CNN – Business/Consumer

By Parija Kavilanz, CNN Business You can now add toys to the growing list of products that global supply chain woes have made more expensive to produce. Toymaker Mattel whose brands include Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price and American Girl, said in an earnings conference call on Tuesday that it is raising prices in the second

By Anneken Tappe, CNN Business The Federal Reserve left interest rates and monetary policy unchanged on Wednesday, pointing to the nation’s as yet incomplete economic recovery. “The path of the economy continues to depend on the course of the virus,” the central bank said in a statement. While vaccinations are helping to limit the virus

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN Business Most employers have not outright mandated Covid vaccines as a condition of employment for their current staff … at least not yet. Instead, many have “strongly encouraged” employees to get vaccinated and, in some cases, incentivized them with things like cash or more time off. But given the precipitous rise

By Chauncey Alcorn, CNN Business Simone Biles’ sponsors offered statements of support Wednesday following her decision to pull out of Thursday’s individual, all-around gymnastics competition at the Tokyo Olympics. The 24-year-old champion cited mental health concerns as the reason for her earlier withdrawal from Tuesday’s team competition during interviews with reporters in Tokyo. Biles may

Opinion by Rosabeth Moss Kanter for CNN Business Perspectives As the economy continues to reopen, labor market turbulence is on the rise. Workers are leaving their jobs in favor of new careers or locations, and some aren’t going back to work at all, leaving critical jobs unfilled. To deal with labor shortages, employers must go

By Moira Ritter, CNN Business New car inventories, strained for months by a global semiconductor shortage and supply chain disruptions, aren’t expected to begin recovering until September -— and will remain well below their pre-pandemic levels through next year, according to Goldman Sachs. Automakers in recent weeks have sharply revised down their production schedules as

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN Business Pat Shozo has been trying to buy a used car for his son who’s going to attend college in the fall. But after looking for more than three months, Shozo, who lives near Los Angeles, said he’s ready to give up. “Everything’s so inflated,” he said. “It’s actually absurd.” Prices

By Alexis Benveniste, CNN Business Restaurant menus got a makeover thanks to Covid: Now, placing your order means simply whipping out your phone and scanning a Quick Response code. QR codes are all the rage now, but the technology behind them is hardly new. They were invented in Japan in the 1990s as a sort

By Chauncey Alcorn, CNN Business A Black women’s advocacy group filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing Johnson & Johnson of selectively marketing the company’s talcum-based products, including Johnson’s Baby Powder, to African-American women despite knowing for years that the items had been linked to ovarian cancer, an allegation J&J denies. The pharma giant sold talc-based powder

By Hanna Ziady, CNN Business Porsche SE, the family holding company that controls Volkswagen Group, is the latest big investor to bet on space’s crucial role in developing future technologies. The company, controlled by the related Porsche and Piëch families that turned Volkswagen into a global powerhouse, on Wednesday unveiled an investment into Germany’s Isar

By Anneken Tappe, CNN Business America’s economy isn’t back to normal yet, and much of the recovery depends on consumers: how much they’re spending, how much they decide to participate in public life and even whether they work remotely. And while economists don’t believe a full shutdown is looming, the Delta variant is posing a

By Diksha Madhok, CNN Business US lawmakers are piling pressure on major American corporate sponsors of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing as tensions between the United States and China over human rights and other issues remain high. A bipartisan committee of US politicians questioned representatives from Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Intel, Visa and Procter & Gamble

By Chris Isidore, CNN Business Boeing returned to profitability in the second quarter, posting net income for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, a recovery that will save 10,000 jobs at the company. Boeing earned $567 million in the quarter, compared to a $2.4 billion loss a year earlier.

By Julia Horowitz, CNN Business A rapid shift to digitization due to Covid-19 has handsomely benefited the world’s biggest tech companies. Yet even as the pandemic eased, they still minted record sums of money. What’s happening: Yesterday’s “Before the Bell” focused on how Tesla celebrated earning more than $1 billion last quarter. Amazon, Google parent

By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Business McDonald’s celebrity meal strategy and revamped chicken sandwich lineup is working. Sales at US stores open at least 13 months jumped 25.9% in the past quarter, which ended on June 30, beating analysts’ expectations. Sales at those stores grew 14.9% compared to the same period in 2019, before the pandemic.

By Matt Egan, CNN Business The White House and the Federal Reserve broadly agree: Inflation isn’t here to stay. Red-hot prices will cool off as the US economy reopens. Most economists seem to concur that inflation is “transitory,” as the Fed puts it. Investors aren’t freaking out either about the biggest price hikes since 2008.