt McFarland, CNN Business Tesla owners can buy the company’s “full self-driving” software for $10,000, but they may have to pay with their privacy. As part of the wider rollout of Tesla’s “full self-driving” option, which began earlier this month, drivers may forfeit some privacy protections around location sharing and in-car recordings that they
Continue Reading By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Business The global supply chain is struggling under the weight of a series of disruptions, including a shortage of truck drivers and other workers as well as massive port congestion. The issues are forcing large and small companies alike to re-think what they need to do to keep manufacturing facilities humming.
Continue Reading By Julia Horowitz, CNN Business When WeWork’s plans for a blockbuster initial public offering imploded in 2019, the company became a poster child for the excesses of venture capital and startup culture in the post-2008 era. “What happened to WeWork is not just a failure of this particular set of individuals,” wrote Shira Ovide, a
Continue Reading By Chris Isidore, CNN Business Southwest Airlines says that its recent service problems, which prompted it to cancel more than 2,000 flights over a four-day period, cost the airline $75 million. That’s just one of the headwinds facing the discount airline. Southwest warned Thursday that it believes revenue will take a $100 million hit this
Continue Reading By Rob McLean and Jill Disis, CNN Business Spanx, one of America’s most prominent shapewear companies, is now worth $1.2 billion after inking a deal with Blackstone. The private equity firm will take a majority stake in the brand, the two companies announced Wednesday. While they did not disclose how much Blackstone paid for its
Continue Reading By Hanna Ziady, CNN Business Unilever is hiking prices to cope with soaring supply chain costs and expects inflation to accelerate into next year. The owner of Dove and Ben & Jerry’s said Thursday that it increased prices by 4.1% in the third quarter to “offset rising commodity and other input costs.” The pricing action
Continue Reading By Michelle Toh, CNN Business A fire-sale deal that would have eased a punishing cash crunch at Chinese real estate giant Evergrande has collapsed, pushing the troubled company closer to a potential collapse. Evergrande announced Wednesday that it had terminated an agreement to sell a controlling stake in its property management unit to rival Chinese
Continue Reading By Rhea Mogul and Esha Mitra, CNN India has administered more than 1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses, a remarkable feat just months after a second wave of infection killed thousands of people across the country. But as India celebrated passing the milestone on Thursday, some experts warned the pandemic threat was not over — in
Continue Reading Robert Iddiols and Charles Riley, CNN Business The United Kingdom and New Zealand have struck a free trade agreement that will reduce tariffs on bulldozers, wine, buses and clothing. The draft deal, which follows 16 months of negotiations, is the latest to be brokered by the United Kingdom after its departure from the European Union.
Continue Reading By Chris Isidore, CNN Business Tesla reported record earnings that blew past Wall Street forecasts, as the company was able to shake off the effects of a shortage of computer chips and other raw materials that has dogged the auto industry in recent months. The company reported operating earnings of $2.1 billion, up 30% from
Continue Reading By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN Business For a lot of people there is one real Ford Mustang. It’s the Ford Mustang GT coupe with the big 5.0-liter gasoline-burning 460 horsepower V8 engine and just two doors. These people do not accept the validity of the Mustang Ecoboost with its 310 horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder engine. And they
Continue Reading By Sean Lyngaas, CNN Business The hacking tool used in a ransomware attack that disrupted programming at Sinclair Broadcast Group is similar to malicious code previously used by a Russian crime group sanctioned by the US government, according to a security researcher who has viewed the ransom note. The code also overlaps with previous hacking
Continue Reading By Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN Business To alleviate cargo congestion at shipping ports in California, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Wednesday tackling the shortage of truck drivers and container storage needed to move critical cargo out of the ports. “California’s ports are critical to our local, state and national economies and the state is
Continue Reading By Parija Kavilanz, CNN Business If you were shopping online in the late summer, chances are you may have been hit with an unfortunate message: The product you’re looking for is out-of-stock. Products were out of stock online 24% more of the time in August from a year earlier across the 18 product categories tracked
Continue Reading By Matt Egan, CNN Business From port congestion and price spikes to widespread shortages, stress in US supply chains is intensifying and could slow the economy in the coming months, Moody’s Analytics warns. “Supply-chain headaches show no sign of subsiding just yet,” Moody’s economists led by Matt Colyar wrote in a Tuesday report. About 200,000
Continue Reading By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business Verizon reported earnings that topped forecasts Wednesday morning and issued a more upbeat outlook for 2022. That’s some much-needed good news for the company, which has been the Dow’s worst-performing stock this year, falling about 10%. Overall, the Dow is up about 16% in 2021, making Verizon’s underperformance
Continue Reading By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business The bitcoin bull market is showing no signs of slowing down. Bitcoin, the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency, hit a new all-time high of nearly $67,000 Wednesday, topping the previous record set in April. Bitcoin prices have surged 50% this month, from just under $44,000 at the end of
Continue Reading By Chris Isidore, CNN Business Virtually every US home contains items that came through the ports of Los Angeles or Long Beach. The neighboring ports, a mere two nautical miles from each other, are the two largest in the country, measured by containters handled — with Los Angeles holding the top spot. Imports from Asia
Continue Reading By Matt Egan, CNN Business Facing a mounting supply chain crisis, the White House is exploring whether to deploy the National Guard to ease bottlenecks, though that option is viewed as unlikely, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Business groups have urged the Biden administration to consider out-of-the-box ideas to address the supply
Continue Reading By Julia Horowitz, CNN Business Procter & Gamble, the consumer goods giant that makes Pampers diapers, Crest toothpaste and Tide detergent, says that running its business is far from simple right now. “Supply chains are under pressure from tight labor markets, tight transportation markets and overall capacity constraints,” Chief Financial Officer Andre Schulten told analysts
Continue Reading By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has some regrets about how he handled Dave Chappelle’s stand-up special, even though he still stands by Netflix’s decision to stream the controversial act. In an interview with Variety late Tuesday, Sarandos admitted that he “screwed up” the internal communication with Netflix’s staff. He said he
Continue Reading