CNN-Business-Consumer

By Julia Horowitz, CNN Business Looming interest rate hikes are slamming US tech stocks, which dropped sharply last week as investors reassessed how higher borrowing costs could hit their portfolios. But it’s not the only sector to take a beating. What’s happening: Shares of US homebuilders including Toll Brothers, Lennar and PulteGroup were among the

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business Savannah Guthrie, host of NBC’s morning show ‘Today,’ announced Monday that she has Covid-19 — just a few days after her co-anchor Hoda Kotb announced she was positive for the virus. Kotb, meanwhile, returned to Studio 1A this week after recording two negative tests less than a week after her

By Charles Riley, CNN Business The UK government is coming under mounting pressure to increase taxes on oil and gas companies, including BP and Shell. The aim: to help British households cope with skyrocketing energy bills. The main opposition Labour Party this weekend called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose a windfall tax on

By Allison Morrow, CNN Business No one likes paying more for stuff. That’s why inflation, especially the sharp price increases we’ve seen in recent months, feels like a dirty word. But on the whole, inflation can actually be a good thing for many working-class Americans — especially those with fixed-rate debt like a 30-year mortgage.

By Michelle Toh, CNN Business Asia’s biggest billionaire, Mukesh Ambani, has snapped up a controlling stake in the Mandarin Oriental in New York City for just over $98 million. Ambani’s conglomerate, Reliance Industries, announced Saturday the acquisition of the hotel’s parent company, a Cayman Islands-based firm controlled by the Investment Corporation of Dubai. That company

By Laura He, CNN Business China’s largest private education provider laid off 60,000 employees last year as it grappled with fallout from Beijing’s sweeping overhaul of the industry. Yu Minhong — the billionaire founder of New Oriental Education — confirmed the massive shakeup in a post on his WeChat account over the weekend, adding the

By Brian Stelter, CNN Business A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free right here. Bob Saget was “an ever-present figure in American living rooms,” as Phil Mattingly said on CNN Sunday night. That’s why Saget’s sudden death at age 65 prompted breaking news bulletins,

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN Business There are difficult bosses. Then there are bosses who dump over 500 pounds of greasy pennies onto an ex-employee’s driveway. The US Department of Labor filed a lawsuit late last month against a Georgia auto repair shop for violating federal labor law, after its owner retaliated against a former employee

By Allison Morrow, CNN Business If you haven’t secured a raise in a while, now’s the time to make your move. Yes, inflation is high, supply chains are still a mess, unionization efforts are taking root across industries and retail theft is on the rise — all legitimate headaches for employers. But Corporate America has

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN Business Amazon is shortening its Covid-19 isolation policy to seven days from 10, for a total of up to 40 hours of paid leave, the company announced to employees Friday. The policy change is effective immediately and applies to all its US employees regardless of vaccination status. The decrease in paid

By Frank Pallotta, CNN Business In a turbulent year when the pandemic continued to upend the business of movie-going and streaming blockbusters at home became commonplace, one thing returned to normal: Disney topped the box office. Disney was Hollywood’s top studio in North America last year with a 25% market share at the box office.

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN Business The calendar changed, but the roller coaster ride for GameStop’s stock continues. GameStop shares jumped as much as 20% Friday morning after the Wall Street Journal reported the company is creating a nonfungible token, or NFT, marketplace. After a wild 2021 for the video game retailer as a “meme stock”

By Anneken Tappe, CNN Business 2021 was a historically great year for jobs. So why didn’t it feel that way? The short answers: Economists were befuddled. You were paying closer-than-usual attention. And months after a series of bad headlines subsided, the job situation quietly improved. Confused? Don’t worry. Pretty much everyone is. We’ll take you

By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Business Papa Johns is making a big bet on China. The pizza chain plans to open over 1,350 stores in South China by 2040 in partnership with the Asian private equity firm FountainVest Partners, it said on Friday. The deal will increase Papa Johns current global count by 25%, and marks

By Parija Kavilanz, CNN Business Kanye West is expanding his sellout Yeezy Gap line by bringing on luxury fashion powerhouse brand Balenciaga. Gap announced Friday that the tieup, branded as “Yeezy Gap Engineered By Balenciaga,” pairs Ye’s creative vision with Balenciaga’s creative director, Demna Gvasalia. Gvasalia is the 40-year-old Georgian designer who has been designing

Opinion by Jim Himes for CNN Business Perspectives For far too many American children, the race is over before it really begins. Arbitrary factors like zip code, race and gender are determining whether those children prosper or are consigned to poverty. About half of children born into poverty in the US will spend at least

By Julia Horowitz, CNN Business Apple, Microsoft, SoFi and Coinbase all sold off sharply this week, as investors, anticipating higher interest rates, dumped tech stocks and bought shares of companies they believed were undervalued. Given some time, however, Randy Frederick, Schwab managing director of trading and derivatives, thinks certain tech companies will fare better than

By Parija Kavilanz, CNN Business Retailers have always been vulnerable to shoplifting. But the emergence of coordinated and organized robberies at high-value stores, even during shopping hours, has the industry on edge. In November, a group of 14 individuals barged into a Louis Vuitton store in Oakbrook, Illinois, while customers were inside and audaciously drove

By Anneken Tappe, CNN Business The US economy added 199,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department reported Friday. That was the fewest jobs added in any month of 2021. That was a major disappointment: Economists had forecast jobs growth of double that number. So how could forecasts be so off again? “We just have to

By Diksha Madhok, CNN Business Political turmoil in Kazakhstan is hitting the country’s vast bitcoin mining industry. The Central Asian nation plunged into chaos as violent protests sparked by rising fuel prices left dozens killed and hundreds injured. As part of the mayhem, internet and telecommunications cuts have been reported nationwide — and that’s having

By Brian Stelter, CNN Business A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free right here. Immediately following his January 6 anniversary speech in Statuary Hall, President Biden told a small group of reporters that “we just have to face the facts of what happened” and