Money

By Michelle Toh, CNN Hong Kong (CNN) — For the first time, Hong Kong’s leader has welcomed Saudi Arabian elites to the city for an investment conference, in an example of how it is embracing new potential business partners as it confronts a slumping economy and geopolitical uncertainty. In opening remarks on Thursday, Hong Kong

By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN New York (CNN) — Public support is building for changes to zoning codes and other laws that have dominated American housing policy for decades and restricted new development. A new Pew Charitable Trusts poll shows broad public approval for several policy initiatives that would make it easier to build new housing,

By Laura He, CNN Hong Kong (CNN) — China’s exports increased for the first time since April, while imports inched downward, data from the world’s second largest economy showed on Thursday. Exports in US dollar terms rose 0.5% in November from a year ago, reversing a 6.4% decline in October, according to the General Administration

By Brian Fung, CNN (CNN) — Microsoft’s battle to defend its acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard is not yet over. The US government said Wednesday that a federal appeals court should block Microsoft’s recent purchase of Activision because a lower-court judge was too deferential to Microsoft’s promises about the future of “Call of

By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN New York (CNN) — Shedding light on its long-awaited and oddly secretive CosMc’s concept, McDonald’s on Wednesday finally shared more about the café pilot, which seems to be its answer to Starbucks. It was weirder than expected. Over the summer, McDonald’s teased the test of a new restaurant concept. We knew

By Clare Duffy, CNN New York (CNN) — New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has accused Meta Platforms of creating a “breeding ground” for child predators on Facebook and Instagram in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the latest in a string of legal actions related to alleged harms to young users caused by the social media

By Chris Isidore, CNN New York (CNN) — A woman who threw a bowl of hot food in the face of a Chipotle worker has been sentenced to a month in jail — and two months working a fast food job. Videos of the woman, Rosemary Hayne, berating Chipotle worker Emily Russell on September 5

By Matt Egan, CNN New York (CNN) — The sell-off in the oil market accelerated Wednesday, with US crude prices sinking below $70 a barrel for the first time since July. The latest wave of selling bodes well for consumers, suggesting gas prices could fall even closer towards $3 a gallon nationally. Gas prices bottomed out at

By Oliver Darcy, CNN (CNN) — Hundreds of staffers at The Washington Post are set to strike for 24 hours on Thursday, protesting recently announced cuts to the newspaper’s workforce and applying pressure on management to reach an agreement on a new union contract. “Taking this historic action is not a decision we came to

By Matt Egan, CNN New York (CNN) — Many Americans tell pollsters they are not happy with the state of the US economy. And yet Americans simultaneously say they plan to ramp up their holiday spending. Americans now estimate they will spend an average of $975 on Christmas or other holiday gifts this year, up

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN New York (CNN) — For anyone working a minimum wage job in this new year, they will be paid more in 22 states and in at least 40 cities and counties across the country than they were in 2023. The higher hourly rates are due either to scheduled increases or lawmakers

CNN By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — Taylor Swift is ending her year with another accolade: The pop superstar was named Time magazine’s 2023 “Person of the Year,” beating out Barbie and King Charles III. “While her popularity has grown across the decades, this is the year that Swift, 33, achieved a kind of nuclear

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — Jack Daniel would probably pour himself a stiff one after seeing his parent company’s earnings. Brown-Forman, the maker of several spirits, said sales of its Jack Daniel’s whiskey fell 1% in the first half of its current fiscal year — a sharp contrast when compared to the

By Brian Fung and Catherine Thorbecke, CNN (CNN) — Google on Wednesday launched its most ambitious effort yet to compete in the rapidly growing field of generative artificial intelligence, launching an AI model known as Gemini that’s designed to compete with the likes of OpenAI’s GPT models and supercharge everything from Google’s consumer apps to

By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN New York (CNN) — McDonald’s has a burger strategy to spark growth in the next few years. That strategy can be boiled down to one word: More. “In the US, in a number of markets, around the world, having a larger burger is an opportunity,” CEO Chris Kempczinski told CNN in

By Chris Isidore, CNN New York (CNN) — Elon Musk is seeking to raise $1 billion for his artificial intelligence company xAI. The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said that it has already raised $135 million of that $1 billion target, and it has a “binding and enforceable agreement” for the purchase of

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN (CNN) — Americans purchased one million fully electric vehicles in 2023, the first time that many EVs have ever been sold in this country in a single year. More than 960,000 purely electric vehicles had been sold through October, according to a report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. With expected sales

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — Taylor Swift is ending her year with another accolade: The pop superstar was named Time magazine’s 2023 “Person of the Year,” beating out Barbie and King Charles III. “While her popularity has grown across the decades, this is the year that Swift, 33, achieved a kind of nuclear fusion: shooting

By Anna Cooban, CNN London (CNN) — Germany’s benchmark stock index opened at an all-time high Wednesday as investors’ growing confidence that interest rates will soon be cut outweighs worries that the country may be suffering a recession. The previous day, the DAX closed at a record high of 16,533 points — only for that peak to be beaten Wednesday when

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — If it seemed like everyone was buying tickets to see Taylor Swift or Lionel Messi this year, that probably wasn’t far off. StubHub released its 2023 “Year in Live Experiences” report that revealed some of the top-selling events sold on the ticketing website. Swift’s tour and Messi’s