CNN – Business/Consumer

By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business A blank-check firm backed by Tom Barrack, the billionaire investor who was chairman of Donald Trump’s inaugural committee in 2017 and is a close friend of the former president, has withdrawn plans to take the company public after Barrack was charged with illegal foreign lobbying earlier this week.

By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Business Going out to eat might feel a little different these days. Maybe you’re waiting longer for a table, even though the restaurant doesn’t appear full. Or maybe your service is slower, and your server seems anxious. That’s because restaurants across the United States are understaffed, and jobs that were already

By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business American Express is the top stock in the Dow so far this year, and AmEx’s earnings on Friday morning show why investors are never leaving home without it. The credit card giant reported a quarterly profit of $2.3 billion, easily topping Wall Street’s forecasts. Revenue for American Express

By Anneken Tappe, CNN Business It’s been a turbulent week on Wall Street, starting with a massive selloff over worries about the Delta variant. But by Friday, stocks were back up and each index closed at at record highs. The Dow closed 0.7%, or 238 points, higher, finishing above 35,000 for the first time ever.

By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Business Less cereal in the box. Smaller snack sizes. Ice cream gone missing in a container. You’re not losing your mind. You are actually paying the same price or more these days for everyday items in your fridge and pantry but running through them more quickly because their sizes have shrunk.

By Frank Pallotta, CNN Business The Summer Olympics — one of the most-watched events worldwide — officially kicks off in Tokyo this weekend. After being delayed a year because of the pandemic, NBC hopes pent-up demand will drive sports fans to their TVs, laptops and phones to tune in. But traditional TV viewership of this

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business The once unstoppable growth of hard seltzer has gone flat. That warning is coming from Boston Beer, the creator of Truly Hard Seltzer, which said that popularity of the low-calorie drink has faded. Boston Beer founder Jim Koch said that the “hard seltzer category and overall beer industry were softer

By Charles Riley, CNN Business The global shortage of semiconductors that has hobbled the auto industry and made some consumer electronics more expensive could last until the middle of 2023, Intel has warned. “While I expect shortages to bottom out in the second half [of the year], it will take another one to two years

By Diksha Madhok, CNN Business India’s first billion-dollar tech startup to go public got off to a flying start on Friday. Shares in Zomato gained as much as 80% on their first day of trading on Mumbai’s stock exchange. The listing comes a little over a week after the food delivery company launched its IPO

By Parija Kavilanz, CNN Business Crocs is accusing Walmart, Hobby Lobby and other companies of copying its iconic clog. The shoemaker filed four trademark infringement lawsuits last week in several US district courts against about 20 companies it alleges are violating its trademarks and other intellectual properties on the shoes. In one of the lawsuits,

By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Business Restaurants are short-staffed as they reopen and consumers embrace dining out again. That means longer wait times for your food when dining out. And unfortunately, you may encounter the same issue when ordering pizza at home. Domino’s says its wait times have gone up in certain regions. “We’ve slipped a

By Parija Kavilanz, CNN Business Back-to-school shopping is always a nightmare. This year, expect it to be even worse. While parents may be used to encountering shortages of items like sneakers, backpacks and gadgets later in the season -— which typically lasts from mid-July through the end of August — products are expected to be

By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business Twitter continues to trail Facebook and Instagram by a wide margin when it comes to the number of users. The social media firm doesn’t generate the type of cool buzz that YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat do among millennials and Gen Z influencers. Even so, Twitter is having an

By Radina Gigova and Jeevan Ravindran, CNN Business Vaccine inequity is undermining a “truly global economic recovery” from Covid-19, according to data released Thursday by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the University of Oxford. The organizations said vaccine inequity would have a “lasting and profound impact” on the