By Alicia Wallace, CNN Business Americans are feeling slightly better about the economy, but painfully high inflation is still keeping consumer sentiment at close to an all-time low, according to preliminary survey data released by the University of Michigan on Friday. The preliminary index for the university’s Surveys of Consumers rose to 51.1 in July
Continue Reading By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Business Food prices are still on the rise, but some relief may be on the horizon. In the 12-months ending in June, overall food prices rose 10.4%, the biggest annual increase since February 1981, according to data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Grocery prices jumped 12.2% in the
Continue Reading By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Business In 1969, real estate investor Don Fisher opened a store in San Francisco aimed at teens and college kids, offering Levi’s blue jeans alongside records and tapes. Fisher planned to call the store Pants and Discs, but his wife Doris came up with the winning name: “The Gap,” shorthand for
Continue Reading Opinion by Suzanne DiBianca for CNN Business Perspectives The US Supreme Court’s ruling limiting the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions is a wake-up call for Congress to pass urgent and meaningful legislation on climate and clean energy. The ruling not only impedes the federal government’s ability to slow climate change — it also
Continue Reading By Julia Horowitz, CNN Business When the latest data on consumer prices in the United States landed Wednesday, the headline number was ugly. Inflation surged to 9.1% in June, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was higher than economists polled by Refinitiv were forecasting. It was also much higher than the
Continue Reading By Chris Isidore, CNN Business A bad quarter for Delta Air Lines passengers turned into a bad quarter for Delta investors, as the costs of service disruptions, coupled with high fuel prices and rising pay for employees, caused the company to fall well short of earnings forecasts. Delta posted adjusted earnings of $735 million in
Continue Reading By Laura He, CNN Business A scorching heat wave in China has forced a major manufacturing region to appeal to businesses and households to use less power, while fear of crop failure is sending pork prices soaring. Dozens of cities have been experiencing record-high temperatures at a time when the economy is still trying to
Continue Reading By Allison Morrow, CNN Business Editor’s Note: This story is part of CNN Business’ Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free, here. Good news and bad news, America: The US dollar and the euro are officially even, which should make your European summer vacay easier on the budget. A croissant
Continue Reading By Clare Duffy and Holmes Lybrand, CNN Business A former Twitter employee told the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection that the company considered imposing a stricter content moderation policy following a September 2020 comment by then-President Donald Trump telling the right-wing extremist group the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” Trump’s
Continue Reading By Clare Duffy and Holmes Lybrand, CNN Business A former Twitter employee told the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection that the company considered imposing a stricter content moderation policy following a September 2020 comment by then-President Donald Trump telling the right-wing extremist group the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” Trump’s
Continue Reading By Clare Duffy, CNN Business Twitter has sued billionaire Elon Musk in an effort to force him to follow through with his deal to buy the social media company. The lawsuit, filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery on Tuesday, comes after Musk said in a letter to Twitter’s top lawyer late Friday that he
Continue Reading By Chris Isidore, CNN Business Flying in and out of the Dubuque, Iowa, airport on the banks of the Mississippi has been a breeze for the 100,000 residents of the county. The airport is small and easy to get through. Parking is free. That all is set to end this September. American Airlines, the only
Continue Reading By Nicole Goodkind, CNN Business Billionaire activist investor Bill Ackman will close his special purpose acquisition company and return $4 billion to investors after failing to find an adequate target company to take public. In a letter to shareholders Monday, Ackman said he would return the funds and wind down his SPAC, Pershing Square Tontine
Continue Reading By Frank Pallotta, CNN Business Dave Chappelle‘s Netflix comedy special, “The Closer,” received huge backlash last year for the comedian’s jokes about the trans community that some found deeply offensive. The fallout created a firestorm both inside and outside of Netflix. Fast forward to Tuesday, when “The Closer” was nominated for two Emmys. “The Closer”
Continue Reading by Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN Business It might surprise you to learn that the best-selling plug-in hybrid vehicle in America is, of all things, a Jeep Wrangler, the burly, boxy SUV engineered for hard off-road driving. There are other, seemingly more likely contenders, like the like the Toyota Rav4 Prime, a family-friendly crossover, or the Toyota
Continue Reading By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business An explosion on the launch pad during a test of a massive SpaceX rocket prototype was “actually not good” and the company is assessing the damage, company CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter. The rocket, an early version of the vehicle SpaceX is calling Starship, could be seen lighting its
Continue Reading By Matt McFarland, CNN Business Jason Simon placed an order for a Tesla Model 3 this April, eager to own an electric vehicle. He heard from Tesla in June that his car was ready, but he backed out of the purchase, losing the $250 order fee he paid. Simon told CNN Business his feelings changed
Continue Reading By Nicole Goodkind, CNN Business For the first time in 20 years, the exchange rate between the euro and the US dollar has reached parity — meaning the two currencies are worth the same. The euro hit $1 on Tuesday, down about 12% since the start of the year. Fears of recession on the continent
Continue Reading By Nicole Goodkind, CNN Business Most investors don’t lose an $11 billion bet and walk away unscathed, but a Chinese metal tycoon known as “Big Shot” has done exactly that. Xiang Guangda made a massive bet over the past few years that the price of nickel would fall, but in March of this year, futures
Continue Reading By Chris Isidore, CNN Business Ethiopian Airlines took delivery of a 737 Max from Boeing in June, the aircraft maker disclosed Tuesday. It’s the first time Ethiopian has taken a 737 Max since the March 2019 crash that killed all 157 people on board, and led to a 20-month grounding of the jet. The other
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