By Julia Horowitz, CNN Business Europe’s economy, which accounts for almost a fifth of the world’s output, is facing its toughest test since the pandemic erupted more than two years ago. A cocktail of risks threatens to throw growth into reverse at a moment of deep uncertainty. Like the United States and other developed economies,
Continue Reading By Anna Cooban and Julia Horowitz, CNN Business Europe’s economy grew unexpectedly in the second quarter of this year, allaying concerns — for now — that the continent may have slid into a recession. The European Union’s economy grew at a seasonally adjusted 4% last quarter when compared to the same quarter a year ago
Continue Reading By Anna Bahney, CNN Business Mortgage rates ticked higher for the second week in a row as more economic indicators flashed warning signs of an impending recession. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.54% in the week ending July 21, up from 5.51% the week before, according to Freddie Mac. That is significantly higher than this
Continue Reading By Catherine Thorbecke Amazon on Thursday said it has entered an agreement to acquire primary healthcare company One Medical in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $3.9 billion. One Medical is a membership-based primary care service that promises customers “24/7 access to virtual care.” The company operates in a dozen major US markets, according to
Continue Reading By Clare Duffy, CNN Business Facebook’s rumored redesign has arrived. Starting Thursday, the platform is splitting up its main “home” section into two tabs. The move is part of a push by Facebook to show users more entertaining, recommended content — to become what cofounder Mark Zuckerberg has called a “discovery engine” — as it
Continue Reading By Catherine Thorbecke, CNN Business Tech giant Baidu announced Monday that it has obtained permits to operate fully autonomous taxis without any human assistants on board in two of China’s megacities, marking a first for the country. Baidu, which operates China’s largest search engine, said it received the regulatory approvals for its autonomous ride-hailing service
Continue Reading By Chris Isidore, CNN Business American and United airlines both reported their first operating profit since the start of the pandemic, as strong demand for air travel and high fares allowed the carriers to overcome rising fuel prices. But the good news for airline investors was bad news for airline passengers. The amount passengers paid
Continue Reading By Frank Pallotta, CNN Business Netflix lost roughly a million customers last quarter — the most in the company’s 25-year history. But it stopped the bleeding in a nightmarish year, and the company believes that its new long-term initiatives will boost sales and subscribers. Those efforts — which include cracking down on password sharing and
Continue Reading By Julia Horowitz, CNN Business In a bold attempt to get inflation under control, the European Central Bank on Thursday announced it would hike its key interest rate by a half percentage point. That marks the first time since 2011 that the ECB has raised rates, and takes Europe’s main rate back to zero. Rates
Continue Reading By Michelle Toh, CNN Business Baidu has unveiled plans for an electric self-driving car with a removable steering wheel, marking another step forward in the fast-moving robotaxi race in China. The Chinese tech giant, the country’s answer to Google, revealed the Apollo RT6, its sixth-generation autonomous vehicle, at its annual flagship conference on Thursday. Baidu’s
Continue Reading By Chris Isidore, CNN Business Part-time work has become a lot less popular, both with job seekers and employers. The number of workers who are working part of the time for economic reasons — because they can’t find full-time jobs, or because their employer has cut back their hours — hit a 20-year low of
Continue Reading By Julia Horowitz, CNN Business The European Central Bank is about to raise interest rates for the first time in 11 years as it attempts to put a lid on record inflation fed by surging energy prices. What’s happening: The ECB has made clear that it will hike rates at its meeting on Thursday for
Continue Reading By Anna Bahney, CNN Business Rents hit another record high in June, putting more pressure on renters. But with the costs associated with buying a home rising so much this year, renting remains a better deal. In June, the national median rent hit a new record high of $1,876 a month, up 14% from a
Continue Reading By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business Two astronauts — one European and one Russian — exited the airlock on the International Space Station for a spacewalk on Thursday, marking the first time in more than 20 years such a joint endeavor has taken place. Samantha Cristoforetti, an Italian astronaut with the European Space Agency, and Russian
Continue Reading By Yong Xiong, Larry Register and Laura He, CNN Business China’s cyberspace regulator fined Didi Global just over 8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) on Thursday for violating cybersecurity and data laws, putting an end to a yearlong investigation into the ride-hailing giant. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement that the firm
Continue Reading By Anna Cooban, CNN Business The German government has stepped in to bail out one of its biggest energy companies — the latest casualty of Europe’s natural gas crisis. Gas distributor Uniper will receive up to €15 billion ($15.3 billion) from the government after months of Russian supply cuts and soaring spot market prices have
Continue Reading By Irene Nasser and Yong Xiong, CNN Business Gazprom has resumed gas shipments through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, a vital artery linking Russia’s vast gas reserves to Europe via Germany. Gas began flowing again Thursday, data from the operator’s website showed, after the pipeline had been shut 10 days for scheduled maintenance. Many had
Continue Reading By Esha Mitra and Rhea Mogul, CNN Muslim journalist Mohammed Zubair has been freed from jail on the order of India’s Supreme Court after he was detained last month for allegedly insulting religious beliefs on social media. Zubair — co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News, which debunks misinformation in the Indian media — was arrested
Continue Reading By Matt McFarland, CNN Business The US Postal Service said Wednesday that at least 40% of its new delivery vehicles will be electric, up from the 10% it had once committed to, following a backlash from the Biden administration and others. Under the revised plan, the Postal Service would buy 33,800 electric vehicles, 25,000 of
Continue Reading By Chris Isidore, CNN Business Lockdowns caused by the Covid surge in China caused sales and profits to fall at Tesla compared to the first three months of the year, the first time since the pandemic surfaced in early 2020 that the company did not report a record profit. Tesla reported adjusted income of $2.6
Continue Reading