By Nicole Goodkind, CNN Shares of Block, the company behind Cash App, plunged by 20% Thursday morning after the release of a searing report from short-seller Hindenburg Research that accused Jack Dorsey’s company of allowing fraudulent accounts that obscure criminals involved in illegal or illicit activities, including the sex trafficking of minors. Hindenburg’s attack on
Continue Reading By Anna Bahney, CNN Mortgage rates dropped again this week for the second week in a row amid lingering concerns about bank failures and uncertainty in the financial markets. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.42% in the week ending March 23, down from 6.60% the week before, according to data from Freddie Mac released Thursday.
Continue Reading By Anna Cooban, CNN Accenture plans to slash 19,000 jobs worldwide as it attempts to cut costs amid a gloomy economic picture. The Irish-American professional services company said in a Thursday filing that it would spend $1.2 billion in severance to cut 2.5% of its workforce over the next 18 months, and another $300 million
Continue Reading By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN General Motors announced Wednesday that it’s ending production of the latest generation of the Chevrolet Camaro, leaving the Ford Mustang as the last gasoline-powered American performance coupe. Stellantis had earlier announced it would stop production of the larger Dodge Challenger at the end of this year. Around the same time, Dodge
Continue Reading By Anna Cooban Bollywood fans have been left without access to hundreds of their favorite tunes on Spotify because of a licensing dispute. Spotify said it had removed the entire catalog of Zee Music — India’s second-biggest domestic music label with 93.7 million subscribers on YouTube — on March 14 after the companies were “unable
Continue Reading By Jackie Wattles, CNN Startup Relativity Space sent what it’s calling the “world’s first 3D-printed rocket” toward space on Wednesday, vaulting it into the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Though, it suffered an engine issue after launch and failed to reach orbit. Terran 1, a 110-foot-tall (33.5-meter) vehicle designed to haul lightweight satellites into orbital
Continue Reading By Anna Bahney, CNN New home sales rose in February, climbing for the third month in a row as mortgage rates eased off their highs of the past year and buyers looked to new construction amid historically low inventory of existing homes for sale. Sales of newly constructed homes were up 1.1% in February from
Continue Reading By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Starbucks’ new CEO Laxman Narasimhan teased his plan for the company in a letter to employees. It includes working in Starbucks stores as a barista once a month. Narasimhan officially became the coffee chain’s chief executive on Monday, taking the reins from Howard Schultz about two weeks earlier than scheduled. But
Continue Reading By Chris Isidore, CNN Ford said it will lose $3 billion on its sales of electric vehicles to consumers this year, but it still expects to hit the profit targets it set for this year of between $9 billion and $11 billion. Ford said those EV losses and the overall profit both come before expenses
Continue Reading By Nicole Goodkind, CNN The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point on Wednesday as it attempts to fight stubbornly high inflation while addressing risks to financial stability. Investors and economists had widely anticipated the quarter-point increase despite the recent meltdown in the banking sector. Still, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and
Continue Reading By Nicole Goodkind, CNN The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point on Wednesday as it attempts to fight stubbornly high inflation while addressing risks to financial stability. Investors and economists had widely anticipated the quarter-point increase despite the recent meltdown in the banking sector. Still, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and
Continue Reading By Catherine Thorbecke, CNN In his first appearance before Congress on Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Chew was grilled by lawmakers who expressed deep skepticism about his company’s attempts to protect US user data and ease concerns about its ties to China. It was a rare chance for the public to hear from the Chew, who
Continue Reading By Catherine Thorbecke, CNN In his first appearance before Congress on Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Chew was grilled by lawmakers who expressed deep skepticism about his company’s attempts to protect US user data and ease concerns about its ties to China. It was a rare chance for the public to hear from the Chew, who
Continue Reading By Hanna Ziady, CNN The Bank of England hiked interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point Thursday, extending its long-running fight to rein in prices after a surprise increase in inflation in February. The central bank’s 11th consecutive rate hike takes benchmark borrowing costs to 4.25%, the highest since October 2008. Like other
Continue Reading By Brian Fung and Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN New rules from the US government could soon let Americans more easily cancel free trials and subscriptions they no longer want, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The proposed rule change announced Thursday would apply to vast swaths of the US economy, covering both digital and physical subscriptions.
Continue Reading By Mark Thompson, CNN Switzerland’s banking crisis has been halted, the country’s central bank said Thursday as it hiked interest rates for the fourth time in a bid to contain inflation. Together with the Swiss government and financial market regulator FINMA, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) helped orchestrate the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by
Continue Reading By Juliana Liu China has approved its first Covid-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology, months after the country lifted strict pandemic measures. The vaccine was developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, a homegrown firm based in the northern Chinese city of Shijiazhuang, it said in a Wednesday statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The vaccine
Continue Reading By Juliana Liu China has approved its first Covid-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology, months after the country lifted strict pandemic measures. The vaccine was developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, a homegrown firm based in the northern Chinese city of Shijiazhuang, it said in a Wednesday statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The vaccine
Continue Reading By Dalal Mawad, Aurore Laborie, Oliver Briscoe and Joshua Berlinger, CNN French transport networks, oil refineries and schools were hit by widespread disruption Thursday as workers staged a national strike to protest an increase in the retirement age that was pushed through parliament without a vote. Though sporadic demonstrations had popped up in Paris and
Continue Reading By Laura He, CNN China’s Evergrande Group, whose collapse in 2021 sparked China’s worst property market crisis on record, has unveiled a multi-billion dollar restructuring plan to make peace with its international creditors. The long-awaited plan could set an important precedence for investors dealing with the growing defaults and restructuring in China’s real estate industry.
Continue Reading