CNN-Business-Consumer

By Michelle Toh and Wayne Chang, CNN Business “Top Gun: Maverick” is now showing Taiwan’s official flag after an outcry, putting its release in mainland China in jeopardy. The box office mega-hit — which is by far Tom Cruise’s biggest-ever commercial debut — now features his character sporting the flag on his iconic bomber jacket,

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN Business Sales of non-plug-in internal combustion-powered vehicles peaked in 2017, according to a report by industry analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and have been in “permanent decline” since then as sales of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles increase. Sales of plug-in vehicles are also expected to triple their current levels

By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business Inflation jitters are at a fever pitch, and some investing experts and economists are making comparisons to the 1970s and early 1980s. But could today’s surging prices really be as serious as the prolonged inflation shock of 40 years ago? (For those who didn’t live through it: It

by Matt Egan, CNN The severe drought in California threatens to significantly undermine the state’s ability to generate hydroelectric power, raising costs for families and driving up planet-warming emissions, according to a federal government forecast. Assuming drought conditions persist, California’s hydroelectric generation would be 48% less this summer than if water conditions were normal, the

By Matt McFarland, CNN Business Twenty-one years ago, Bart Riley and co-founders bet their short-lived company, A123 Systems, on batteries free of nickel and cobalt. They believed the battery technology offered several benefits for automakers in the then-nascent electric vehicle space. The Massachusetts-based startup pitched Tesla on its batteries between 2008 and 2011, Riley recalled,

Opinion by Bill Carter for CNN Business Perspectives Streaming networks were the center of attention last month when the television industry — or, more accurately now, the entertainment industry — staged its annual ritual known as the “upfronts.” Long-time attendees of these affairs surely felt some sense of disorientation, because the upfronts were invented as

By Anna Cooban, CNN Business Russia’s increasingly aggressive actions against its European gas customers are taking a toll. The country’s natural gas exports have tumbled by more than a quarter since January. But surging prices have kept Russia’s coffers bulging as it continues to cut off deliveries. Moscow’s gas exports to countries outside of its

By Chris Isidore, CNN Business The number of workers being fired or laid off has hit the lowest point on record, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed only 1.25 million people lost their job in April, breaking the previous record low of 1.26 million recorded in December. With

By Chris Isidore, CNN Business Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a major reason that US drivers are paying record prices for gasoline. But it’s not the only cause of the spike. Numerous factors are pushing prices up, with regular gasoline hitting a record $4.67 a gallon Wednesday according to AAA’s survey. Gas prices were already

By Nicole Goodkind, CNN Business The recent string of deadly shootings may send investors searching their portfolios to determine if they have exposure to ammunition manufacturers or companies that sell guns. Chances are that they do. The gunmakers In recent years, large asset managers like BlackRock have offered investors access to alternative funds that don’t

By Chris Isidore, CNN Business Canceled flights, surging airfares, a rental car shortage, record gas prices and rising hotel prices. Welcome to the summer of travel hell. Airlines had said they were prepared to avoid the service problems that plagued much of the industry last year. But between Friday and Monday, US airlines canceled 2,653

By Melissa Alonso and Andy Rose, CNN A judge has denied former vice-presidential nominee and Alaskan governor Sarah Palin’s bid for a new trial in her defamation case against the New York Times, according to a written decision filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Palin sued the

By Gregory Wallace and Pete Muntean, CNN White House officials met Tuesday with travel industry leaders who pressed the Biden administration to end its requirements that vaccinated international travelers take a coronavirus test before flying to the United States. Airlines for America, representing major US air carriers, and the US Travel Association, representing the broad

By Anna Cooban, CNN Business Russia is about to shut off its natural gas supplies to Shell’s German customers. Gazprom, the Russian state energy giant, said on Tuesday it would suspend natural gas exports to Shell starting Wednesday because the company had failed to make payments in rubles. “Shell Energy Europe Limited has notified Gazprom

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business Roughly 100 Sears Hometown locations are permanently closing in the coming weeks, representing roughly half of its remaining retail footprint. The closures were announced on each individual store’s Facebook page rather than a single press release. The locations are spread over about 30 US states, according to multiple reports. “Unfortunately

By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Business A shakeup may be in the works at Unilever, the consumer goods giant behind brands like Dove soap, Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Vaseline. Unilever announced Monday that Nelson Peltz, one of the most influential corporate raiders on Wall Street, will join the company’s board of directors and disclosed that Peltz’s fund

By Alicia Wallace, CNN Business Inflation may be showing signs that it’s easing, but the high-cost environment still has American consumers wary about the direction of the economy. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index dipped slightly to 106.4 in May, down from a revised 108.6 in April, according to data released Tuesday. The decline was

By Frank Pallotta, CNN Business “Top Gun: Maverick” took off at the box office this weekend — setting a new record in the process. The sequel to the 1986 blockbuster, which has Tom Cruise reprise his most iconic role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, made an estimated $156 million domestically for its four-day opening weekend, according

By Anna Bahney, CNN Business US home prices continued to surge higher in March, as buyers raced to lock in homes before the average mortgage rate hit 5%. Home prices rose 20.6% in March from the year before, an even higher rate than the 20% growth seen in February, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller