CNN – Business/Consumer

By Stephanie Yang, CNN (CNN) — Seven years after founding a robotics startup in San Francisco, Rajat Bhageria is confronting a daunting new task: building robots without any help from China.Like most US-based robotics firms, Chef Robotics has come to rely heavily on Chinese components to make the robot arms it sells to food manufacturers

By David Goldman, Alicia Wallace, CNN (CNN) — Cherry-picking one data point from a monthly economic report is neither fair nor necessarily telling. But one statistic stood out in September’s mostly “meh” jobs report like a sore thumb.The unemployment rate for Black Americans rose from 6% to 7%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

By Brian Stelter, CNN (CNN) — The combined Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery will be named Skydance, CEO David Ellison announced Friday, a few days before the merger’s completion.Ellison said Skydance will be a “creative-first home for bold, quality storytelling.”Skydance was the name of the production company that Ellison founded in 2006.The name originally came from “David’s

By Chris Isidore, CNN (CNN) — All it took was $4 a gallon gas to make Americans embrace hybrid cars. But with limited offerings from the big Detroit automakers, people are turning to their Asian rivals in droves.Korean automaker Hyundai reported Thursday that hybrid sales rose 39% in the third quarter, while Kia’s hybrid sales

By Matt Egan, Tami Luhby, Nina Giraldo, CNN (CNN) — As the Trump administration deliberates how to fight historically high gas and diesel prices, a growing number of US states are taking matters into their own hands.The state-level action has taken place across the country in recent days and weeks, spanning red states like Texas

By Stephanie Yang, Yoonjung Seo, CNN (CNN) — South Korea has pushed back against a $54 billion investment announced by the Trump administration, turning a struggling project to export natural gas from Alaska into another potential sticking point in the allies’ long-running negotiations over trade.On Wednesday Trump touted the figure as part of a broader

By Alicia Wallace, CNN (CNN) — The US labor market hit a soft patch in September as the economy added just 29,000 jobs and the unemployment rate increased to 4.2%, new Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed Friday.The latest jobs report – and the final official employment snapshot before the midterm elections – also showed

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — The Affordable Care Act $500 refund checks are in the mail to nearly a million Americans, along with a letter from President Donald Trump touting his healthcare accomplishments and casting blame on his predecessor.The Treasury Department began sending the one-time payments on Wednesday to more than 950,000 Obamacare enrollees

By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN (CNN) — Last month, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in more than three years, as it tries to bring inflation under control. But higher rates make borrowing more expensive for consumers and businesses — one reason mortgage rates have climbed to a three-year high in recent

By Allison Morrow, CNN New York (CNN) — The firm behind President Donald Trump’s meme coin is promoting yet another contest for investors to secure an invitation to “the most exclusive dinner in the world” — a sequel to the May 2025 gala that experts called a textbook pay-to-play scandal.The meme coin’s website on Thursday

By Samantha Delouya, CNN (CNN) — Mortgage rates keep going up.The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 7.28% this week, up from 7.03% last week, according to Freddie Mac data released Thursday. Mortgage rates have risen for six straight weeks, and this week brought the biggest one-week jump in nearly four years. Rates are now

By Alicia Wallace, CNN (CNN) — Americans have kept spending despite more than five years of higher prices. But the paychecks that have powered that spending are starting to lose steam.Friday’s jobs report could show how much further pay gains are falling behind inflation.The continued resilience of spending, which powers two-thirds of US economic growth,

By David Goldman, CNN (CNN) — The bond market is in an unrelenting sell-off. In the latest dubious milestone for US Treasuries, the yield on the 10-year benchmark note just hit its highest level since the dot-com bust.American government bonds remain the world’s most important financial market, widely considered the safest place for investors to

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN New York (CNN) — The CEO who helped bring the “Barbie” movie to the big screen is slated to co-lead the anticipated Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery mega-company.Ynon Kreiz, the former chief executive of Mattel, will be a co-CEO of the combined company, Paramount chairman and CEO David Ellison announced Wednesday

By Brian Stelter, Liam Reilly, CNN (CNN) — Paramount entered the final stages of merging with Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday afternoon, when a federal judge approved last week’s settlement of an antitrust lawsuit filed by state attorneys general.Minutes after Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued an order accepting the settlement, Paramount CEO David Ellison announced that

By John Towfighi, CNN New York (CNN) — It’s been a brutal month for bonds — but stocks mostly shrugged off the turmoil.Bond yields hit their highest levels in years, Brent crude rose back above $100 per barrel and central banks around the globe raised interest rates. Yet the S&P 500 ended the month close

By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN (CNN) — Despite skyrocketing gas prices, the US economy was remarkably resilient this spring.Gross domestic product grew at a 2.2% inflation-adjusted annualized pace in the second quarter, a sharper rebound than the 1.5% rate previously estimated as stronger consumer spending and business investment helped power growth.Economists were expecting the prior reading

By Marshall Cohen, CNN New York (CNN) — Prediction site Polymarket rolled out new consumer protections and anti-addiction measures Wednesday, as a growing number of policymakers call for more regulation of the booming industry.Prediction sites have exploded in popularity this year, with billions of dollars wagered on everything from sports to elections, entertainment and even

By Samantha Delouya, CNN (CNN) — Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin is doubling down on Miami, announcing on Wednesday a $3 billion donation to help fund a new campus for Carnegie Mellon University in the city.The staggering amount is the largest-ever gift by an individual in higher education, surpassing Michael Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion donation

By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN (CNN) — Here we go again: President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs are back under the legal microscope.On Wednesday, a three-judge panel at the US Court of International Trade is set to hear arguments in a case that could determine whether the president can use a 1970s trade law to impose

By Kristen Holmes, Alayna Treene, Betsy Klein, Brian Stelter, CNN (CNN) — Millions of taxpayer dollars have already been spent on President Donald Trump’s hagiographic ads, according to estimates by a leading political ad-tracking firm. And a total of $20 million has been allocated for the effort, which watchdog groups have deemed illegal.The TV airtime

By Chris Isidore, Lisa Eadicicco, CNN (CNN) — Anthropic says its AI models could pose a “catastrophic or existential risk to humanity” and can “resist shutdown,” according to an initial public offering prospectus obtained by Reuters.Anthropic is pursuing an IPO some time in the next year that many expect to value the five-year-old company at

By Alicia Wallace, CNN (CNN) — Millions of Americans may need to find an entirely new career in the next decade, according to research released Tuesday.An estimated 11 million workers, or about 6.5% of the current labor force, might have to jump into entirely different occupations by 2035 as a result of automation and artificial

By Clare Duffy, CNN New York (CNN) — Apple says its decision to remove ICEBlock and similar platforms from the app store last year was prompted by concerns — including those raised by the Trump administration — about agent safety following a fatal shooting that left two detainees dead at a Dallas Immigration and Customs

By Hadas Gold, Adam Cancryn, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that top tech executives had signed a new commitment aimed at better “self-policing” their companies’ AI models, arguing that the light-touch approach represents the best way to balance safety concerns with his desire to accelerate a technology that he’s dubbed “Super Intelligence.”Flanked

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s order to levy 100% tariffs on certain patented pharmaceutical products and ingredients takes effect on Tuesday.But experts question the extent to which the move will achieve its goal of spurring more drug manufacturing in the US. That’s because the burden will fall most heavily on small

By Elisabeth Buchwald, Matt Egan, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s ban on Canadian booze kicked in on Tuesday, an unprecedented move that underscores the breakdown in one of the closest trading relationships in the world.The ban, which impacts $800 million worth of Canadian alcoholic beverages the US imported last year, marks the latest salvo

By Auzinea Bacon, CNN (CNN) — OpenAI said it won’t release its latest model, dubbed GPT-6.1 Astra, because it “didn’t quite meet the bar” for safety.The decision, which the Wall Street Journal first reported on Monday, comes as industry leaders call for an AI development slowdown. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei first proposed “pacing the frontier”

By Chris Isidore, CNN (CNN) — Chipmaker Nvidia said Monday it is introducing a new software platform to address concerns about artificial intelligence agents that have “gone rogue” and operated outside human control.“Today, with over 100 industry partners, we introduced the NVIDIA Open Agent Safety Platform,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wrote in a post on

By Hanna Ziady, CNN London (CNN) — The United States and China have agreed to slash tariffs on $60 billion worth of goods, deepening efforts to stabilize a frequently testy relationship.The tariff relief extends to an array of products, from US coal and agricultural products to made-in-China toys, car seats and holiday decorations.The announcement from